Riverside County names first 2025 Educator of the Year in surprise visit to PSUSD
Riverside County Superintendent of Schools named its first Educator of the Year in a surprise visit to the Palm Springs Unified School District on Thursday morning.
Erika Barragan, PSUSD's executive assistant, was named the Confidential Employee of the Year. This honor is awarded to one out of nearly 400 confidential employees each year.
Barragan has worked at PSUSD since 2021 where she collaborates and communicates with various people within the district and superintendent's office, along with community organizations, state agencies, the board of education, district staff and more.
Barragan is from Coachella Valley, graduated from Palm Springs High School and calls herself a "product of the district."
"Being able to give back to the community after all these years, and them giving to me, it’s just amazing to be able to be recognized for something like that," she said.
Barragan continued that being from the Valley has grown her interest in children's education and working on different initiatives, like Assembly Bill 275.
With her leadership on the districts implementation of the bill, Barragan helped student board members receive stipends for their work and hopes to continue aiding in the implementation of other initiatives through her work at the district.
"Just working on those initiatives is really, really exciting for me," she said. "So, any way that I could support the community, I'm so happy to do it."
Palm Springs USD Superintendent Tony Signoret said Barragan's work is important to the district, but even more she is the personification of professionalism and has a heart of gold.
"When anybody needs to communicate with the superintendent's office, she is not only just a confidential employee that's an executive assistant, she is a true leader of Palm Springs Unified," Signoret said.
The Riverside County Educators of the Year are selected from the over 40,000 educational employees in the county and its Office of Superintendent of Schools will make six more surprise visits to honorees throughout January and early February.