April 27, 2006

More than a janitor

Guadalupe holds ‘Hooray for Mr. Tony Day!’ for employee of the year

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff Writer

It seems like just another day for janitor Tony Perez as he walks into the Guadalupe Elementary school cafeteria to fix the microphone for an event. No one told Perez the event was for him.

The school’s staff and students consider the 53-year-old Tony Perez more than just a janitor. Here, Perez poses with some students’ mothers.

After 24 years of work at Guadalupe Elementary, it is now his day, “Mr. Tony Day.” Teachers and students are applauding him for being recognized by the California School Employees Association as the Classified Employee of the Year.

The school’s staff and students consider the 53-year-old union local president more than just a janitor. He greets kids with smiles everyday and tells those having a bad day “you’ll be alright.” Some forme students come back to visit the man who was able to reach them when others couldn’t.

One of those kids is Matt Ginsley. Before he became a pilot in the Navy stationed in Iraq, he was a student at Guadalupe Elementary who wanted to be an astronaut. Ginsley watched the Challenger space shuttle crash on TV in his class, which was a devastating event for him. Perez saw Ginsley in the office and said “let me talk to him.” The two went for a walk and Perez made it clear that you should never give up on your dreams.

“I told him that when you have a dream, you don’t stop, you go all the way,” Perez said.

Ginsley is still pursuing his dream of becoming an astronaut and he wants Perez to be there the first time he sits on the launch pad. He’s already come back to visit Perez and taken him up in an airplane to show Perez what he’s learned as a pilot. Even though Perez is scared of heights, he was impressed.

Perez’s love for his students extends to all those around him in the district. As the Classified Staff Employees Association union local president, he represents every classified staff person equally, even when it’s obvious that they aren’t serious about their job and they know they are making serious mistakes.

“If you have a grievance filed, Tony is there, right or wrong,” said third grade teacher Linda Garner. “He’s very selfless.”

Perez’s life hasn’t been easy. The positive mental attitude he encourages was a necessity when he was diagnosed with leukemia 14 years ago. Leukemia is rare for an adult, but because of the district’s union-won benefits, he was able to receive a $300,000 bone marrow transplant at Stanford Hospital. When people ask him what the union has done for him, he tells them it saved his life.

And maybe the kids at Guadalupe had a hand in it too. During his six-month treatment, he walked out of his hospital room to find a group of the students with heir heads shaved to look like Perez as he went through chemotherapy. And his brother, one of his nine siblings, donated the marrow that saved his life. Perez looked at the ruby red marrow before it was injected into his veins and marveled at how it only took a handful to save his life.

Perez had to work hard to get better. He had a stationary bicycle in his room at the hospital and the doctors would have to pry him off it to get their check-ups done. Perez hasn’t forgotten his lessons about sickness and he still passes these lessons on to other leukemia patients on annual visits to Stanford hospital.

When asked why he was never a teacher, Perez said he wanted to be a coach, but the economic problems of his large family kept that from happening. He was on the track team at Lincoln High School and San Jose City College during the time of San Jose State University’s Olympic runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Perez had the opportunity to coach track to students at Guadalupe Elementary and that’s been enough for him, he said.

Photos by Daniel DeBolt

Perez grew up in San Jose. His mother worked at the Del Monte Cannery in San Jose, and his father was a landscaper. His parents’ ardent unionism was passed onto him and he was soon a supporter of the United Farm and Commercial Workers union during the time of Cesar Chavez. He proudly shared a story about how he went into a Safeway grocery store with a group of people to confront the store manager about their sale of non-union grapes. The manager called security to escort them from the store.

Perez is still very concerned about issues that effect unions today, such as outsourcing labor to other countries where workers can be paid less. At the district and everywhere else, every right and benefit workers enjoy had to be struggled for, he said. And he doesn’t hesitate to educate his fellow workers about unions, said Donna D’arcy, assistant administrator for special education at the Union School District.

Even though Perez lives an hour and a half away in Los Banos, his heart is at Guadalupe Elementary and the district. If there is ever an event or meeting on the weekend he has to attend, he doesn’t hesitate to drive back to San Jose, D’arcy said.

When a teacher needs something, Perez is always there, Garner said. And they say he is awesome with the kids, year after year they come back to visit him.

One thing those students never forget is the ice cream coupons he would give to them. A student who returned in his mid-20s told Perez he still had his coupons, and he wasn’t planning to redeem them anytime soon. They were now a precious a memory to keep.

Perez will be receiving the award from the Classified Staff Employees Association in August. He was selected from a pool of candidates from all over the state.

“It’s a well deserved honor,” Garner said. “He exemplifies the spirit of this award.”