Today, we are thrilled to profile the extraordinary Sanjay Mitchell, Executive Director, César Chávez Public Charter School
Sanjay Mitchell believes that any type of student can be successful in a charter school environment.
“There is no prototype,” Sanjay said. “This is a model that centers student voices and allows them to have more agency over their learning experiences and the type of courses they take.”
Sanjay grew up in a world where the path toward success wasn’t quite as clear.
Born in Jamaica, he moved to Queens, New York, at 13 before eventually making his way to the University at Albany in 1998. He ended up staying in Albany for about a decade, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees before eventually working for the university’s college admissions department.
Sanjay describes his time as an Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions as good, meaningful work. But the longer he did it, the harder it was to ignore a feeling that kept gnawing at him.
The problem wasn’t towards the end of the college-going process — where Sanjay was working — it was at the beginning.
“I knew if I could get in on the front end of where students are engaging in this process, I could help build the systems and practices that allow for greater access into post-secondary spaces,” he said.
Finding the Mission
Sanjay’s entry into K-12 education had a very human catalyst. His best friend worked at Thurgood Marshall Academy (TMA), a charter school in Washington, D.C., and he noted that his friend spoke constantly and passionately about his work at the school.
What clinched it for Sanjay was what he encountered when he walked through the charter school’s doors: Students from D.C.’s Ward 7 and Ward 8 — among the most under-resourced neighborhoods in the district — who were coming in with enormous dreams but almost no roadmap for how to get there.
“They would say to me, ‘I want to go to college,’ ‘I want to be a lawyer,’ but when I asked them what they knew about the process, most of them just shrugged,” Sanjay said. “No one in their family had gone to college. They’d been told it was something you were supposed to do, but nobody had told them how.”
The students’ families shared a similar message. “I want better for my child, I just don’t know how to do it.”
That gap — between aspiration and access, between the dream and the door — became the focus of Sanjay’s work. He spent 14 years as Director of College and Alumni Programs at TMA, dismantling barriers to college access and success by providing students with access to free college applications and campus tours.
Parents and family members were also welcome to ride the tour bus and walk the quads along with their soon-to-be college students.
“It’s a great way for them to see exactly where their kids are going and how long it takes to get there,” Sanjay said.
The key, according to Sanjay, was the freedom and ability to color outside the box of public education. Working at a charter allowed him to be innovative and treat equity as a daily operating principle, not a talking point.
The results exceeded Sanjay’s expectations.
“When I came to D.C., the conversation was ‘Let’s double the number of our students who go to college and come back with a degree,’” he said. When he arrived at Thurgood Marshall Academy, that figure hovered around 15-20%; by the end of his tenure, it was 67%.
Scaling for Impact
Sanjay’s executive director at the time pulled him aside with a challenge that was really a compliment. “He told me I was doing great work, but I needed to think about scaling the impact of what I was doing beyond our walls.”
Sanjay started looking for a school with a mission that matched the urgency he felt. He wanted to walk into a space where he could be immediately impactful in a real way.
He found that at César Chávez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy
Founded in 1998 by Irasema Salcido — who established the first school in the basement of a grocery store with 60 students — Chávez prepares students to succeed in competitive colleges and empowers them to use public policy to build a more just, free, and equal world. Nearly three decades later, that mission is still the school’s north star.
Sanjay became Executive Director of Chávez almost two years ago. The charter school currently serves about 420 students in grades 6-12 and is located in the Parkside neighborhood of northeast D.C, just a few miles from where Sanjay first landed in the city.
His current students share many traits with the ones he’s been working to empower his entire career.
Policy as Practice
What separates Chávez isn’t just the college-prep rigor. It’s the way policy is woven into everything, not as an abstract lesson but as real-world practice.
Students don’t just study public policy. They do it. The school runs an annual mission trip for 11th graders that combines a college tour with a deep dive into policy issues, giving students the chance to see themselves not just as future degree-holders, but as future change-makers.
“I am much less interested in preparing our students to consume a system than I am in preparing them to learn how to interrogate it,” Sanjay said.
That philosophy extends beyond Chávez students to the school’s staff. His leadership model is built on listening to what teachers and staff say they need, including increased opportunities for professional development and clear pathways into leadership positions.
“My goal is for everyone, students and staff, to leave this school better than when they arrived,” Sanjay said.
The Bigger Picture
Sanjay is also clear-eyed about the challenges facing charter leaders right now.
“Money is always an issue,” Sanjay said. “Enrollment is also a major concern as birth rates continue to drop and we see fewer and fewer students each year.”
Still, Sanjay believes the answer isn’t to compete by turning up the competition with other charter schools. His philosophy is to attract students and families by doing this work so well that the choice becomes obvious.
Sanjay also leans on his community.
He sits on the executive committee of the DC Charter School Alliance. Sanjay also credits Greenhouse E3 for providing structured support from other charter leaders across the nation and helping him think through challenges, while D.C.-based Empower K-12 has been an invaluable resource for professional development support by providing district staff with data tools and training opportunities.
His mentor — Peter Anderson, Head of Schools at Washington Latin — is a fellow charter leader in the city. Sanjay strongly believes the charter movement rises and falls together.
“I feel very lucky to be in a very strong ecosystem,” he said.
The Long Game
As Chávez approaches its 30th year, the milestone is less a moment to rest on the school’s laurels and more an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to the future.
“The mission was never just to get students into college,” Sanjay said. “It’s to get them to and through college, so they have a better chance to become the people they always had it in them to be.”
He’s been in that work for two decades now, and his proudest moments involve bringing former students back into the fold.
“I’ve had the privilege of hiring former students as teachers, as social workers, as attorneys,” Sanjay said.
The students he helped get through the door are now holding it open for others.
The team at CharterFolk acknowledges current news reports about the school’s namesake and that many schools across the country are currently grappling with this concern. César Chávez Public Charter School for Public Policy issued the following statement in response to recent news reports regarding César Chávez’s relationship with underage minors and women:
“The news reports about César Chávez and his abuse of women and underage minors are deeply shocking and incredibly disappointing. The Board will thoughtfully consider changing the name of César Chávez Public Charter School for Public Policy, and will engage in discussions grounded in our values and commitment to students and families.”