Manuel Colon
Manuel Colon served as the Chief Academic Officer for the Anaheim Union High School District in Anaheim, CA. With a distinguished career in education, Manuel held key roles including Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services and Principal at Savanna High School and Sycamore Junior High School within the same district. He was also an ACSA Certified Coach and served as an AVID Regional Coordinator for the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
With professional experiences spanning San Jose, Baldwin Park, Anaheim, and Los Angeles County, Manuel is driven by a commitment to transformative education and meaningful impact. This dedication stems from a belief in the importance of educational work and the urgency of addressing current challenges. Manuel emphasizes the importance of focusing on controllable factors, advocating for change, and modeling desired behaviors.
Manuel hopes to foster meaningful dialogues that support school leaders in transforming education for all students. In his view, the most rewarding role in education is that of a teacher, finding joy in those moments when students experience enlightening breakthroughs. He encourages patience, intentionality, and kindness in supporting others.
Manuel’s Story
Manuel Colón, the third oldest of seven children, was born in Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico. His father was a car washer at a car dealership, and his mom was a homemaker who later worked as a childcare aide for adult education. While Spanish was spoken at home, the kids learned English at school and spoke it with each other. Manuel came to the US at the age of four when his family immigrated to San Fernando Valley. They initially came to visit their ill grandmother, ended up staying, and later moved to Norwalk where their other grandmother lived.
When Manuel entered kindergarten as an English learner, there was no support for ELs—it was sink or swim. He remembers that his teacher spoke only English, and he sat at the back of the room for at least two years until he learned English. It wasn’t until 4th grade that he felt normal and really part of the educational system. He says, “I experienced a lot of racism. In the late 70s and early 80s, we were one of the first Latino families in the neighborhood and I was frequently bullied. I never had a favorite teacher or one that inspired me. This is the reason why I became a teacher. I wanted to become the teacher I never had.”
There were very low expectations at his high school and no expectations of college. His older brother applied to college without their parents knowing and got accepted to UC Santa Cruz. His parents told him he couldn’t go, but he went anyway, and the family was devastated. Manuel recalls that his brother was very courageous. “His actions changed the trajectory of my entire family, and he helped me apply to college.”
Manuel was also accepted at UC Santa Cruz, and his high school counselor called him into his office to tell him that he shouldn’t go because he was unprepared and advised him to go to community college instead—advice that Manuel ignored. He was only one of four students at his school who got accepted to a four-year college, but all his siblings went on to college; one has a Ph.D., five have a master’s, one has a bachelor’s, and one has an associate’s degree. Today Manuel has a B.A. in Language and Culture from UCSC, an M.A. in Education from Stanford, an M.A. in Administration from UCLA, a teaching credential (single subject Spanish and a supplemental in ESL), and a clear administrative credential.
His first teaching job was at Campbell UHSD in San José, teaching high school Spanish for Spanish Speakers, AP Literature and Language, ELD, and AVID. After getting married, he moved to Southern California and taught the same subjects in the Anaheim UHSD. He later became a teacher on loan to the Los Angeles County Office of Education where he was a program specialist to support the expansion of the AVID program across LA County. He then became the Vice Principal at Sierra Vista High School in Baldwin Park USD before returning to AUHSD as the principal at Sycamore JHS, where he started a dual language program. He has also served as principal at Savanna High School, the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, and Chief Academic Officer until he retired in 2022. Today, he works part-time with Inflexion, an educational non-profit, as the chief program officer, coaching principals and working with schools and districts in transformative schooling.
Manuel met his wife Mélida at UCSC. She is half Salvadoreña, half Nicaragüense, and works as a Family and Community Engagement Specialist in AUHSD. They have been married 30 years and have two children, Brisa (24), a news reporter at KSBW in Monterey/Salinas, and Aharón (22), a recent CSU Fullerton graduate who will be attending UC Santa Barbara next year pursuing an M.A .and teaching credential in History. They have two rescue dogs, Cinco (so named because he was rescued on 5/5/2015) and Melo (short for Caramelo, which was also his son’s nickname when he was young). In his free time, Manuel loves gardening, driving an old ’89 Mercedes convertible, going to estate sales, and collecting old and rare books.
