Some things just run in the family.
When Valerie Amparan was in middle school, she saw her stay-at-home mother get elected to the school board in her hometown of 2,200 residents.
Then, her uncle followed suit.
Now, she’s following in her family’s footsteps—only a few hundred miles down south.
The nonprofit CEO and Goleta resident is throwing her hat into the ring for the board of the Santa Barbara Unified School District.
As the first in her family to graduate from college, Amparan saw what a quality public school education did for her. She wants to provide the same experience for her two children.
“I want the best education possible for my kids because I know what’s possible,” Amparan said. “Education opens up doors.”
She is running in Trustee Area 4 against incumbent Rose Muñoz, and history teacher Kevin Thomas Guay.
If elected, she wants to push the district toward creating a reserve policy and balanced budget and improve math and reading scores.
She also wants to look at the data for why families are leaving the district, and foster collaboration on bigger issues such as technology. Her overall philosophy is to ensure every dollar the district spends creates measurable results for students.
Amparan grew up in the Central Valley with only one elementary school in her hometown. Her father was an agricultural broker and her mother stayed at home while assisting with bookkeeping for their family business.
As the oldest of five, Amparan described herself as a “self-starter” who dreamt of a bigger life with more opportunities. So, at 18, she set out for Santa Barbara City College and started hustling.
“If I wanted something, I’d figure out how to get it or achieve it,” Amparan said.
After securing her own apartment, she headed downtown, handing out her resumes to businesses on State Street. She was first hired at the Italian restaurant Palazzio and then worked at other local places such as Q’s Billiards to survive through college.
Originally, Amparan was set to attend UC Irvine. But her father, who had taken a few classes at SBCC, wanted to show her Santa Barbara before she officially made up her mind.
“I fell in love,” Amparan said. “I immediately decided and changed my trajectory and thought, ‘this is where I want to go.’ So, I made it happen.”
She eventually transferred to UC Santa Barbara, which wasn’t without its challenges.
She was rejected from the school twice.
“I’m still really proud of the path I took initially, because you think, outside of high school you want to go into a four-year college and that’s the prestige that you’re chasing after,” Amparan said. “But for me, it was more practical.”
And she’s remained in Santa Barbara ever since.
She’s spent the past 10 years working in sales for local tech companies such as AppFolio, Ontraport and 8am, leading the latter through acquisitions three times.
When she was new to Santa Barbara, she joined the local Junior League chapter and in 2019 became president.
“I studied political science with an emphasis on international relations, but I wasn’t using it,” Amparan said. “I always laughed because salespeople don’t grow up wanting to be in sales. It happens, you fall into it, and you become really good at it. And so I wanted to use my background.”
She joined a state public affairs committee, where she advocated for bills around family support, violence prevention, health and human trafficking—an issue Amparan realized was prevalent in communities.
“These are the kids who don’t have voices who have been through the most unstable moments as young adults,” Amparan said. “And we’re seeing them now being exploited, and that really affected me and it really bothered me.”
She brought human trafficking into focus at the Junior League and began fundraising for projects that helped young female survivors. Her organization helped the nonprofit 4 Kids 2 Kids create one of the first short-term residential therapeutic homes for trafficked children.
In 2024, she eventually left her “grueling” work in the tech industry to spend more time with her children. She became CEO of 4 Kids 2 Kids the next year.
Her children, Dean and Ellie, are fifth- and second graders at Santa Barbara Charter School.
After Amparan saw how lack of funding was a barrier to programs at her children’s school, she led an effort with parents and teachers to raised $75,000—one of the highest donations the school has received.
She was happy to “create a bit of change” at her children’s school but wanted the chance to have a bigger impact.
To better understand the needs of the Santa Barbara Unified School District, she embarked on a “listening tour” and met with parents, teachers, board members and local nonprofits before she officially filed to run for school board.
One of her biggest priorities, if elected to the board, is to help create a sustainable budget. She believes her experience running a budget with the Junior League will be beneficial.
She wants the districts’ funds to be spent on the right tools that teachers need and programs that provide real results for students.
Additionally, Amparan wants to bring greater collaboration to big issues such as technology use. She supports Santa Barbara Unified’s lawsuit against social media companies and praised parents for driving the momentum.
On the issue of declining enrollment at the district, Amaran wants the board to understand the data about why families are transferring out, and then find solutions, such as providing after-school care for children.
Amparan has been endorsed by current Santa Barbara Unified board members Sunita Beall and Celeste Kafri and the Santa Barbara Teachers Union.
“It’s always been my motto that, if you see something, and you want to fix it, to do something about it,” Amparan said. “I think I have a different skill set that’s needed in order to create the change that Santa Barbara Unified is in need of now.”
