Reflections in Education

Marty Pérez

Growing up in Klamath Falls, Marty Pérez didn’t see his bicultural family reflected in the teachers that served in his schools. His father is Mexican, and his mother is Modoc of the Klamath Tribes. After transferring to the University of Oregon, he declared a business administration major before realizing that “almost nobody looked like me in business school.” That realization prompted his switch to a Spanish Literature major and set him on the path towards becoming a teacher.

He decided to go into the Sapsik’ʷałá program because as he says, “during my K-12 experience, I never had anybody that looked like me and that was of the same background as me. I never had that experience of having somebody that was culturally and linguistically diverse, that was able to, just by their mere existence, reflect me. And I knew after hearing about the Sapsik’ʷałá program, that it was a program that was going to make monumental changes here in Oregon and across the nation. And I wanted to be part of that. I’m full of gratitude for the program and how there were not only financial supports, but also a structure in place for me to be a strong Indigenous educator. I’m committed to the Sapsik’ʷałá vision and mission that I accepted way back in 2008. And here it is 2020, and I’m still very committed to giving back to Indigenous populations.”

Marty has since spent over ten years teaching Spanish language and literature in Alaska and Portland. During that time, he served on the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) in 2014 and on the Governor’s Council on Educator Advancement in 2016-2017. He began to think about pursuing an administrator license, “I definitely need to be at the discussion table where they’re discussing systemic changes. And that was part of the fuel to seek an administrative career. I just knew that being in the classroom, I only had impact on my caseload. And sometimes I wanted to think, not only on the micro level, but the macro level of how do I, or how can I, progress in this career to make those macro systemic changes?” He earned his Administrator License in 2019 and is now the Assistant Principal of Sam Case Elementary in Newport, Oregon.

He’s excited to serve his new community in Newport, which is near the tribal lands of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and the Grand Ronde, and speaks as well to his Latino background, “ We have a lot of Indigenous youth in this school district as well, and an Indigenous Guatemalan population that I feel are our Indigenous brothers and sisters.” During the pandemic, the school has taken a growth mindset that remote education has given them opportunities to be creative and invest time in making their curriculum even stronger. Looking to the future, Marty hopes to grow into a role as a principal or superintendent. He hopes he can be an inspiration to young Indigenous students. “I think, you know, the world has this way of sending you as a soldier to places that need you and I’ve felt like every place I’ve been at, every school that I’ve taught at, every person that I’ve met during my career needed me and I needed them. They have impact and influence on the person I am today. And I think it’s interesting to know that we have Sapsik’ʷałá graduates that have been uniquely placed throughout the nation. I think it’s because we needed them just as much as they needed us.”

“And who knows, maybe somebody that sees this story goes back to school to become an educator, because I think now is the time, more than any other time, for us to have educators of color in the classroom.”