CCAISD Assistant Principal Keith Reyes
Photo by Becky Brewster
By Becky Brewster
Dr. Keith Reyes comes to CCAISD from El Paso via Washington State. He is well-qualified academically to face the challenges of this newly created position: He has a doctorate in educational leadership from Washington State University, a Masters in Sociology from the University of Texas El Paso, and Bachelors from Howard Payne University. Reyes has taught sociology, ethnic studies, and Chicano studies courses for the last six years at a community college in Washington State, taught for one year at the University of Texas El Paso, and taught for four years at various grade levels in the K-12 system in Texas.
When asked, “Why Van Horn?” Reyes responded, “That’s a great question.” “I’m still asking myself that.” He attributes everything to God’s plan and purpose for his life. Reyes indicated that although he had been in higher education for the last 7 years, he thought that after completing his degree he could now take everything he’d gleaned over the last 11 years and “from a comprehensive and really holistic view, integrate everything he’d learned in the post-secondary level and try to implement it in some way or try to put it into practice in some way that its meaningful to children, (like he once was), which was a socio-economically disadvantaged Mexican-American, racial minority, raised in a single parent household with a pretty toxic family environment from which very few people… are able to escape.” Born in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso, Reyes thinks one of the things that helped him was the educational system which helped him realize that there is a life that’s worth living. He wants to make a difference on behalf of all the children that are like him…so he is trying to “save myself over and over and over again, and as many of ‘myselves’ as I possibly can from a future that I was actually headed toward.”
Reyes comes to Van Horn with his wife of nine years, Eileen, and their 17-month old son Ian Zachary. He noted that his wife will be staying home with their son, but stated “That’s everything to be honest… she’s holding us all together.”
When asked what he hoped to accomplish while at CCAISD, Reyes enthused, “I’m hoping to make a difference in the lives of the students here. I want to provide the children here with a quality of instruction and a quality education I know I was afforded and in that and through that be able to give them an opportunity for a better life for themselves and for their families. And that’s a mission!” Reyes wants everyone to know that he is “here on behalf of the community… and is … going to advocate for the greatest quality of instruction these children can receive and that they deserve.”
Great introduction for CCAISD Assistant Principal Keith Reyes…Is going to be a great year for Van Horn… 🙂