Edwin Diaz, former Gilroy superintendent of six years and garlic
city native announced his retirement Thursday and said he will be
moving back to his hometown this summer.
Edwin Diaz, former Gilroy superintendent of six years and garlic city native announced his retirement Thursday and said he will be moving back to his hometown this summer.
Diaz, who has been serving as the superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District since 2007, will resign at the end of the current school year from a district that encompasses 19,000 students, according to a press release.
“We’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of months,” he said Thursday over the phone. “It’s really around wanting to have a different lifestyle.”
Diaz, who suffered a stroke in July 2009, mentioned he wanted to focus on balance and health.
Diaz has a home in Gilroy and said being close to his family – especially since he became a grandfather about a month ago – has made the decision to come back “all that easier.”
He said in “all likelihood,” he’ll be moving back home.
His resignation will go into effect Aug. 2, after a run at PUSD in which Diaz was recently named administrator of the year by the Association of California School Administrators in Region XV, according to a press release.
“Being a superintendent in any district is difficult,” he said Thursday. “In a larger urban environment it needs to be your No. 1 priority. It requires time, passion and commitment to getting the job done. So after being a superintendent for 11 years, and working at a number of districts, now is the time for us to do something different.”
Diaz said he’s about “90 percent sure” he’ll retire, and said if he can possibly find a position in Gilroy that allows the balance he is seeking, he would consider it.
“I will still be involved in some way in public education in California, and still contribute in a way that I think could be helpful,” he said.
