Willow Glen Resident

Education

Galarza Hammer chief fits the role

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Even amid the glitz and glamour of nearby tinsletown, Susana Paredes never lost her focus.

The new principal at Galarza Elementary Hammer Montessori School grew up in the Lincoln Heights district of Los Angeles.

"I wanted to be a movie star, be on stage," Paredes says. Instead, she hit the books.

"My parents really believed in the power of education," she says. "My mother, Anita Ornelas, never finished school, so she saw education as a way for us to change our lives."

So when her elementary school teachers told her she couldn't speak Spanish anymore, Paredes' parents agreed.

"There was no bilingual education at that time," she says. "If you spoke Spanish at home, you weren't allowed to speak it at school because at that time it was believed that it would make learning difficult."

The language barrier was Paredes' first hurdle. Distance was the next.

"Growing up, the distance between our home and our schools was a challenge," she says. "We walked to school, so we would have to get up an hour early in order to make it on time."

The daily ritual became just another part of living in the sprawling Southern California city.

By the time she was in high school, cheerleading, drama and a part-time after-school job were all part of her daily routine.

Paredes, although a good student, didn't think much about life after high school until one teacher during her senior year changed that.

"Mr. Shapiro took the time to get to know me and get me on the right path toward college," she says. "I had four older sisters growing up, and two of them went to college but had really high grades and got in on academic scholarships. My grades were high but not as high as theirs, so I didn't think scholarships were an option."

Shapiro helped changed her mind.

"I called him a merchant of hope," Paredes says. "He looked at me and saw something different. He told me I could do more than just graduate from high school and get a job."

Invigorated and encouraged, Paredes applied to San Jose State University and was accepted.

She spent two years there, but her father, Ignacio Ornelas, fell ill battling cancer, and she moved back home to Southern California to be with him.

Ornelas died in 1978 and Paredes took a break from school for 16 weeks and traveled throughout Europe.

She returned home and moved back to Northern California where she earned her bachelor's degree in humanities from Santa Clara University, then her teaching credential from San Jose State University.

She taught part time at the Alum Rock Unified School District until 1989. Then she pursued a law degree from Monterey College of Law and received her degree in 1994. For the next three years she worked for the Legal Aid Society of Santa Clara County.

In 1998 she returned to teaching, this time as a resource teacher for the San Jose Unified School District at Almaden Elementary and Hacienda Environmental Science Magnet School.

After prompting from a fellow educator, Paredes decided to make the jump from teacher to principal.

"This is my first principalship," she says.

The differences between being an educator and being an administrator are not as great as she first thought.

"As a teacher, you are looking at your class and how to move them forward," Paredes says. "As a principal, you're looking at the whole school and trying to provide a sound educational experience."