Romeoville Grad Loves Teaching at Martinez Middle School

Submitted by Valley View School District 365U

Kim Perry isn’t afraid to experience new things.

After all, the first-year Martinez Middle School science teacher has been on quite a journey since graduating from Romeoville High School. But she says that journey has provided the framework to help her be the best teacher and mom she can be.

“I really love this school,” Perry said. “Knowing the kids are the focus is exciting. And I love coming in every day knowing I am with like-minded colleagues who want to help each student.”

Perry moved to Bolingbrook when she was in 3rd grade, attending Independence Elementary School and Jane Addams Middle School. She was among the Bolingbrook students who were bused to RHS before the new Bolingbrook High School was built.

Originally, she thought she wanted to be a nurse/midwife helping to deliver babies but her grandmother and her guidance counselor helped steer her in another direction.

“I worked for the Bolingbrook Park District since I was 16. I was teaching everything,” Perry recalled. “My grandmother said when you don’t have that outlet with kids, what are you going to do?”

Her first thought was teaching kindergarten, but when her guidance counselor set her up with some classroom observations at Jane Addams, “I realized middle school was where I belong.”

After obtaining her Bachelor’s Degree in middle school education from Illinois State University, Perry headed to Pennsylvania when she ran a day care operation for three years. When she moved back to this area, she landed a job teaching 6th and 8th grade science, social studies and language arts at Ira Jones Middle School in Plainfield.

Eight years later, “it was time for a change” so she joined the Bolingbrook Park District aquatic staff on a full time basis.

“It was the right position at the right time,” she said. “But I missed the kids so much.”

Last summer, after two years with the Park District, Perry heard about the teaching position at Martinez from her mom, Candace, who is a special education teacher at the Romeoville middle school. In August, her life came full circle back to the school district in which she grew up.

“It’s pretty awesome working in the same school as my mom,” she said. “Not that we weren’t close before but it’s a new understanding of who we are.”

Perry is delighted to be at Martinez.

“I follow the ISU motto: Teach and Learn. That’s pretty much what my whole life has been. I never stop learning,” she said. “That was a big part of my coming back to teaching…experiencing everything I have experienced and not being afraid to move ahead.”