Gabrielle Brown
Greensboro, N.C. - If ABC’s hit show Abbott Elementary was real, Saletta Ureña would be Janine Teagues.
Just like Janine’s move to “The District” in the show, Saletta also transitioned to working at the Guilford County Schools (GCS) central office, serving as a Jeanes Fellow through the Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity. The Flood Center says that the program is “designed to provide consistent and intentional infrastructure to support community-school relationships using an equity lens.”
According to the Flood Center, the initiative, named after Anna Jeanes, a Quaker who started a $1 million endowment in 1907 to help bring Black teachers into Black schools in the South, the program says it reimagines the 20th-century approach to create an ethic of care for students and communities and respond to systemic issues of recruiting and retaining teachers of color. “When GCS offered the Jeanes Fellowship and hired a veteran teacher, they really leaned into design theory - allowing the folks closest to the concern to have the agency to resolve it. And I, ever the teacher, set out to reimagine curriculum,” Ureña said.
During her time at the district office on Eugene Street, Saletta coordinated cultural experiences for district leaders and students. One of her initiatives included arranging a field trip for students who attend the Sylvia Mendez Newcomers School to visit the Charlotte Hawkins Museum. The trip was a culmination of a social studies unit she created for elementary and middle school students in the district designed to give students more knowledge about the history of education in our area, develop stronger critical thinking skills, exhibit increased historical empathy, display higher levels of tolerance, and have a greater taste for consuming historical realities and different cultures. Creating the unit was no small task, Ureña learned firsthand about the symphony of steps required at the district level to make one trip happen. She even learned how to drive a school bus and earned her Commercial Driver's License to ensure students could make the trip.
The motto of the Jeanes Fellowship is for fellows to do ‘The Next Needed Thing.’ For Saletta, that meant returning to the classroom after her time as a fellow. This decision was rooted in her belief that Guilford County Schools is a district where educators can make a lasting impact. “There is no better place to make a difference than in the classroom,” Ureña says. “GCS offers the opportunity to connect with students and help them build a future full of promise.”
Saletta’s love for education began long before she entered the classroom as a teacher more than 20 years ago. From an early age, she recognized the value of language and storytelling, and as she pursued her own education, her focus on literacy and cultural heritage grew. Ureña’s commitment to education led her to pursue opportunities to advance her knowledge and impact including the National Education Association, North Carolina Association of Educators and Guilford County Association of Educators, just to name a few.
Ureña’s return to teaching comes at a time when the importance of literacy is more significant than ever. As an English teacher at Kiser Middle School, she’s meeting students at a transformative time in their lives. In the classroom, she leads by following her church’s motto of ‘Everybody is Somebody.’ Her lessons focus on helping her students develop not just reading and writing skills, but also a deeper understanding of their own stories and histories. Ureña’s passion for connecting literacy with cultural heritage aligns perfectly with the district’s broader mission of providing students with the tools they need for success. “Literacy is the foundation for all learning,” Ureña explains. “When students can read and write effectively, they have the power to think critically, to ask questions, and to write their own story.”
