LPS-Hayward Faculty

LPS-Hayward is comprised of an experienced and highly qualified team of teachers and administrators—all deeply committed to their students and the LPS mission. All teachers are credentialed in their subject areas.  Upon entering LPS, each student is assigned an advisor who acts as that student’s advocate and parent liaison throughout his or her four years of high school.

ABELES, Rebecca - English
Becca Abeles is enjoying her third year at LPS Hayward.  She began teaching 11th grade English in 2008 and now teaches 10th and 11th grade English.  She studied English literature at UC Berkeley and graduated with honors in 2008.  It was in Berkeley that her interest in teaching developed; taking on a role as a student teacher in June Jordan's Poetry for the People allowed her to build her skills and experience working with young adults.  Since joining LPS she has shared her passion for poetry through the Week Without Walls program, coached an improvisational theater club, and participated in the Dancing with the Teachers competition.  She continues to develop professionally through her role on the Instructional Leadership Team and authorship of several curriculum development projects for the LPS network.

AGUILAR, FELICIA - Office Assistant
Ms. Aguilar was born and raised in Hayward. She graduated from California High School in San Ramon and is currently attending Chabot College in pursuit of an AA degree in Science. She will then transfer to pursue a Nursing Degree in Pediatrics. Ms Aguilar has been with LPS Hayward since 2006. 

ALLBRIGHT, Taylor - English
Taylor received her English credential from the Mills College Teachers for Tomorrow’s Schools program.  Prior to entering the education field, Taylor co-produced the documentary Miss Representation, which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.  She majored in Political Science and Gender Studies at UC Berkeley, where she also served as vice president of the campus student government.

BORBON, Carmen - History
Ms. Borbon was born in Dominican Republic.  When she was a little girl her family moved to the Bronx, NYC where she learned English and became acculturated to American ways.  She attended the Birch Wathen Lenox school, a small, private high school in Manhattan.  She graduated in 1995 and attended Columbia University, also in Manhattan, where she majored in African American History and Latin American Studies. Before teaching, Ms. Borbon worked as an Associate Editor at Stanford University Press, a publisher of scholarly books.  As an Associate Editor, Ms. Borbon acquired books in the fields of Asian Studies and Asian American Studies.  Although she loved working with professors to help them develop their books, Ms. Borbon felt that teaching was her true calling.  In 2005 she quit her job and enrolled at Stanford University to get her masters degree in education. 

CHATTI, Leila – Resource Specialist
Leila Chatti is starting her first year at LPS-Hayward! Ms. Chatti was born in Oakland, California, but moved away quite young; as a dual citizen, she spent most of her life living between Michigan and Tunisia. She recently graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in Arts and Humanities. Ms. Chatti is passionate about all things creative and is an avid poet and photographer. She also enjoys traveling, and spent the summer of 2010 teaching English and art in a village school in Mali. She is thrilled to return to the Bay as a new member of the LPS team. Go Royals!

DAIGNEAU, Laura- Math
Laura Daigneau is excited to be joining LPS-Hayward's Mathematics Department this year. A recent graduate of Dartmouth College, she majored in Philosophy and minored in Engineering Sciences. Also at Dartmouth, she helped run an Economics Department research project that sought out the most economic methods to get young Americans to attend college. In addition, Laura is a first year Teach for America corps member. She hails from Pittsburgh, PA, and decided to pack up all her belongings and drive her car 3300 miles to move to the East Bay this year. While she will always be a Steelers fan, Laura couldn't be more proud to now be a Royal.

DECKER, Heather – Counselor (Students’ last names A-L)
Ms. Decker joined LPS in 2007 and is currently the Coordinator of Academic Intervention, Enrollment, and Community Outreach.  She attended San Jose State University and earned a B.A. in Psychology with a focus on adolescent development and a minor in Theatre Arts. Prior to working at LPS, Ms. Decker gained experience working as a classroom counselor for students with emotional disabilities and taught theatre in their middle school special education classrooms.  Ms. Decker enjoys spreading the LPS message through community outreach programs and assisting all students to be successful in reaching their academic goals.

FARRAND, Sara - Spanish
Ms. Farrand was born in El Salvador, from North American parents. She has one sister and one brother. She grew up and studied in the city of San Salvador and graduated from the American School.  She had to leave San Salvador in 1980 because of the civil war, but after 7 months, she returned to finish high school.  Living in a third-world country during a 12 year war, has made her very sensitive to human suffering and very appreciative to the good things that life has to offer. Ms. Farrand played basketball in a team but likes to swim for fun.  Living so near to the warm ocean waters of the Central American coasts, she learned to deal with ocean currents and have fun in the waves.  With both grandparents living in El Salvador, she enjoys visiting them in their country homes and riding horses there.  She feels she was born a teacher, and started by teaching Sunday school for her church since she was 15 years old.  She has two degrees in Education, one with a specialty in early childhood education.  She also has a Masters Degree in Management from Spain. Ms. Farrand has been working since she was in the University, teaching English, Spanish, pre-school, middle and high school in various subjects.  Ms. Farrand was the co-founder and owner of a cultural/gourmet establishment.  She has three teenage children:  two sons and one daughter, and she recently came to live in the U.S. to remarry.  Currently, she lives in the East Bay.

FAUTEUX, Michael - Math
Mr. Fauteux teaches Academic Numeracy and Geometry as a lead teacher at LPS- Hayward, coaches the boys’ soccer team, and serves as the teacher representative to the LPS board of directors. Prior to joining LPS, Mr. Fauteux spent two years in Rome where he taught math, worked as the school's athletic director, and served on the strategic planning committee with administrators and board members. He has also taught high school math at the Hong Kong International School in Hong Kong, and middle and high school math at the San Francisco French-American International School.  Mr. Fauteux has consulted with Boston public schools on creating video artifacts for teaching and learning and has spent the past 3 summers helping to facilitate at Harvard's Secondary School Redesign Institute, leading groups of superintendents, principals and teachers in rethinking their individual challenges from an instructional point of view.  Mr. Fauteux holds a B.A in History from Brown University and a Masters in Education from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

GIKANGA, Simon - IT Coordinator
Mr. Gikanga joined LPS in 2004. Simon loves working with computers and helping everyone at school with technology. He attended ITT Technology Institute, and is one of Hayward’s founding staff members and now splits his time between two LPS campuses: Hayward and Richmond.

GOUDY, Sarah - Government/Economics
This is my seventh year of teaching and my first year teaching at LPS Hayward.  Before arriving at LPS Hayward, I spent four years teaching at Castlemont High School in Oakland and two years at Zurich International School in Switzerland. I have taught a variety of Social Studies courses, ranging from IB World History to AP Macroeconomics and AVID.  I earned a Bachelor's degree in History at UC Berkeley and a Master's degree in Education at Harvard University. 

HOFFPAUIR, Celeste - Ethnic Studies/Academic Leadership
Celeste Hoffpauir joined the staff of L.P.S. Hayward for the 2010-2011 school year; she currently teaches a freshman Academic Leadership course and senior Ethnic Studies course. She brings with her seven years of teaching experience with middle school students; six of these years were spent teaching seventh grade students at Winton Middle School in Hayward.  As a middle school teacher, Ms. Hoffpauir taught Ancient World History, Language Arts, Literature, and Introduction to Acting. She served as the English Department Chair for three years and as the History Department chair for one year. She holds single subject credentials to teach English and Social Studies. In 2004, she completed her Master’s in Education at UC Santa Barbara which culminated two years of participatory ethnographic research and inquiry into her own classroom and teaching. Ms. Hoffpauir’s Master’s inquiry investigated the way in which a classroom community and culture is established by examining the integrated role of student identity, voice, teacher identity and authenticity, and critical pedagogy. Ms. Hoffpauir brings a wealth of professional development and leadership training in literacy and English Language instructional strategies with her to L.P.S. Hayward. She has been trained for three years with the Reading Apprenticeship model/Strategic Literacy Initiative with West. Ed. and she has participated in the West Ed. Bay Area Literacy Leadership Network for two additional years. She has additionally completed professional development training in the S.I.O.P. model with Hayward Unified School District and the Writing Workshop model with Columbia University based on the work of Lucy Calkins.  Ms. Hoffpauir is committed to investigating and supporting teacher sustainability in Urban Education. She leads a Mindfulness in Education group, has served as a B.T.S.A. mentor for three years, and is a trained facilitator of Courage to Teach/Circle of Trust Retreats based on the work of Parker Palmer.

JOHNSON, Beth - Resource Specialist
Beth Johnson is the 9th and 12th grade Resource Specialist.  She is in her first year of teaching as a Teach for America Corps member.  Previously she worked as a Community Development and Health Volunteer in the U.S. Peace Corps, and was stationed in The Gambia, West Africa.  Originally from Grinnell, Iowa, she graduated with a B.A. in America Studies and Sociology from Lake Forest College.

KEATING, David – Art
Mr Keating earned a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts in 2001 and Masters in K-12 Art Education in 2003.  Both degrees are from Austin College in Sherman Texas.  He started teaching in Houston, Texas at Hoffman Middle School and spent two years but then went to teach at Nimitz Senior High for another year. In 2006, he taught in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  In P.V. he was the Art Teacher for the whole school, including Nursery through 12th grade.  After two years of serving privileged students he  decided to switch his focus to volunteer in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico.  He volunteered as an English teacher and after school activities coordinator in Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca.  He then moved to the SF Bay Area where he received the opportunity to be the Art 1 Teacher at LPS Hayward.  Mr. Keating has been a part of the LPS family for 3 years.

KLAFFKY, Lauren - Principal
Lauren joined Leadership Public Schools Hayward in 2009. Previously, she served as the Assistant Principal at Oakland High School where she led the design team for 9th grade learning academies. Prior to her position at Oakland Senior High, she served as the New Leaders for New Schools Resident Principal at College Preparatory and Architecture Academy, a small school at the Fremont campus in Oakland. Her focus at Architecture was on professional development and professional learning communities, with particular attention to the needs of English Learners. Ms. Klaffky was an English teacher for six years, including three years at Mt. Eden High School, where she also served as an ELD instructional coach. Ms. Klaffky has also served as the High School Teacher Training Coordinator for the University of California’s Puente Project. She has a Masters of Education from UC Berkeley.

MAESTAS, Abel – Math
This is Mr. Maestas’ first year at Leadership Public Schools-Hayward.  Though it is his first year, he brings to LPS 11 years of mathematics education experience.  He previously taught all math subjects in San Luis Obispo High School, Soledad High School, and, most recently, Bishop Manogue Catholic High School in Reno, NV.  He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1998 then received his M.A. in Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Cal Poly in 2001.  Before leaving Reno to be closer to family, Mr. Maestas was a doctoral student working on his PhD. in Mathematics Education at the University of Nevada, Reno.  He currently teaches Advanced Placement Calculus, Advanced Placement Statistics, and Algebra 2 and is the coach of the LPS Boys Basketball Team.

McCABE, Samuel - Biology
Samuel McCabe is in his second year at LPS-Hayward and teaches Biology. He is a member of the Teach for America program and is also new to the Bay Area after moving here from Minnesota. He graduated with a Bachelor's in Genetics, Cell Biology and Development and a focus in journalism and mass communication from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He is excited to become a part of the LPS Family. Go Royals!

McCAFFREY, Michael - English
Mr. McCaffrey has been with LPS for 4 years, and has taught 9th, 10th, and 12th grade AP English in addition to being the Lead Teacher for English and teacher coach. He is proud to be the Lady Royals soccer coach and one of the soccer club teachers. Before working at LPS Hayward, he worked for LPS Oakland and before that he was the Academic Dean and Lead English Instructor at the School Down Under in New Zealand. He spent this past summer working with Mr. Fauteux to facilitate at Harvard's Secondary School Redesign Institute, leading groups of superintendents, principals and teachers in rethinking their individual challenges from an instructional point of view. He graduated from UC Berkeley's top-ranked English Department in 2001 (B.A. English Literature) and Harvard University's Graduate School of Education (Ed.M.) in 2004.

MESSINA, Katie - History
After graduating from Berkeley High School, Ms. Messina went on to UCLA and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with minors in Spanish and Urban Education, and later earned her Teaching Credential and Master’s Degree in Education at Stanford University.   She has taught middle school and high school in Japan, South San Francisco, Oakland and has been here at LPS Hayward for 4 years. 

NAVARRO, Yasmin - Spanish
Yasmin Navarro grew up in Houston, Texas and did her undergraduate education at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She studied Spanish and Psychology and is currently a 2010 Teach for America Corps Member. She enjoys teaching Spanish literature and is a welcome fit to the LPS family. She is a jazz bassist and singer.

PIERI, Katy - Creative Writing/Academic Leadership
This year marks Ms. Pieri's third year at LPS Hayward, where she teaches Academic Leadership and Creative Writing.   Ms. Pieri earned her Bachelor's degree in French and Linguistics at UC Davis, and then moved to New Mexico where she graduated with a Master's degree also in Linguistics, with a focus on Native American Language Revitalization. She moved back to California in 2006 after the birth of her son, Gabriel, and began her career as a high school teacher.

RHYAN, Sam - Chemistry
Sam Rhyan is a first year Chemistry Teacher at LPS Hayward and a member of Teach for America, a national program dedicated to closing the achievement gap.  He graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a Bachelor's of Science in Medical Microbiology & Immunology and two certificates in Leadership and Global Cultures.  In addition to holding various leadership positions while studying at UW, Sam was the school mascot - this energy and school spirit will definitely be evident as he joins our LPS community. Go Royals!

RIVERA, Liz - School Manager
Ms Rivera was born and raised in Hayward.  She is a first generation college graduate, born to migrant farm-workers who settled in the Bay Area during the 1950’s.  Ms. Rivera is very passionate about supporting students in their educational endeavors, especially those coming from underserved populations such as her own.  She attended California State University, East Bay and earned a BS degree in Criminal Justice Administration with a minor in Psychology.  One of her most endearing moments in life is when she met César Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers Union.  Ms. Rivera has a long history of working with non-profit organizations that assist high school students in professional development and obtaining success in college.  She joined the LPS Hayward staff in 2006.

SPENCER, Emmy – English
Emmy Spencer is a 10th and 11th grade English teacher who is very excited to start her first year at LPS. Born and raised in Maine, Ms. Spencer got her undergraduate degree at Bates College with a major in English and a minor in Sociology. After college, Ms. Spencer lived in Boston, Massachusetts and worked as a paralegal before realizing that she missed studying literature and wanted to become a teacher. She moved to Palo Alto, California in 2010, began student teaching, and completed her Master's in Secondary Education at Stanford University this past June. With a passion for reading, music, art, and all forms of expression, Ms. Spencer is eager to connect with LPS students and share her love of language arts.

TARSHIS, Darren - Physics
Mr. Tarshis grew up in Colorado Springs. He played tennis in high school, skied during the winters, and backpacked through the Rocky Mountains in the summers. He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, and received a Bachelors degree in physics. After college, Mr. Tarshis joined Teach For America in Atlanta. He taught physics and math for two years in Atlanta public schools, and was the head tennis coach. Mr. Tarshis has been teaching Physics and AP Physics at Leadership Public Schools since 2010. He is passionate about connecting physics to everyday life, and preparing students for college success.

TAKASHIMA, Daniel - Math
Mr. Takashima teaches Algebra I and Algebra II at Hayward.  Previously, he taught  in Chicago where he was instrumental in piloting novel strategies gained from P.E.A.K. (Performance Excellence for All Kids) training.  Prior to teaching, Mr. Takashima studied aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan and subsequently served as an engineer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Mr. Takashima enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for inquiry into 'how things work' and 'how math contributes to problem solving'.

WANDERA, Omar - Dean of Students
Omar Wandera grew up in Oakland and attended Oakland Technical High School. During his tenure at Oakland Tech he was influenced by teachers in an interesting way. On one end he was motivated by teachers that took the time to help him, have faith in him, and get him on the right track. He was equally driven by those who told him he’d do nothing in life and showed very little support.  Through his school experiences he realized the importance of having someone on your side that believes in you and decided while in high school that he would model those that affected him in a positive way, and be the antithesis of those that did not. Mr. Wandera continued his education at Norfolk State University in Virginia. While at Norfolk State, he participated in the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge Academic Team, was president of the Epsilon Pi Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and made the Dean’s List. He went on to do his student teaching at Maury High School, and Azalea Gardens Middle School. After graduation, Omar taught at Lake Taylor High School and Azalea Garden Middle School. He then moved back to the Bay Area where he served as Academic Coordinator for the Holy Names University Upward Bound Program, Supervisor of Mentoring Services for Instituto Familiar De La Raza, and Dean of Students at KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy.

ZAPATA, Rose - Math
Ms. Zapata is in her second year at LPS and teaches Geometry and Pre-Calculus. She was previously a "visitor" of Texas where she received a B.S. in Education specializing in Secondary Mathematics from Baylor University (Sic 'em Bears!). While at Baylor, Ms. Zapata played Division-I soccer and was the starting center back for four years. She received the honor of being named captain her Junior and Senior year. While in attendance, she also worked with research team called "GEAR UP! Mathematics Initiative." This is a program that develops and delivers non-traditional mathematics lessons that gets low-achieving, middle school math students involved in the learning of mathematics. After her "visit" to Texas, she decided to move home to the East Bay where she fell in love with the ideals and culture LPS has to offer. Ms. Zapata believes that all students can be successful in Mathematics, it just takes the right formula to hook them in.