If Linda Piceno had a uniform, the school district would be
hoisting her jersey to the rafters.
Gilroy – If Linda Piceno had a uniform, the school district would be hoisting her jersey to the rafters.
After 32 years in Gilroy Unified School District education, the 55-year-old known for her advocacy for underprivileged children’s education and love of baseball hung up her cleats Friday. Piceno – a former teacher, assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent – has been a source of honest, constructive feedback to students and peers, colleagues said.
“I think she has a real good balance of being sympathetic and empathetic with folks, but being decisive and having high expectations,” said Edwin Diaz, former district superintendent. Diaz started with Piceno at Gilroy High School in 1975. “It’s rare that you can have somebody who can balance those two attributes.”
Piceno spent four years as a teacher, a job to which she aspired since sixth grade, before becoming a counselor in 1979. In 1982, she became high school dean of students and began a career as an administrator that included 12 years at the helm of elementary and middle schools.
In 2002, Piceno became assistant superintendent of human resources, where she finished her career. The position did not allow daily contact with children, but her work focused on them, said John Perales, principal of South Valley Middle School.
“With her, it’s always about kids,” he said. “In all of her daily decisions, it always connected back to ‘How does it impact the kid?’ Period.”
In particular, Piceno had a soft spot for the underdog.
“My motivation throughout all of this has been wanting to be involved in the education of underachieving kids who also happened to be poor,” she said. “I’m always looking out for those that need the extra help.”
Piceno’s childhood shaped this leaning. Born to a father with a sixth-grade education who left when she was 5 and a mother with a second-grade education who picked crops and raised four children, Piceno was first in her family to earn a college diploma.
As an educator, Piceno strove to hone her craft for the benefit of children. As assistant superintendent, she helped teachers do the same.
“That’s always the goal, to improve staff and have the best performing staff that you can,” she said. This includes “having the courage to tell people that their performance is not up to standard and helping them get their performance up to standard.”
With a spate of new district hires, Piceno saw this summer as the perfect time to relinquish her job to a new person. However, she predicts finding staff will be difficult in the future. Heightened federal requirements for teachers and waning student interest in teaching has created a shortage of quality candidates that will grow in the coming years, Piceno said.
“We’re going to have the perfect storm,” she said.
Piceno will not be leaving the district stranded. In addition to reviving her vegetable garden, attending San Francisco Giants games and working on Habitat for Humanity projects, she wants to continue to help district families, counseling single mothers. Retirement, like her career, will be focused on fulfillment, Piceno said.
“You retire, you don’t change who you are,” she said.
