Sara J. Ingrassia

Sara Ingrassia has been a resident of Norwalk since 2007 and has dedicated her entire professional life to educating children in both urban and suburban school districts as a classroom teacher and, currently, as a math coordinator within an elementary school. Sara strongly believes every child, regardless of their race or zip code, deserves access to an excellent education. She started her career teaching at a public elementary school in Newark, New Jersey. It is here that she became intimately familiar with the lack of resources allocated to majority minority school districts. The dearth of adequate classroom space for her Newark students and the absence of basic resources available to her as a teacher left a lasting impact on her. It ignited a life-long passion to help create equitable schools that provide teachers and students with access to safe schools with high quality instructional resources. She currently works part-time at an independent school where she oversees the math curriculum in the lower school. She sees daily how access to an excellent education in the United States is primarily determined by students’ zip codes and their parents’ tax returns. This has always seemed unjust to her. In addition to teaching, she has also spent time consulting at various public and independent schools providing help to teachers in implementing math curriculum in K-5 schools.

With four children of her own, three of whom are enrolled in Norwalk Public Schools (NPS) and her fourth entering kindergarten in the fall, she has volunteered extensively in the school system. She has helped coordinate science fairs, organize One Book, One School programs, served as a treasurer of the PTA and served as co-chair of a School Governance Council (SGC) in a NPS middle school. By serving on the SGC for the past three years, she became more intimately aware of how school budgets are created, financed and the important role the Common Council plays in approving the allocation of funds. For three years, she has been part of a group of SGC members who have been trying to help procure funds for desperately needed renovations at her sons’ middle school. Sara has also recently joined her local library’s board, hoping to help make literature accessible to all Norwalk residents.

As a lifelong Democrat, Sara recently became aware of the role the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee plays in endorsing candidates for local, state, and national political positions. After working within schools for years trying to promote change on a microlevel, she now would like to be part of the process that nominates and endorses candidates who are involved in the funding and decision making process within our city, in particular our schools. She feels this is the best way to ensure that all students in NPS are guaranteed the excellent education they deserve.

Sara has a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Franklin and Marshall College and a K-6th grade teaching certificate.