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THIS IS WHAT 400+ PARENTS MADE POSSIBLE <br />News <br />The Accidental Activist: One Mom’s Unlikely Crusade <br />to Bring Better Schools to Northern California <br />April 10, 2016 <br />“...when Maritza Leal sensed that things weren’t going well for her oldest daughter she <br />sought other options. She settled on a Rocketship charter school in San Jose. The <br />challenge: That’s a 100-mile round-trip commute through some of the toughest traffic in <br />the country... Leal’s husband, Enrique Esparza, did most of the driving, eventually <br />organizing a small car pool after buying a used Dodge van from a church. But those hours <br />spent every day in a car weren’t sustainable...Leal, Esparza and another key Redwood <br />City parent turned out to be natural-born canvassers...they organized an “action” <br />that led to 425 parents crammed into a community center — By the time <br />an actual vote came on Rocketship, the Redwood City board approved it <br />unanimously. They had never before witnessed a community uprising like <br />this, and weren’t about to stand in the way. You don’t say no to Maritza, Enrique <br />and 450 of their friends and neighbors…” <br />Source: The accidental activist, The 74, April 10, 2016.6