Most public school students return to classrooms the Thursday after Labor Day. But for hundreds of thousands of charter school students, class is already in session. 

That includes the city's second-largest network, KIPP NYC, serving 8,000 students across 18 schools. Students arrived at KIPP STAR College Prep Middle School Monday morning in Harlem for their first day of class, greeted by a brand new principal.

What You Need To Know

  • Carol Martinez's children attended KIPP NYC middle schools — and then, she got a job for the charter network

  • Now, 23 years after her children attended, she's the principal of a KIPP middle school in Harlem

  • KIPP students headed back to her school on Monday, like at many charters, earlier than traditional public school students

“It was so exciting to see the students come in, ready to learn, in uniform, and just all the smiles this morning. They came in with their parents, parents were taking photos. It's just, it's just been amazing this morning,” principal Carol Martinez said.

Martinez is new to the role of principal, but not to KIPP. Her own children, now grown up, attended KIPP middle schools more than two decades ago. When they had moved on to high school, KIPP was hiring.

“My daughter was like, 'Mom, you will be so good for KIPP.' And at the time, I was working in law enforcement, I was working for the Department of Probation, and I just thought about it — I was like, 'I'd rather be proactive than reactive.' So I just took the leap,” she said.

Martinez joined the charter network and served as a teacher, director of operations, dean of students, assistant principal, and now, as principal.

“I love serving children, and children of color in particular,” she told NY1. "So I knew if I can be supportive, proactive, be very involved in a school, my kids and every other child would be successful. So that's exactly why I did that. And I wasn't scared to make the career change, because I really always wanted to impact lives.”

Several of the staffers working for her at KIPP Star were her students over the years, including social worker Lisanna Florencio.

“She was actually my dean throughout the four years here. And she definitely pushed me to the extreme limit just in like, behavior-wise and just getting my act together. I would not be the woman I am if she wasn't a part of my life,” Florencio said.

Alicia Johnson, the chief executive officer of KIPP NYC, was an adviser to Martinez’s children back when they were in school.

"We've both been here at KIPP together for a long time. She's an extraordinary parent, and she has been an absolutely just dynamic and beloved member of our team,” Johnson said.

Martinez says even after 15 years at KIPP, it was the first role, as a parent, that remains most important. 

“I'm a parent first, so when I look at my students, I look at them as if they're my own kids,” she said. “Every one of those kids belong to me.”