Wichita school board members approved a name for a new elementary school. The school will be built at 3361 N. Arkansas at the site of the former Arkansas Avenue School.
Board members approved the name recommended by a committee.
The new school will be called Martin Ortiz Elementary.
Ortiz was born in Wichita in 1919. He was the oldest of 12 children. At the age of 13, during the Great Depression, Ortiz ran away from home in search of work.
He returned to Wichita when he was 16 and graduated from North High School. He was the first Hispanic to serve as student council president.
Ortiz went on to Whittier College after serving in the Marines during World War II.
He worked for the east Los Angeles YMCA as a youth director, earned a masters degree, and founded the Center of Mexican-American Affairs at Whittier to provide support for Hispanic students.
