Now that San Benito High School’s 2013 graduation ceremony is over, Juan Robledo will be packing up 38 years worth of history. He has formal portraits of himself with each year’s president and vice president of the Associated Student Body lining the walls of his classroom, dating back almost two decades.
“This morning was my last class,” he said on June 12, of his last ASB session, “twenty-one years making the school a little nicer place. Many programs have been able to make the school more caring.”
He noted all the school activities the ASB club has ushered onto campus in his tenure, from the Linkcrew programs that connect incoming freshman to senior mentors to the annual benefit ball and drive that raised money for a classmate suffering from leukemia.
Robledo is quick to note that his students put on all the events and activities, from raising more than $23,000 for classmate Diana Magana before she died of leukemia in 2012 to hosting less serious activities such as the Air Jams lip synching competition. He said he is just an observer.
“I’ve really enjoyed being at the high school,” Robledo said. “It is difficult to see my career come to an end.”
He does have plans after graduation, starting with coming back to campus in August to oversee the Linkcrew orientation program for incoming freshman. He said he hopes to run for school board in 2014. And he will be a phone call away for Spanish teacher Catalina Lemos, who will take over as ASB advisor in the fall.
Lemos herself had Robledo as a teacher when she studied Spanish at San Benito High School. She has been shadowing Robledo this year as she prepares to take over ASB.
“The thing that impressed me most when I would shadow him is how amazing the students are,” she said. “I think that is a reflection of the planning he has done and the programs he has created. He really lets them learn on their own and figure it out, but he’s obviously there for support and I would like to continue with that.”
Many of his current students talked about how Robledo, who taught for one year at Gonzalez High School before settling at SBHS for the rest of his career, say he has had a knack for motivating them.
“He’s really involved and likes to motivate people to do their best,” said Harli Haworth, the senior class coordinator. “He makes you feel like you matter.”
Haworth said her favorite ASB activity of the year was putting on a convention for incoming ASB candidates.
“The high school will miss him because he is a very important and loving person,” Haworth said. “He’s the best there is.”
Bella Diaz, the ASB president, and Claire Genesy, the ASB vice president, both said Robledo went above and beyond his duties.
“It’s not just the leadership class, but he takes it outside and shows how to be leaders outside the classroom,” Genesy said.
Maylani Mahler, who graduated from San Benito High School in 1996, served on ASB for three years.
“I remember him kind of finding the leader in us,” Mahler said. “He has the gift to bring out the leader in anyone because of his leadership skills and the way he guided us.”
Mahler, who is a teacher with the Hollister School District, said he encouraged students to do things on their own and learn on their own.
“He made us feel important and special,” Mahler said, “like we could do anything. He always supported us and encouraged us. He really believed in us that we could do anything as an individual leader or as a whole ASB.”
In addition to the time he has spent advising ASB, he served as a soccer coach and taught Spanish, world history, geography, U.S. government and more. For the past 11 years he has coordinated the school’s graduation ceremony with a committee of parents to bring back some decorum to the celebration that involves thousands each year, including more than 600 students.
Robledo’s son Carlo, a 1992 graduate, was involved with ASB at SBHS when his father first took over as the advisor.
He recalled that once his dad got involved in ASB, his friends stopped wanting to come to the house because all his dad wanted to talk about was ASB.
Carlo, a high school teacher in San Diego, said his father’s passion for San Benito High School started long before he took over as ASB advisor.
“I’m a soccer fanatic because I was with my dad when he was a coach,” he said.
He recalled spending time on the sidelines with his father at games or in the school office as his father made dittos for classes.
“If you know my father he will always tell stories about school,” he said. “I’ve become the teacher I am because of the conversations I’ve had with my dad throughout my life. … He taught me a lot, and one thing he taught me is how to do it right – how to care about the kids and do as much as you can to make sure whatever you do is successful.”
Those closest to Robledo are also teachers, including his wife Angela and his daughter Erica Robledo-Dickens.
“I think how lucky I am that my wife of almost 42 years gave me a chance to do it,” he said, noting that many years he missed his anniversary because he was at associated student body conferences.
He said he missed family dinners because he was on campus working with students.
As he retires, Robledo reflected on the programs he’s overseen.
Even the fun activities such as the Powder Puff game, bump fest (a chance for students to show off their sound systems) and Baler Lunch Times served a greater purpose.
“When you have things on campus that create connections, students get involved,” he said. “It reduces the drop-out rate and the rates for detention.”
Robledo said he hopes to spend more time with his family, including grandchildren in Hollister and San Diego.
“We make the joke that since he’s retiring, he’s coming back home,” Carlo said.
