About me
Michelle Sapanara currently serves the students and families of Springs Charter School as Assistant Superintendent, Student Services. In this role Michelle is responsible for student support services which includes coordinated school health and behavioral health services, school counseling, and special education services.For over fifteen years Michelle has been a leader in student support services in three counties. Michelle last served as Coordinator of District Outreach, Attendance Recovery & Engagement for the Irvine Unified School District. She led the District Attendance Response Team made up of Family Liaisons, Prevention & Intervention Specialists, health services, and community partners. She chaired the IUSD SARB Board, which was named a model SARB in April 2022. Previously, she served as the Vista Unified School District’s Coordinator of Student Support Services. In addition to being the Attendance Supervisor, Michelle coordinated mental health services for the district. She was responsible for EPSDT, the Elementary Counselors, School Social Workers and the Crisis Response Team. She directly supported the 3100+ youth who are homeless, teen parents, truant, LGBTQ, in foster care, or in military families in Vista USD. As many of these students are more at-risk to be human trafficked she has a passion for prevention. Michelle educates teachers, mental health professionals, administrators, and counselors on how to recognize victims, report, and support. While Michelle was an administrator in Riverside County she wrote a 180 day student advisory curriculum focused on essential/soft skills, developed a multi-disciplinary district-wide Saturday School, rewrote the discipline matrices to include additional pre-suspension interventions and alternatives to suspension (before it was cool), and restorative practices, served on the district disproportionality committee in the area of discipline, while serving as a site Assistant Principal and Principal.Michelle was honored to receive the Annual Lee Lundberg award for her service to CASCWA in the 2020-2021 school year.