This year’s Assistant Principal and Principal Appreciation theme is Powering Possibilities, and for Assistant Principal Cecilia Mendoza, the connection to her work at Brighton Park Elementary is direct.
“Brighton Park’s school culture thrives on high expectations rooted in unconditional love, empowering our students to walk through the world with confidence, knowing that they belong in any space and their identity is their superpower,” Mendoza said.
She sees bilingualism and cultural confidence as tools students carry with them well beyond Brighton Park’s halls. For Mendoza and the community she leads, that belief doesn’t pause when Hispanic Heritage Month ends on Oct. 15. It’s the throughline of a school year built on connection, culture, and the everyday work of helping students see themselves as leaders, in Brighton Park and far beyond.
“If they speak multiple languages, that is a superpower. If they are confident in their identity, that is a superpower, because any room they walk into, they know they belong there. Superpowers exist everywhere.”
Brighton Park Elementary AP Cecilia Mendoza
Creating a Mirror for Students
Roughly 92% of Brighton Park’s students are Hispanic or Latinx, while Latinx students make up close to half of all Chicago Public Schools (CPS) enrollment, the largest share of any racial or ethnic group in the district. According to Mendoza, Hispanic Heritage Month isn’t a single month at all, but a name for what Brighton Park practices every day of the school year.
“Representation means creating a mirror for our students so that they can see their futures,” Mendoza said. “It means validating our community’s lived experiences, really being able to honor the traditions and their language. It’s not just Taco Tuesday: it means making sure their culture is lived every day, and they’re able to honor it and feel proud of who they are and where they come from.”
This school year, Mendoza began her fifth year as Brighton Park’s assistant principal and her 11th year as a CPS educator, having started as a middle school science teacher before moving into special education and then school leadership. But her connection to the community runs back further than her career.
“Growing up on the southwest side of Chicago, first-generation Latina, I am a proud CPS alumni,” she said. “Representation has never been an abstract concept to me. It’s just my lived reality. I am here as your Brighton Park assistant principal. My husband is also a high school teacher in Brighton Park. My children walk these same halls. Brighton Park really is my passion, and my roots and commitment to this neighborhood run deep. I’m here to serve.”
That personal history shapes how she thinks about the students in front of her every day, and it’s part of why she’s built a school culture where students don’t have to wait until a designated month to see themselves reflected.
Mendoza doesn’t point to a single way Brighton Park honors culture year-round; she points to a rhythm of events and initiatives that bring families through the door again and again.
There’s Sabor de Brighton Park, a community potluck where families bring dishes they love to cook, share recipes, listen to music, and dance. And there’s the Posolada, an annual fundraiser and friendly competition where families face off to make the best posole, raising money for students in the process.
“Even though we are all Latinos, we’re all Hispanic, we all come from different countries, from different states in those countries,” Mendoza said. “So all of our cultures are different, but we love to bring them together.”
According to Mendoza, that spirit shows up in smaller moments, too. During Fun Fridays in the cafeteria, students bring in songs their families listen to at home and share them with their classmates, sometimes breaking out into karaoke.
“We celebrate year-round through food and music,” Mendoza said. “Those are some of the things I like to bring to Brighton Park, because no matter what language you speak, no matter where you come from, music and food always unite people.”
The Numbers Behind the Trust
Mendoza’s approach to community building shows up in the data, too. According to 2026 5Essentials results, parent influence on decision-making at Brighton Park jumped from 55 in 2025 to 74 in 2026. Teacher-principal trust rose from 53 to 62, school commitment climbed from 51 to 64, and program coherence increased from 46 to 66 over the same period.
Chronic absenteeism also declined significantly, from 45.4% in 2022 to 28.2% in 2025, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Mendoza credited much of that shift to consistency and staff presence. Last year, Brighton Park’s staff voted to flex their schedules so every teacher could attend one major community event each quarter. “That really drove a lot of those connections with parents,” she said.
The school has also leaned into student-led conferences, where students track their own goals in leadership binders and walk their families through their progress directly. As a result, families know what their students are learning week to week and receive regular communication.
“It’s not just a teacher telling me how my student is doing,” Mendoza said of the shift toward student-led conferences. “It’s also the student telling us how they’re doing.”
Honoring Language, Then and Now
Mendoza’s approach to celebrating culture at Brighton Park traces back to her own school experiences. She started first grade speaking only Spanish and couldn’t use it in class, and she came to resist speaking Spanish at school altogether.
That memory shapes how she runs her building now. Students can answer in Spanish while the school keeps building their English language development. “If you need to respond in Spanish, respond in Spanish,” Mendoza tells them.
Most of Brighton Park’s staff speak Spanish, so students can find a bilingual adult in nearly every classroom. According to Mendoza, some students have settled in so comfortably that they’re in no hurry to pick up English.
The contrast with her own time as a CPS student isn’t lost on her.
“Growing up in CPS, I remember celebrating Cinco de Mayo, but I don’t often remember learning about and celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month,” Mendoza said. “I think that’s what Hispanic Heritage Month is about: knowing where we come from and where we are at today.”
Cecilia Mendoza is the Assistant Principal at Brighton Park Elementary, where she has been for five years. This post is part of The Fund’s ongoing series celebrating Chicago’s public school leaders and Hispanic Heritage Month.