Claudia Hernandez. Photo: Chris Emeott
Oak-Land Middle School in Lake Elmo is dedicated to ensuring all students thrive. Key to this mission is Claudia Hernandez, a student, family and community engagement specialist who stepped into the brand-new role in 2023 with a clear vision of supporting multilingual (ML) Hispanic Latino students and their families.
In only a few years, her presence at Oak-Land has created waves of change for the school’s ML learners. Hernandez, who grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico, has lived in the United States since 2005 and worked for Stillwater Area Public Schools since 2017. While she is a district employee, 90 percent of her time is utilized at Oak-Land, where she has an office and spends much of her day in classrooms with ML students. “For me, a very important aspect for this role is to build relationships, so that’s why I go to the classroom and be present in the students’ daily life,” Hernandez says.
Elodie Sontgerath, an ML English teacher at Oak-Land, remarks that Hernandez has helped bridge the gap between home and school for students by ensuring their academic, emotional and social needs are met. “The joy on our students’ faces when she walks into the room says more than words ever could,” Sontgerath says.
At Oak-Land, Hernandez is empowering ML students to become leaders. In the 2024–25 school year, she co-taught a Youth in Government class that included five ML students who completed a school language survey and met with lawmakers at the state capitol. Since 2023, Hernandez has led a continuing partnership with StoryArc, which supports students in creating podcasts and presenting them to their families and communities. “She challenges her students out from being silent observers to voices of change,” says Ann Giardino, former Oak-Land principal.
Hernandez works directly with families to navigate economic, language and technological barriers. She frequently helps parents schedule their first parent-teacher conferences and navigate the extracurricular activities registration platform. And Hernandez does not hesitate to extend her work beyond the scope of a school day. She has partnered with Washington County to secure free sports physicals for students without insurance, helped families when their heat went out midwinter and delivered groceries and meals to families during Operation Metro Surge. “She is one of those people [who] is constantly moving the needle,” Giardino says.
As the community heals, Hernandez is focusing on the good: seeing students embrace opportunities, grow in their learning and sign up for sports are accomplishments worth celebrating. “When families come and then just tell me, ‘Thank you for helping, and it made a big difference,’ I feel like … I’m doing my job,” she says.
In a translated nomination letter for the district’s Partnership Award (for which Hernandez was recognized in April), one of her students shared, “We love you very much, and, without you, this school wouldn’t exist … even though you don’t have a class, you are a teacher to me. You are my favorite teacher.”
Giardino calls Hernandez “a beloved member of our community,” sharing that she was bestowed the Spirit of Oak-Land Award in 2025. “What she does, without taking any type of recognition, is continuing to be a role model for what we need to be doing in the Stillwater school district … she’s a superstar,” Giardino says.
Stillwater Area Public Schools
stillwaterschools.org
Stillwater Area Public Schools
