Riverside High School teacher only one from El Paso selected to serve on task force

EL PASO, Texas - Sergio Estrada is one of 24 Texas teachers selected to join the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Teacher Vacancy Task Force.

The task force is comprised of 26 teachers and 26 school system administrators charged with identifying solutions and address the current school staffing challenges facing the state.

Estrada is the only teacher from El Paso to serve on the task force. He is a physics/chemistry/engineering teacher at Riverside High School. He has received many recognitions throughout his career including the 2021 Ernest and Sarah Butler Award for Excellence in Science Teaching from the Texas Medical Association, and the Yale University Educator award in 2017.

He says he includes incorporating music, video, labs and writing assignments to reach students with different learning styles. Estrada says he connects science to everyday life, for example he showed his students how he received second-degree burns after using a metal spatula to make spaghetti.

Estrada also helps students find summer internships to expose them to careers in science.