Ten Minutes With Tipton: Burton School District’s Irene Ortega
10 Minutes with Tipton originated in January 2022 on the Education Page. Students in the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program at Tipton Elementary School take time to Zoom with individuals in the community to ask them questions about their jobs, lives and strategies they can use in their own lives to help them become college and career ready.
When did you begin your career? Can you provide us with a career history?
“I’ve been here at Burton for six years. Before that, I was at PC (Porterville College) for about four years. I started off as a part-time employee placing students to work with Calworks with the Tulare County Welfare Department. I would do workshops and help students create resumes, place them to work and provide workshops on dressing for success. I was then asked to be the CTE Coordinator. I worked with the fire, police, business, and nursing academies. I oversaw those departments and put on workshops and created brochures and helped with grants.
I had a friend at Burton who knew I was looking for a transition. They said they were looking for someone who could help with communications. I have zero background in communications. The superintendent was great! I got to be involved in a ton of things and learn a lot. I got to be involved and gained experience and was able to add tools to my tool belt. I then transitioned from secretary to communications. I have worked for four years in communication, but I have been in the district for six years.”
What do you dislike about your career?
“Social media makes my job difficult. I would say what’s really hard is when you have to send out information to parents about events that aren’t always positive such as Tiktok challenges. Some of these challenges that kids think are fun like destroying bathrooms.
When we were in the pandemic, that was really difficult. Sometimes the district has to make really hard decisions, but it’s always for the safety of everyone.”
Would you encourage others to pursue your career?
“Yes. I would say it’s never boring. Every day is a new day, I think what I love about my job too is that I still get to work with our kids.
We have some great programs at our schools. I wish I could go back to school. I think you guys have some really cool things happening we didn’t have — ipads, Academies — all of these really cool things happening to help you look at careers and opportunities.
In this job, you still get to enjoy being with students. You get to be creative and make cool videos. It’s so neat to hear teachers say they love their jobs and students get to say they love being at school. It’s so fun videoing students. Students can be so funny and their answers are creative and some say some hilarious things. It’s so great to be able to go to the school site and see all of the great things that are happening. I love to be able to share a look at all of the things our schools are doing and what we get to be a part of. It makes me proud of Burton.
I’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things being in my position — I got to ride in a Black Hawk helicopter. I get to be on different committees and learn how different organizations work like Family Crisis Center works and be a part of Leadership Porterville just to name a few. I get to be a part of the community while serving the district, so I love that as well.”
What advice do you have for young people who might be pursuing your line of work?
“I would definitely try to do an internship, or get work experience and see if it’s something you like. You have to love people to be in my kind of position. We work with parents, and people in the community, so if you enjoy being in the community and being involved then this position is for you.
I actually wanted to go into human resources where you hire people and do staff relations, but I was never given the opportunity to do work experience/ job shadow, so when I’d apply they’d say you really don’t have any experience. So, I found myself going in a different direction with my degree. Do a job shadow. Public relations people love to share and we love when people ask to come by and job shadow. Don’t be afraid to ask!”
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
“I love Burton, I see myself here! I love communications and being able to partner and be involved in my community. I’ve also had the opportunity to work in CTE recently and love it. I love CTE because it is such a rewarding area of work. I look forward to seeing our district grow and continue to provide opportunities to our families to learn and grow with us!”
Anything else you would like to add? (Maybe a current, or past project you’re proud of?)
“One of my past projects when we were rebranding (changing the logo and changing the look of Burton), we made a magazine that highlighted people in our district. We got an award, got in the newspaper and I was really proud of that project. We were asked to come and speak about it at a conference. It took us three years to complete it. I was really proud of our communication team. By getting into CTE now, I am really excited about what we can do for our students at Summit Collegiate (High School) and providing different opportunities through CTE.”
Can you provide us with some of your district’s statistics? Number of students Number of schools
About 4,800 students; 243 teachers; over 500 employees; the district covers nine square miles.
Six elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school.
What programs/opportunities make your district unique?
“We have a dual immersion program — one dual immersion program at the Matthew campus that is 90 percent Spanish, 10 percent English. The other two programs at Jim Maples Academy and Oak Grove Elementary and they are doing 50 percent Spanish, and 50 percent English and they just started their second year.
We have Leader in Me programs in our district elementary schools and one middle school, which is based off of Stephen Covey’s book (“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”) and it’s about students learning the characteristics of building leadership and life skills in students, creates a high-trust school culture, and lays the foundation for sustained academic achievement.
Two of our charter schools have the International Baccalaureate program. This program teaches students how to be good future leaders. They do projects by taking on a real-world problem and finding a solution for them. Students take ownership of their learning to deepen understanding and increase their confidence and self-motivation.
Another special thing we have is that four of our schools are charter schools and what that means is our charter schools can accept anyone from anywhere, they do not have boundaries. We accept students from throughout Tulare County. Our other 5 schools are district schools. They do have boundaries, to determine depending where you live what school is your home school.
Another special program we have at our high school is our early college program where students can graduate with their A.A. from PC before they graduate from high school.
Our district also has Capturing Kids Hearts. Capturing Kids Hearts is a training all of our staff attends to learn how to communicate and create relationships with students. We have been recognized as a national district for Capturing Kids Hearts. We also have several school sites that are Apple Distinguished schools. Burton has lots to offer students, staff and families!”
Wendy Davila is in the sixth grade and enjoys playing football and volleyball. Yeraldine Loza is in the seventh grade and enjoys playing volleyball. Both are students at Tipton Elementary School in the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program.