Edwin Diaz looks to start job in Pasadena after six years
serving as city’s top school official
Gilroy – Edwin Diaz, a native Gilroyan who started his education career as a local high school teacher and eventually became the city’s top school official, may soon become head of the Pasadena Unified School District.
A six-person delegation of mayors and school board members from Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre – the three cities that make up the Southern California school district – visited Gilroy Monday to learn more about Diaz, who has served as superintendent of the Gilroy Unified School District since 2000.
They spoke with a group of district administrators, parents, principals, teachers and union representatives as part of the last phase of the hiring process. Diaz is the top finalist for the Pasadena superintendent job and expects to learn within days if he has been selected. If so, Diaz said he could leave as early as March for the new job, though no firm date has been chosen.
“Having three mayors come is significant,” Diaz said. “I think there’s a realization there that improvement of the school district is a community endeavor, that in order to have healthy communities, you need to have strong schools.”
Diaz said it is difficult to leave Gilroy, but that it’s a professional opportunity he couldn’t pass up. The Pasadena school district is double the size of GUSD, with 22,000 students and 33 schools, four of them high schools. The district’s enrollment is 55 percent Hispanic, 25 percent black and 15 percent white.
“This is a chance to meet the needs of a diverse population,” he said, “and balance an approach of neighborhood schools and magnet schools in a larger urban setting, where there appears to be an opportunity of generating support from the broader community for the public schools.”
When Diaz arrived in Gilroy, the district was in turmoil. Student performance was poor and declining, parent involvement was low and there was genuine unrest among the staff. Diaz is credited for stabilizing the district and improving performance, in part by standardizing teaching methods across the district.
His efforts inspired a mixed reaction at home, especially among teachers, but have placed him among a constellation of rising stars in the world of education. In 2005, he figured prominently in a story on the Gilroy education system in a high-profile trade journal called Education Week.
The article focused on a program Diaz introduced in which teachers visited each other’s classrooms and regularly assessed student performance through testing. After test scores reached a plateau in 2003, Diaz released the reins a bit and allowed teachers and schools to exercise some creativity in improving scores. Instead of dictating from the top-down, he used results to gauge progress and ensure accountability.
Instruction isn’t the only area where Diaz left his mark.
“As a superintendent, he had to work on a lot of different areas,” said Michelle Nelson, head of the Gilroy Teacher’s Association. “I don’t know if you would say if his focus was on one area. He had to look at facilities, at compensation, at student achievement, and he tried to implement an accountability system.”
Nelson gave Diaz an “A-/B+” for his six-year tenure. He lost points for failing to bring teacher compensation up to par with surrounding school districts, but Nelson readily pointed out that he was not solely responsible for such decisions. She worried that his departure could handicap the school district as it seeks to keep classrooms from over-flowing.
“There are some major concerns going forward,” she said. “More homes being constructed without room for the incoming students. … This will be difficult to do without him.”
The issue of school facility financing was thrust into the spotlight in recent months as GUSD battled Glen Loma Corporation over the value of a school site in the developer’s 1,693-home housing project slated for southwest Gilroy.
The $10.8 million the district has tentatively agreed to pay for the nine acres will balloon the $12 million deficit on a second high school planned for northwest Gilroy.
In what could be one of his last public appearances on behalf of the school district, Diaz was scheduled to appear before city council Monday night to deliver a legal opinion on how the school district and City Hall can work together to force developers to do more for the educational system. Diaz would not disclose the details of that opinion, but he said it addresses a state law prohibiting the city from imposing fees on developers to finance school facilities.
“There are two things I’m keenly aware of that I would like to bring closure to,” Diaz said. “One is (the growth issue), and two is that if I do leave, I’d like to make recommendations that put to rest concerns about the development of Christopher High School. Frankly, I would like to be around for the completion of that school. It’s something that really tugs at my heart.”
The decision to leave was not easy for other reasons as well. Diaz was raised in Gilroy, graduated from GHS and got his first job in education at the school 31 years ago as a social science teacher and football coach.
He returned to the city six and a half years ago after working as an assistant superintendent in San Jose’s Oak Grove School District.
His two daughters are now out of the house – one teaches in the Oak Grove system and a second recently started as a student at Bethany College in West Virginia.
“All of us had mixed feelings about leaving,” Diaz said. “We’re very close as a family, and our extended family is here and that was a huge consideration. … One of our considerations was whether or not, before we retire, we want to live in another city. Our home base will always be in Gilroy, and we plan on retiring here.”
The announcement of his possible departure came as a surprise – but not a complete shock – to GUSD board members.
“For the last couple of years there have been rumors, and he certainly is a valuable commodity,” said outgoing board member Jim Rogers. “Edwin’s in prime time. He’s in his early ’50s, he’s had some success, and he’s certainly known all over California. … I endorse his work and I obviously think it’s going to be big shoes to fill.”
For the moment, the GUSD board does not have a plan to replace Diaz, said Rogers. They plan to meet in coming weeks if he gets the job in Pasadena.
