I was born into a Mexican-American farm-working family, where work began before dawn and usually lasted from eight to ten hours. From those rows of crops, I learned about hard work, discipline, and the value of an education. By taking regular vacations to Mexico to visit family where my parents were born, I learned to appreciate all Mexico had to offer and blend it with my American persona. Later, in the Marine Corps Reserves, I carried that same ethic and resolve and learned about their motto, Semper Fidelis, or "Always Faithful." It embodies honor, courage, and commitment and represents a lifelong commitment to the Corps, to fellow Marines, and to the United States. These memories, lessons, and love of family and friends instilled an unwavering fidelity and formed my highest moral priorities that have guided my conduct ever since.
While attending college, helping others became my passion and I relished every position which included that responsibility. First in retail management then for American Airlines. For over 35 years, I enjoyed helping coworkers learn and advance, and after retiring I earned state and district-level distinctions teaching students at Dallas ISD. See Educator Certificate.
When recruited by Dallas ISD, I shared my family’s story of humble beginnings to the scholastic success of my parents’ nine children. I gained acceptance to MIT but due to insufficient financial aid, I was unable to attend. But later, two younger siblings learned to overcome this challenge and earned bachelor’s degrees from Stanford, one from Santa Clara, and one earned a master’s degree from Harvard. In total, eight earned bachelor’s degrees and three earned Master’s. When interviewed by Quintanilla’s principal, she explained she was seeking accomplished Hispanic, male role models who could relate to and inspire students to reach their highest potential, and she immediately offered me a contract to help turn the campus around.
My first year assignment was to teach math and I encountered antiquated teaching methods, lack of student motivation, and student disciplinary problems. I observed that Dallas ISD administrators valued grades more than students valued learning, and classroom success was being measured less by genuine comprehension and more by statistical appearance. Too often, administrative discussions revolved around optics, adjustable scores and pass rates and performance metrics rather than actual student growth or joy in discovery, and the District would do whatever they could to reflect the desired statistics without regard to whether the students actually learned anything.
My second year began with a new principal who initiated major improvements and I was encouraged to introduce technology to get students to reawaken their curiosity and enjoy learning once again, to make learning something they pursued for themselves, not just for a grade. By 2017, Class ACP math results rose by 16%, STAAR math scores by 27 points, and by 2018 increased by 157 points, while the District’s two-year gain equaled only 37 points. The adoption of technology reached a 95% student personalized learning completion level using iPads and approximately 25% were regularly completing additional online assignments each cycle. As a Pre-AP math teacher, I increased 2018 class enrollment by 31% by accepting lesser qualified students and reached an overall ACP 73% passing level, with the originally qualified students attaining an ACP 90% passing level.
In 2019, I was offered the challenge of modernizing the Health Education curriculum. I rewrote the curriculum to also maximize student technology use and increased class sizes by 31%.
In 2020 and 2021, I was offered new opportunities to create campus curriculums for CTE College and Career Readiness and Investigating Careers classes. I was awarded an $11,500 grant by the District to modernize the classroom and I incorporated multiple technological improvements including simultaneous interpretation tools for Spanish speakers learning English, to better understand the daily lessons.
I am proud that I was able to help transform Quintanilla MS from a failing campus to an A-rated campus; of the praise from students, parents, fellow teachers and administrators; and the recognition as being exemplary by the District and state. I was trying to be the kind of teacher every parent hoped for. While I was never the most popular teacher, I was happy that my classroom had become a small sanctuary, a place where children felt safe. Some students would come for tutoring, others for a quiet place to enjoy their lunch, and some just to relax. One young lady enjoyed writing poetry during lunch and eventually shared them with me. She eventually gave me permission to have her English teacher proofread them and allow me to have them printed as a small colorful book. See Poems. Afterwards, I shared a copy with Quintanilla’s principal and he informed me he shared it with a magnate high school principal who offered her an early admission slot. A few years later, I did something similar for a gentleman with special needs who liked to draw. See Book of Art.
Like many teachers, I often spent my personal time and money to give my students the best learning experience possible. While teaching my third course, I taught remotely from a hospital bed during COVID for six weeks while recuperating attached to an oxygen tank, and while managing blood cancer. I thought this dedication, commitment, and record was what every school district wanted. I was wrong. For some Dallas ISD leaders, it seemed the color of your skin matters more.
On any given day, every educator may have to make moral decisions on how far they are
willing to go to protect their students and coworkers. April 8, 2022 turned out to be mine.
At the end of that day, I was forced to defend my conduct from vague innuendo by the
principal. See
PSO Email. Unbeknownst to me at that time, my quest for honesty, transparency, compliance, due
process, oversight, and accountability in public education governance had begun. Soon after
that date, I also discovered that standing up for integrity could come at the cost of
everything I had done for the District and more.