Leading the way to improve learning and teaching conditions
A veteran classroom teacher with 30 years in the classroom, Sergio Martinez comes from a migrant family and currently teaches at Sparks Elementary in the Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District in Los Angeles County.
His third term on the CTA Board of Directors runs from June 26, 2020 to June 25, 2023. He represents educators in eastern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County on the CTA Board.
His union activism with CTA runs deep. He is a past president and vice president of the Hacienda-La Puente Teachers Association, an affiliate of CTA, and is currently the National Education Association director for District 13 in California. He was a longtime delegate to the CTA State Council of Education, where he chaired the Hispanic Caucus for five years and was co-chair twice of the Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee. He also served as a state and local delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly.
Born in Mexico, Martinez grew up with a firsthand knowledge of hard work as he picked crops with his family in California’s fields through his high school years. His father died when he was 9 and his mother had to raise eight children, who worked the fields to help the family make ends meet.
Martinez earned a bachelor’s degree and his teaching credential at California State University-Chico, and earned a counseling and administrator credential from the University of La Verne in Los Angeles County.
Raised in Northern California, he now lives in Norwalk.
