North Clackamas Schools Welcome Orlando Perez To School Board

Press release from North Clackamas Schools:

May 20, 2021

Between raising a family, working as a pediatric nurse, serving on the board at a child abuse intervention center, and volunteering at Scouters Elementary School, Orlando Perez has built his life around helping children.

If that weren’t enough, Perez added school board member to the list after being elected to the North Clackamas Schools Board of Directors in May.

It all stems from what Perez likes to call having a “heart for children.”

“Whatever I can do to help children not only succeed and thrive academically, but also to help children feel loved, supported, respected, and accepted, that’s what drives me,” Perez said.

Long before Perez and his wife, Priscilla, even decided to have children, they discovered that taking an active role at their school would be a priority for both of them if they did end up starting a family. So, when their eldest, Sophia, entered kindergarten at Scouters Mountain five years, they wasted no time getting involved.

“We were able to align our work schedules so that when she’s working, I’d be at school and when I’m working, she’s at school,” Perez said. “That’s how we’ve done it every year and that’s what led to being on the board. It was because I started helping out in the classroom.”

As Sophia, 9, and Ethan, 7, have grown, so has Perez’s commitment to NCSD. He became active with the Scouters Mountain Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in his second year, eventually serving as treasurer and president. Since then, he’s participated in the Parent Community Leadership Alliance, volunteered on the 2016 Capital Bond and 2018 Local Option Levy campaigns, and served on the NCSD Community Bond Oversight Committee.

A native of upstate New York, Perez began his career as a Medical Service Specialist in the United States Air Force. After leaving the military in 1992, he earned a nursing degree from SUNY Buffalo.

Perez moved to the Portland area around 2000 and received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Portland State in 2005, but eventually opted to return to nursing. For the past four and a half years, he has worked in pediatrics at Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland. Earlier this year, he joined the board of directors at the Children’s Center, a child abuse intervention organization in Oregon City.

Perez said that he will take a collaborative approach when it comes to working with the board and engaging the community to solve problems. He hopes the hallmark of his tenure will be encouraging families, businesses, and individuals to get involved at schools and to unite behind the district in support of legislative changes, like more stable state funding. Doing that, in turn, will be critical to achieving any of his specific goals, which include boosting mental health support for students and reducing class sizes.

“One person can’t do everything, but everyone can do something,” Perez said. “Everyone brings something to the table. I hope to bring my skill set to the table so that we can form a village. One of my goals is to help everybody see that we have to get together to have an impact.”

This press release was produced by North Clackamas Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.