At lunchtime, you can find the man students call 'Mr. Martin' roaming the cafeteria at River Trails Elementary in HEB ISD with a broom and dustbin, doling out affirmations and lessons.
"Hello Champion Girls," Martin Arreguin said with a smile to a table of students. "Eating good. Awesome! How about you guys? You want to be a Champion Boy?"
"He calls them Champion Boys and Champion Girls because they can rise to a level beyond what they think," Principal Keri Bartlett said. "We consider him one of the teachers. The kids do, too."
At the start of the school year, school counselor Molly Hinojoza captured a photo of Arreguin teaching a new pre-k student the ways of school lunch.
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"He was teaching him how to open his lunch," Hinojoza said. "These are skills that you wouldn't even think about teaching, especially in the classroom."
Arreguin works out of a custodian closet, not a classroom, but his teachings are no less important.
"Custodians are the heartbeat of the campus," Hinojoza said.
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"He teaches us to clean up and he keeps us safe," 1st grader Rawley White said.
Arreguin has been at the school since it opened 2 decades ago.
"They make my day every day, the kids," Arreguin said. "Working with the kids, they remind me that I'm here for them."
