Carlos J. Ortega-Maes retired from the Albuquerque Public Schools in 2019 after 27 years as a classroom teacher, bilingual resource teacher, bilingual education program coordinator, parent liaison, instructional team leader, governance council member, and an intervention and peer support teacher. 1992-2000 he taught at Truman Middle School level, grade sixth grade Spanish, Math in Spanish and bilingual Life Science. 2000-2006 Carlos transferred to Washington Middle School to coordinate the fledgling dual language immersion program. He and many outstanding classroom teachers designed and developed Spanish content classes, professional development and collaboration across languages. 2006-2011 Carlos split his contract between Washington Middle and Albuquerque High Schools in order to bridge dual language programming between schools. 2011-present He returned to the middle level to be an intervention and peer support teacher in the School Improvement Grant at Ernie Pyle M. S. 2010-present Carlos has been seeking a Masters degree at the University of New Mexico. He will apply to the Educational Leadership Program for the purpose of pursuing his dream of helping to recover and revitalize his heritage language, one of several New Mexican variations of Spanish. Carlos waited five years to utilize his 2005 Milken Award for his graduate degree. He feels much gratitude toward the Foundation for giving him the opportunities to further his studies in a field he loves.
