With work employment location never straying from the area, Dr. Salvador Torres, the new principal, is welcomed to the campus. He discusses his visions for the school and shares a bit about his background. Upon the retirement of the previous principal during the last semester emotions were all over the place; however, this semester curiosity and excitement built up while Torres showed up ready for the adventure ahead.
Through the commotion of a new principal, Magaly Guzman, ASB vice-president, said, “I’m excited to welcome the new principal Dr. Salvador Torres.” Guzman continues to mention how she and the rest of the student body will have to get used to seeing a new face as the principal. Despite the excitement, Guzman expresses worry in getting things approved for students now that Torres will come into a new setting of dealing with high school. She said, “I don’t want to research too much on him because I don’t want to get misinformed. I want a clean start when he comes into MACES.”
Ms. Carmona, an assistant principal, reveals that she knew Torres before his transfer. “I was working with him at Nimitz and he was doing the job I do here.” When prompted to describe Torres in one adjective, Ms. Carmona replied saying he was purposeful. “He’s purposeful in what he does and there’s a reason why he’s doing what he’s doing.” She shared that she was looking forward to the new ideas Torres would bring to campus. “He will bring a breath of fresh air to the campus.”
Torres reveals that he grew up in the City of South Gate and attended South Gate High School before continuing to work in the area. “I wanted to not go so far and I think Maywood was close enough and was in the community where I used to work.” He claims that the move from South Gate Middle School to MACES was one of personal achievement, wanting to go to that next level and lead high school for a change. Torres states that along with his greatest achievement of earning a doctorate in educational leadership at USC, earning this new leadership role at MACES is also a great achievement.
Moving forward, Torres hopes to improve the SBAC scores by encouraging students to be proud of their achievements and accomplishments. “We’re really good at getting students to college, but when you look at the SBAC scores, we’re not doing great.” Essentially, Torres wants students to be ready for college academically, not just get there. Torres states that working with teachers to solve any issues is the way things are supposed to be handled. While he hopes to eventually leave an impact and make some changes, Torres wants to finish the current school year how Mr. Duran intended to. “My goal is to drive the bus to the finish line while not messing it up. Just like finishing Duran’s job.”
During his tenure, Torres wants to leave an impact on students to be motivated for themselves. He hopes that he’s able to teach students how to motivate themselves in order to succeed and do more than just getting to college. With that, Torres leaves on an end note of, “Coming to MACES was like coming home.”
Under the new changes MACES is experiencing, one thing is certain: MACES will continue to grow under the new leadership and will grow as much as it’s able to thanks to the fresh perspective Torres brings. He only wishes the best for MACES, and whatever he does, his one wish is to leave a lasting positive impact on the students and campus.
