Rita Quintero is the first person students see when they’re in
trouble. But after they’ve received their punishments, she’s the
person who gives them encouraging words as they head back to
class.
Gilroy – Rita Quintero is the first person students see when they’re in trouble. But after they’ve received their punishments, she’s the person who gives them encouraging words as they head back to class.
“I always wish them a nice afternoon,” she said. “We have that rapport because I respect them as people.”
This fall, troubled students sent to the Gilroy High School discipline office will no longer glimpse Quintero’s familiar face, encircled by student portraits plastered on the walls and ceiling. After 32 years in education and 28 years with the Gilroy Unified School District and the high school, the 54-year-old bid goodbye Aug. 3.
While students might remember her as the disciplinarian, former high school administrators remembered her “poise” and “efficiency” as a support to fellow administrators.
“She trained us all,” said Linda Piceno, retired assistant superintendent of human resources and high school dean of students from 1982 to 1983.
“When I came in, I was extremely novice in terms of operations of a high school,” said Greg Camacho-Light, assistant principal from 2005 to 2007. “Having an efficient person to work with helped me out immensely so that I was able to slip into what was ongoing and still be able to look at things critically.”
Quintero spent most of the school day in what equated to the high school’s control room. On one side were file cabinets stuffed with student records. On the other side were two computer screens, a telephone that rang often, and a walkie-talkie that continually blared with static and administrators’ communications.
In the middle sat a large screen hooked up to a joystick and the more than a dozen surveillance cameras spotted throughout the campus. Quintero, who sported jeans and a Beatles T-shirt, beamed as she showed off the different patterns of zooming and panning she had put together.
“She’s like the air traffic controller,” Piceno said.
“She is really one of the greatest multi-taskers I ever knew,” said Bob Bravo, high school assistant principal from 1996 to 2000 and principal from 2002 to 2005.
Personal computers and surveillance systems were a relatively recent part of Quintero’s job. When Quintero started at the high school in 1979, discipline reports and attendance were recorded on 10-by-12-inch cards that were kept in massive file cabinets.
While technology has streamlined filing and communication between high school staff, it also brought new challenges, Quintero said.
“The students seem to have a real addiction to the cell phones and iPods,” she said. “We just ask them to turn them off and put them away (but) it seems like it’s very difficult for students to do that.”
Regardless of evolving challenges, Quintero – who moved to Gilroy because the homes were affordable and started work at the schools because it gave her the same schedule as her children – looks back fondly on her years as an educator.
“I was able to work with something that was interesting and had a wide variety of tasks to do and at the same time raise a family and have a home that I’m very pleased with,” she said. “And now I’m looking forward to the next facet of my life.”
This next stage starts with a trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, with her husband in September and to Europe in a few years. She also plans to put her new 122-piece tool set, miter saw and drill to use on home improvement projects. She will also spend time with her 33-year-old daughter, 30-year-old son and their four children.
Though she welcomes retirement, there are downsides to leaving the high school, Quintero said.
“I will miss the people the most – the people I’ve worked with, the kids that I’ve gotten to know,” she said. “I hope that I’ve been a good support to them all these years.”
