S.J. educator Bill Toledo retiring after 45-year career

There’s a good chance that if you attended school in Stockton and Lodi over the past 45 years, you’ve probably crossed paths with Bill Toledo.

A gentle and kind man with a warm presence has quite the legacy, considering he’s been working in education for almost a half-century.

Serving the past seven of those years as director of the Child Welfare and Attendance department of the Lodi Unified School District, he’s not one that is necessarily comfortable with a lot of attention. Although it’s hard to go anywhere around town without being recognized by any number of former students, many now with kids of their own.

Toledo is set to retire on June 22, and while speaking from his office in the outskirts of west Lodi, he said he has mixed feelings about the end of his working career. But, he said, it finally feels right.

“I’ve set forth to retire three separate times, I’ve always thought ‘I’m not ready;’ I think I’m ready now,” Toledo said.

Toledo, 68, originally made his way to Stockton in 1968 from Azusa, a town northeast of Los Angeles, on a football scholarship to University of the Pacific.

Working directly in education was not a career that Toledo had thought he would take up; he enjoyed being around young people and shaping them to be the best people and athletes they possibly could be. At Pacific, he earned several degrees in psychology, physical education and counseling.

In 1973, while in a program at Pacific that assisted in earning teaching credentials, Toledo got a call from a former Tigers football coach who had moved to Franklin High School about an open teaching position, made available by someone on maternity leave.

“In those days, you could arrange things like that,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a little bit different now.”

He took the offer at Franklin High and aside from coaching, taught Spanish and history for a year. Toledo caught wind of a counselor opening at a high school in Hollister, and wound up spending a decade there, working his way up to vice principal.

Toledo then came back to Stockton in 1984 to become vice principal at Lincoln High School. From there, he served as vice principal at Sierra Middle School and principal at Sture Larsson High School, with a second stint at Lincoln High.

It wasn’t until 1996 when Toledo said he sought out a career change to venture into a new field: business. But a year removed was enough time for him to realize, he said, that education was his calling.

“It was what I enjoyed doing,” he said, and he came back to take head administration jobs at Lodi High, Bear Creek High and Plaza Robles High until 2013, when he took over the Child Welfare and Attendance department.

Toledo and his team of nine attendance advisers worked to improve school attendance rates and overall school climate while keeping an eye on the 32,000 children enrolled in Lodi Unified, especially those who are chronically absent.

“Kids always come first,” Toledo said. “Policies and (regulations) are made to govern kids, but I think it’s got to be more of a learning process for them rather than just a consequence.”

Lodi Unified Superintendent Cathy Nichols-Washer said the community has been fortunate to have Toledo serve in the district.

“Lodi Unified greatly appreciates Mr. Toledo for the many years of service he has provided to students, parents, and staff. He is an outstanding administrator and a wonderful person,” she said. “Mr. Toledo has a heart for students and has worked hard to make sure that all students have every opportunity possible to succeed.”

Bear Creek High Principal Hillary Harrell added: “Few educators are as well-regarded as Mr. Toledo. He is a man of great integrity and he is known throughout the Bear Creek community as someone who cares deeply for all students. He will be missed.”

Toledo said the district, which has schools from north Stockton to Acampo, is seeing steady increases in student attendance and expulsion rates trending down.

When asked what he’s most proud of during his years in the department, he highlighted the push in reintroducing an attendance review board, in which parents come to a hearing once a child has reached a certain level of attendance violations to find solutions and be reinstated in the classroom.

“It may seem negative, but it’s a real proactive state that we’re holding parents accountable,” Toledo said. “There’s not a 6-, 7- or 8-year-old that doesn’t want to go to school. In most cases, it’s the parents that are not making the effort to get them there. It’s not the most positive thing I’ve implemented, but a very needed process.”

Current Bear Creek High Vice Principal Allen Dosty is set to take Toledo’s place as director, and Toledo has all the confidence in the world that the district can further develop alternative solutions to keep kids in school.

Once his retirement is official, Toledo said he’s most looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Claudia Toledo, their 10-year-old son Joseph, two adult children and his five grandchildren. He said he has no desire to return to Southern California.

“I want to rekindle old friendships with some of colleagues who have retired and spend more time with my grandkids,” he said. “It’s been a long career, I really don’t think there was any other field I would’ve wanted to go into. I never regretted going into the decision to go into education.

“It’s been a good, good career ... a wonderful career.”