Meet Mr. Peres: Q&A with East’s new principal

Current Blue Valley Southwest Associate Principal Jason Peres was announced as East’s principal for the 2021-2022 school year in an email sent to East families on April 26. Peres has two Bachelor degrees from Emporia State University and a masters in education from Baker University. Get to know more about Peres in the Q&A below.

What made you interested in education?

“I would say that I’ve kind of found my way into education. I started off in college as a psychology major, and I’ve always had a fascination and interest in people. I also had a love of history at the time, and I still do, obviously. And because I love just being around people and learning about people I really gravitated to the School of Education at Emporia State, which was an excellent program — a nationally-known program. I just thought, ‘Hey, maybe I should just take a look at this’ and then the more I got into it, the more I just realized it was a great fit for me. 

So, like all kids growing up, I played in school. I played in school with my friends, I played in school with my sibling, and I always found myself being the strategist when it came to playing games with friends and I was always trying to work with people and organize things. And lo and behold, those skills suited me well to be a teacher. But I’ll tell you, I really wasn’t 100% sure if it was for me until I started student teaching. I went through all those programs, and I thought, ‘Hey, this should be fun. I love working with people. I love this content. Let’s try it out.’ When I student taught I absolutely fell in love and I knew 100% that it was the right position for me. 

There’s just something about being connected to young people. Young people are always filled with hope, and they always believe something better is out there and it is just exciting to be around that mentality all the time. Since I came into education 20 years ago, I’ve never looked back. I’m excited to drive to work every single day, I stay late, I just enjoy it. It’s hard to call it a job, and it’s more than a career, it’s just kind of a passion. People who say they are career educators, it’s really a passion — just to surround yourself with young people who are exuberant and filled with hope and promise, it’s just an energizing and fun career. So that’s why I say I kind of found myself in it. I just felt like it was a good choice and that was 100% confirmed when I student taught and then when I had my own classroom, I was just rewarded every single day.”

When you’re not at school, what do you enjoy doing?

“I was very fortunate enough several years ago to meet and fall in love with my wife who is amazing and a teacher herself. So, even in my free time, we sit and talk about teaching and education and kids. We theorize and strategize how to reach kids and make a difference. It’s just kind of who we are and what we do, so to get away from it is difficult because it is to our core — lifetime educators. 

If I am not talking about education with my wife, we are probably talking about our three boys — a sixth grader, a fourth grader and a first grader. We spend our time taking them to soccer practices, swim lessons, swim team, basketball, wrestling — our boys are pretty active, and they’re great students as well. We really do a lot of family time together — we enjoy taking a summer road trip every summer. And we’re campers, so we like to go to the mountains and camp and hike and spend our time in the outdoors. Now, keep in mind I’m with an educator the whole time, so we’re still talking about teaching the whole time, but it’s a great time to disconnect. We turn our electronic devices in, our boys don’t take electronic devices and we just kind of reconnect to the family, so I try to spend as much time with my wife and my family as possible. 

I have a great circle of friends, and we try to have outings where we get together with them routinely but, to be honest with you, all my friends are teachers as well. So even when my friends get together, we’re still talking about teaching the whole time.”

What have been some of your greatest accomplishments at Blue Valley Southwest?

“I’m not great at talking about myself. If I had to think of accomplishments, I think my accomplishments here would be that I’ve made great relationships with all the teachers here, with the community, with the parents and with kids. I think my greatest accomplishment is — I hope that — the kids here respect me and like me being around and see me as approachable. To me, those would be my greatest accomplishments.”

Why did you accept the position as East’s new principal?

“I was really attracted to Shawnee Mission East because I think it’s everything that I envision a high performing school to be — there’s a tremendous amount of community support at Shawnee Mission East. There’s a tremendous amount of pride and tradition. Generation after generation have sent their kids there and entrusted their kids to a school system, especially in East, that just churns out quality talent. 

Personally, I want to be the best at all that I do and I always do the best that I can do, and to just be part of Shawnee Mission East, I feel like I’m joining the best and now I’m part of the best, and I can make a massive difference there. I think everybody, in the end, wants their life to make a difference. For me right now, I feel that a head principal role’s where I can have the greatest impact on a community and making a difference in that regard feels really good and I think it jazzes me up quite a bit. I get pretty excited about it, and to me that’s going to sustain me and give me drive in the many years to come.”

What are some of your goals as East’s new principal?

“As a new principal, my goal is to continue the standard of excellence that Shawnee Mission East has always had. Also, my goal is to, as quickly as possible, develop relationships with the teachers, staff, students and the community. That is not an easy feat because there’s nearly 1,800 kids in the school, which means that many families. I think that’s going to take a tremendous effort, but to me, it’s really important with the way that the community supports Shawnee Mission East — it’s really important that that community, the kids and the staff, really get to know me well and I get to know them. Nothing great is ever possible without a strong community relationship and that’s just the way it is. And if we can’t do that, we’re gonna struggle.”

What are you most looking forward to at East?

“I am most looking forward to starting a normal traditional school year, and I just want to get back to doing school as quickly as we can. I just think COVID has come in, and it has been a game-changer for us and it’s changed how we do business — it’s changed how we’ve approached things. It has created some tools that we probably haven’t utilized in the past, and I think I’m excited to use those tools. But if we can just get back to doing high school the way high school has always been done, and get back to our traditions and the way we spend time together as a community-family, those are the things I really want to do and I hope kids want to do that also. I think our teachers and staff and parents want the same thing.”