During National Principals Month, AFSA highlights the achievements of individual school principals who make us proud each and every day of the year.
Principal and union president Elda Perez-Mejia’s story is closely tied to that of her mother, Irene Perez. After emigrating from Cuba with only a second-grade education, Irene homeschooled Elda using National Geographic. Formal schooling was expected to cover only the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Once children mastered those skills, they were expected to return home and help with the ranching duties.
When Irene came to the United States, she enrolled her son in Yonkers Public Schools. But without much English, the little boy did not thrive, so she moved him to Catholic school. Later, she would enroll her daughter there, too.
To cover the modest tuition, Irene asked her husband, Emigdio, to take another job, but he reminded her that he already had two. When they fled Cuba, carrying 1-year-old Elda in their arms, Emigdio and Irene had only the clothes on their backs. Everything they had worked for had been taken from them. But Emigdio’s work ethic was so extraordinary that an admiring Portuguese neighbor soon sold him a multifamily home on exceptionally favorable terms.
The Perez family made a couple of trips back to Cuba. Elda went once with her mother and once with her father. Conditions there were so harsh, especially for her mother’s cattle-ranching family, that Elda was never inclined to return. Sadly, Elda’s father died when she was 15.
At Catholic school, Elda proved to be a quick learner with a gift for foreign languages. She soon spoke English, Spanish and Portuguese and began picking up Italian and French. She says, “Maybe it was all that Latin in Catholic school.”
In 1993, she graduated from Pace University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She later earned a master’s degree in bilingual education from Long Island University and a master’s degree in administration and supervision from Fordham University.
“I graduated on a Saturday and started teaching the following Monday,” she says with a laugh.
A substitute teaching job quickly turned into a full-time position teaching kindergarten and first grade. Eventually, she taught fourth grade. In all, she taught for about nine years and says, “I loved being with kids and seeing them ‘get it.’”
By then, District Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio had taken an interest in her and appointed her the first Reading First bilingual literacy coach for the Hudson Valley Regional School Support Center. She says, “It took me out of the classroom, but it was a great experience because I got to work with people from all over the Hudson Valley.”
Although she had never planned to become an administrator, Elda soon discovered that Superintendent Pierorazio had tapped her to become assistant director of bilingual education, English language learners and languages other than English (LOTE) for Yonkers Public Schools. Among other things, she provided regional Reading First professional development for the Lower Hudson Valley, developed LOTE program management guidelines and wrote a Foreign Language Assistance Program grant for summer Arabic and Mandarin language instruction.
“I loved helping kids who came from an immigrant background,” she says. “Until recently, I believed this was the land of opportunity where your dreams come true. It’s hard to believe what has happened here.”
That belief remained strong when Elda was named principal of Eugenio Maria de Hostos MicroSociety School, which serves students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. She says, “I’d never even been an AP, but Superintendent Pierorazio said I’d already proven I could run three programs at once by myself, so running a school was something he believed I could do.”
Hostos was on the verge of a state takeover, but the school turned things around. Later, U.S. News & World Report called Hostos one of the top five schools in Yonkers. She says, “But I had a lot of teachers who did a lot of work.”
During that period, she attended Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Leadership: An Evolving Vision program and calls it “a phenomenal experience with educators from everywhere where learning global education was incredibly informative.”
Perhaps Elda Perez-Mejia’s crowning achievement came 14 years later, when she became the founding principal of Sonia Sotomayor Community School, where she continues to serve. In addition to developing the school’s vision and mission statements, hiring staff and opening a school-based community clinic, she is developing a true dual-language program with an emphasis on social justice. The students are predominantly Latino and come from many countries.
Justice Sotomayor visited the school for its inauguration, one of the most memorable experiences of Elda’s life, because she deeply admires Sotomayor’s work.
While building her career, Elda became the mother of four children and also became president of the Yonkers Council of Administrators, Local 8, AFSA. As with many local presidents, she took on the role almost by default.
“Being unionized is super-important, especially now when we’re at a dangerous stage, being told to do more with less,” she says. “The burnout is terrible. For instance, in my school there’s just one AP with about 650 students and close to 100 staff members.”
Elda has brought unity to the union and established a retiree chapter. She emphasizes the importance of joining AFSA because “it is an organization that holds tremendous value in a country that has defunded public education. We learn from each other that the same problems exist everywhere, in urban, suburban and rural districts. And everywhere there is a lack of respect for who we are and what we do. It’s even worse because the current administration is dissolving the Department of Education.”
Elda is an AFSA vice president and a member of its General Executive Board. She adds, “It’s very rewarding to learn from and befriend administrators from across the country.”
She also serves on the executive board of the School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS). Needless to say, she has received numerous honors and awards.
When she is not working, Elda enjoys traveling with her family and spending time with their mostly grown children, Steven, Jaylene, Jaelle and Jessie.
Reflecting on how she raised her children while working full time as a teacher and administrator, she says, “I don’t know how I’d have managed without my mother.”
Irene Perez was a constant source of support and inspiration for Elda.
