How Esmeralda Garcia gets buy-in from staff and students using the same four moves
If you’ve watched Ted Lasso, then you remember the “BELIEVE” sign taped above the locker room door belonging to a team of skeptical, disinterested pro soccer players.
A sign like that only works when somebody keeps backing it up, and Ted did—by showing up early, learning every name and staying in the building after everyone else clocked out.
Esmeralda Garcia does the same: leading by example.
She’s the Director of Expanded Learning at Calexico Unified, a K-12 district far enough south in California that Mexico is visible from the parking lot. Over 11 years, she grew an after-school counseling role into one of Imperial County’s strongest expanded learning programs—building credit recovery, ballet, painting and academic intervention for kids who get that access nowhere else.
She also works the weekend shifts.
“I spend countless hours after school on weekends providing programming because I have a vision,” she says. No matter how much I accomplish, there’s so much more that I can bring kids.”
Esmeralda came into education wanting “to be a champion for kids,” and she still runs the program on that fuel. That vision—the belief in education’s impact on children—was so powerful, her staff stayed because they watched her do it. That same move is already available to every teacher, in every room, with zero budget required, as soon as the morning bell rings.
Key Takeaways
- Esmeralda Garcia built Calexico Unified’s expanded learning program on four moves that a single teacher can run without extra funding.
- Teachers earn student buy-in faster by opening the year with one real win instead of a rules slideshow, the same tactic Esmeralda uses to recruit staff.
- Students commit to a classroom after they see early proof of progress, so show a moved grade or a new skill by October rather than on report cards.
Doing program work without program money
Esmeralda runs programming across a rural border district with real constraints. Outside resources are limited. Younger grades carry pandemic-sized academic gaps. Many families, as she puts it, can’t give their kids what other families can afford.
“We’re there to even out the access and the resources to kids that might not have access and resources given to them.
Teachers meet a smaller version of the same problem every fall. Thirty kids, thirty different gaps, one set of hands and a supply budget that rounds to zero. The national picture makes it heavier. A joint study in May from Harvard, Dartmouth and Stanford researchers found the average student still performing below pre-pandemic levels, part of a learning slide researchers now trace back to 2013.
Most teachers already do a version of what Esmeralda does. What almost nobody gets is the time to name it as a method and run it on purpose. The day fills with 30 individual needs before the second bell, and the thing that gets squeezed out is the culture-building that would have made the rest of the year easier. Earning trust from a room of 30 kids takes the same work as earning it from a staff of adults, on a much tighter clock, usually while covering somebody else’s lunch duty.
Belief works better with a method attached
“What makes my programs different,” Esmeralda says, “is my ability to believe that we can make changes in students’ lives beyond the school bell.”
That belief comes with a repeatable method bolted to it.
A classroom becomes a place students want to be when a teacher runs it the way Esmeralda runs her program, using the same four moves she uses across an entire district.
None of them require new curriculum, a different management system or a district signature. They ask for a room treated like it has a mission instead of a bell schedule.
Step 1: Find out what your students are actually missing
Esmeralda never built one generic program and hoped for the best. She mapped specific gaps for specific kids. “We’re getting them to recover some of those skills that they might have missed due to the pandemic, due to access,” she says.
The classroom version means naming which students need foundational review, which need a creative outlet they get nowhere else and which need one-on-one catch-up time. Then building small pockets of class time around those gaps instead of teaching to an imaginary middle student who doesn’t exist. (Neither does the class set of working headphones. We checked.)
Most teachers can already list those students from memory by the third week. The move is writing it down and letting it drive where the minutes go.
Step 2: Offer the free sample before the sales pitch
When Esmeralda recruits adults into her program, she skips the mission speech. “I always start off by bringing in people to my fold. I’ll entice them with support for their classroom, with some extra funding for materials and giving them access to great field trips,” she says.
Students work the same way. Instead of opening the year with the rules slideshow, open with one small, real win. A project they genuinely enjoy, or a moment of real choice. Trust starts on the sample tray. Nobody signs up for a membership they haven’t tried out, and that includes 14-year-olds.
Step 3: Let them taste the payoff early
“Once they see the magic that we make happen, I mean, once you drink the punch, you can’t really go back, right?” Esmeralda says.
Her staff bought in because they watched the program work, and words had very little to do with it. Students need the same proof. Make sure they see real progress early and often. A skill they couldn’t do in September that they can do in October. A grade that visibly moved. Waiting until report cards to prove the class is worth showing up for is like waiting until the season finale to introduce the main character.
Step 4: Do the unglamorous work where they can see you
“I show up for Saturday programming,” Esmeralda says, proving exactly what kind of leader she is at her district. “If kids need to be served food, I’m going to serve food. If trash needs to be collected, I’m going to collect trash.“
Her team stays bought in because she never assigns anything she won’t do herself. In a classroom, that looks like doing the messy group project alongside students instead of only grading it, or sitting in the hard seat during a tough conversation instead of sending a note home. Teachers do this constantly and rarely get credit for it. Students notice every time.
When they get to see you do the work
“I think that people appreciate working alongside you and they get to share your vision that way,” Esmeralda says. “They get to see you do the work.”
The research backs her up. A meta-analysis covering 189 studies and roughly 249,000 students found that positive teacher-student relationships track directly with higher engagement and stronger achievement. Esmeralda’s own proof runs more personal.
Her first year, she had a student named Britney who kept missing school. Esmeralda showed up at her house and told her, “You are going to school.” Years later, Britney came back to thank her for never giving up on her.
Esmeralda built an entire district program on these four moves without waiting for a bigger budget to justify believing first. A teacher doesn’t need a title, a program or extra funding to run the same play inside one classroom.
Every teacher reading this has already done all four at some point, probably last Tuesday. But running them on purpose? Well, that’s what makes you a leader.
Esmeralda Garcia built her program around what students were actually missing. Subject’s courseware gives you the same visibility into your own room, gap by gap. Book a walkthrough.
FAQs
How can a teacher build classroom culture with no budget?
A teacher builds classroom culture with no budget by naming each student’s specific gap, opening the year with one real win, showing progress early and doing the hard work alongside students. Esmeralda Garcia used those four moves to build a district program at Calexico Unified.
Why do students buy into some classrooms and not others?
Students buy into classrooms where they watch the teacher do the same work being asked of them. Research pooling 189 studies and roughly 249,000 students found that positive teacher-student relationships track with higher engagement and stronger achievement.
What is expanded learning in K-12 schools?
Expanded learning covers school programming outside regular class hours, including after-school and weekend sessions. Garcia’s program at Calexico Unified offers credit recovery, academic intervention and enrichment such as ballet and painting to close gaps that families cannot fund on their own.