Homegrown help
District looks within to fill principal slots
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — The word “homegrown” has a new meaning in the Gadsden Elementary School District.
Two schools in San Luis have new principals and a new assistant principal, all of whom joined the district as teachers and worked their way up through the ranks.
But Marcia Camacho, Omar Duron and Luis Reyes haven’t just taught in the district that covers the Arizona border city and neighboring Gadsden.
Years ago, they attended and graduated from its schools.
Camacho, a 13-year employee of the district, was teaching at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Luis when she was picked as principal of Ed Pastor Elementary School.
Duron has spend 12 years in the district, seven as a teacher followed by five as a professional de-
velopment coordinator. He becomes principal at Southwest Junior High School, where he’ll be joined by Luis Reyes, who becomes the school’s assistant principal after having taught nine years in the district.
Having gone away to college, all three came back to San Luis, dedicating their entire teaching careers to the Gadsden district.
At a time when many schools recruit educators from out of district and out of town, the Gadsden school board president Luis Marquez says he’s happy his district can fill administrative posts with people who have deep roots in the community.
“It’s a pleasure to be able to give opportunities to talent from within the district, and even more so when we know they were students in our schools,” he said. “With them, the district will continue succeeding academically.”
Camacho, who worked at Cesar Chavez as a reading interventionist as well as a teacher, succeeds Abby Pemberton, who has become curriculum director in the Crane Elementary School District in Yuma.
Camacho figures to be taking the helm at Ed Pastor at a pivotal moment, “for the fact that (it) was recently enlarged and several teachers and many of the students are new.
“The challenge will be to bring about a program for discipline, so that we’re all on the same page in the school,” she added.
Camacho says returning to the district, first as a teacher and then as a principal, allows her to give back to San Luis. “This is my community, and I’m here to serve it. We want to give the best that we can for the community.”
Duron succeeds as principal Jose Urena, who left Southwest for an education position in Imperial County.
“This school is highly praised,” Duron said, “and I want to make sure that we continue on that path as a school recognized by Johns Hopkins University as one of the top 10 in the world.”
Duron was referring to the university’s Center for Talented Youth, a program that offers collegelevel summer classes to academically gifted junior high and high school students around the nation and world. To qualify for the classes, the students have to pass the same entrance exams that would normally be given to someone seeking admission to a college or university
For two consecutive years, the test scores achieved by Southwest students collectively ranked in the top 10 among those of schools around the world whose students also sought to take the Johns Hopkins classes.
Reyes, who most recently taught at Desert View Elementary School in San Luis, said he shares Duron’s commitment to retaining that academic ranking.