Candidate for
Member, Board of Education; County of San Francisco

Hydra Mendoza has successfully served on the Board of Education for two terms and during her tenure was unanimously voted in as President and Vice President by her peers. She is the Senior Advisor on Education and Family Services to Mayor Edwin Lee and served under Mayor Gavin Newsom in the same senior level position for six years before he was elected as the California State Lt. Governor.

Hydra has championed improving academic standards in our schools, and implementing policies that have increased parent engagement. She has built necessary coalitions between community and education leaders to get things done for our kids while increasing public-private partnerships which has resulted in millions of dollars in investments for SFUSD.

Hydra and her husband Eric both graduated from SFUSD and are proud parents to two children educated in SFUSD. She is the former Executive Director of Parents for Public Schools, a national organization that engages various stakeholders to support, promote and improve public education. She is also a former preschool teacher, has served as co-chair of her children's school site council (SSC), Vice-President of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and an active classroom volunteer. She has also previously served as Vice-Chair of the mandatory school bond oversight committee, which oversees the District's capital improvement projects, and served as a community member on several committees for the San Francisco Unified School District including: Weighted Student Formula, Student Assignment Task Force, and the Harvard Public Education Leadership Project.

In addition to these roles, Hydra has been very active in various electoral efforts to strengthen our public education in San Francisco. She served on the steering committee for the successful passage of Proposition A (2003, 2006 & 2010), a $295, $450 and $531 million facilities bond and Proposition H (2004) the Public Education Enrichment Fund, which brings additional support to our students for art, music, sports, librarians and universal preschool, and Proposition A (2008) Quality Teacher Act. She is currently serving on the steering committee to pass Prop C, the renewal of the Children's Fund and Public Education Enrichment Fund.

In 2006 and 2010, Hydra successfully won a city-wide bid and re-election for a seat on the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education. Hydra is the first and only Filipina elected to office in San Francisco. She has been honored by the California Association for Bilingual Education + Parent of the Year Award (2005), San Francisco State University Masters in Public Administration + Public Service Award (2008), 100 Most Influential Filipinas (2009, 2013), Access and Equity Community Education Award + Pin@y Educational Partnerships (2011), College Track + Hero Award (2013) and Extraordinary Service Award from Mission Economic Development Agency (2013)

She is a member of the United Way Women's Leadership Council, Board member on SPUR, and Advisory Board Member to Youth Speaks, College Track, SFCASA and Old Skool Café. She is married to Eric McDonnell, COO of United Way Bay Area. Her son is a junior in high school and her daughter is a sophomore in college. She lives in the Bayview community in San Francisco.