Dr. Merrill Vargo

Dr. Merrill Vargo, executive director of Springboard Schools, is both an experienced academic and a practical expert in the field of school reform. Before founding Springboard Schools/BASRC in January 1995, Dr. Vargo spent nine years teaching English in a variety of settings, managed her own consulting firm, and served as executive director of the California Institute for School Improvement, a Sacramento-based nonprofit that provides staff development and policy analysis for educators. Dr. Vargo served as Director of Regional Programs and Special Programs and Special Projects for the California Department of Education, where she provided leadership to several key school reform efforts, including the SB 1274 School Restructuring Initiative, Charter Schools, Goals 2000 and the School Improvement Program.

Dr. Vargo's experience at the helm of Springboard Schools places her in the top ranks of the nation's school reformers. Hand-picked by an elite group of Bay Area educators and philanthropists to create Springboard Schools, one of nine urban school reform initiatives funded by the Philadelphia-based Annenberg Foundation, she is one of only two executive directors to have survived the politics and vicissitudes of the reform process for the duration of the "Annenberg Challenge."

Under Dr. Vargo's leadership, Springboard Schools became one of only four of the 19 Challenge sites to show achievement strong enough to win renewed grants from its original funders, the Annenberg Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation of Menlo Park, California. The Hewlett Foundation is the largest donor to BASRC, and it was the largest single donor in matching grants for the Annenberg Challenge.

A tireless advocate for learning as central to the human experience and for public schools as the cornerstone of democracy, Dr. Vargo consistently champions the needs of children including children growing up in poverty, children of color ,and English Language Learners. A former teacher of English and an impassioned advocate for both standards and inspiring teaching, she has been both a student and a teacher in a variety of innovative programs and settings. Dr. Vargo is a product of the public school system and received her BA and Ph.D. in English literature as part of Cornell University's Ford Foundation-funded "Six Year PhD Program." She began her teaching career as part of the interdisciplinary "Freshman Honors Program" at the University of Delaware, a program that set out to serve bright high-school age students in a university setting. She also taught for three years at Deep Springs College, one of nation's oldest and most successful "small schools." Deep Springs students - all twenty-four of them -- spend two years studying liberal arts courses while operating both the college and a high-desert cattle ranch. Dr. Vargo is a horsewoman, skier, and bicyclist, and has a strong interest in Buddhist meditation.