CURRENT POSITION Librarian, Buell Central DAEP High School, Pharr, TX DEGREE MLS, Sam Houston State University, 2014 FAST FACT Martinez became obsessed with dinosaurs as a child and still learns about them. FOLLOW psjaisd.us/departments/special-purpose-high-schools/buell-central-daep Photo by PSJA ISD PR Department

People & Plants Thriving

School librarian Linda Martinez serves three libraries in Texas’s Pharr–San Juan–Alamo Independent School District: Pathways Toward Independence (PTI), a program for adults with special needs; PSJA College Career and Technology Academy (CCTA), which serves adults returning to education; and Buell Central DAEP, which students with behavioral challenges attend until they are readmitted to their regular schools. It’s a testament to her work that a student who was recently leaving Buell for her “real” school was asked when she would be back. “The answer was supposed to be, ‘I won’t be back,’” laughs Martinez, “but this student loves it here and wants to return!” Martinez was warned that Buell kids would be tough and was nervous about the job, but says, “It’s becoming my favorite. I have the attitude that grownups mess up all the time, kids should be allowed to as well.” 

Nominator Karina Quilantan-Garza, library media specialist at Jaime Escalante Middle School, praises her ability to equip students with practical, entrepreneurial knowledge—such as the plant wall that Martinez designed for PTI using an Eco Rise grant for sustainable projects. “I’m a plant lady, and when I get a new library I make it my own,” she says. Although PTI is housed in a former Walmart and has no windows, Martinez, inspired by an interior decorator on TV, designed a structure to house plants that would thrive in artificial light. Students tend the plants, then sell them in coffee mugs donated by the community.