 In 1992, Quezada was elected as the President of the Board of Education, and was the first Latina to hold that position.As president, she recruited teachers from Mexico to make up for a shortage of bilingual teachers.She led the board through some of its most chaotic years, which included a battle against state school vouchers (Proposition 174), teacher strikes, attempts to break up the district, a controversial redistricting effort that ensured greater Latino representation on the board at the expense of the San Fernando Valley, and $700 million in damage to district facilities caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.