After a 20-year career as a Marine, Marcos Diaz decided to lend his life experience to another important battle: Ensuring a better education for San Ysidro students.
Born in Mexico City and raised in California from the age of seven, Diaz enlisted in the United States Marines after graduation from high school in Santa Ana, California.  His twenty years in the service gave Diaz a better understanding of how discipline and determination can help someone lead
a better life.
“I entered the Marines as a kid and came out as a man,” Diaz said in an interview with La Prensa San Diego.
“I retired as a Staff Sergeant after promoting up the non-commissioned officers’ ranks from the bottom,” Diaz commented about his career, where he earned 19 medals and commendations.
Diaz retired from the Marines in 2012 and became a licensed financial advisor with New York Life Insurance Company to help families with insurance needs. Diaz found that many Latino families were either uninsured or underinsured when it came to life and disability coverage, leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin in the case of an accident or death in the family.
“Among Latino families, we see a
disproportionate number of single income earners where the husband/father is the main source of income,” Diaz said. “But if something unexpected happens to that person, the whole family could be in serious trouble,” he stresses.
His concern for local families lead Diaz to become a candidate for his local school district board in San Ysidro. In 2014, Diaz ran for the San Ysidro School District Board of Trustees where he garnered the highest amounts of votes among five candidates. Now in his third year in office, Diaz currently serves as the President of the San Ysidro School Board.
“I was honored that so many people voted for me and trusted me to help put the District back on track,” Diaz said of his election. “The voters had heard of all the corruption in our district and they expected us to clean up all that mess,” Diaz added.
At the time Diaz was elected, the San Ysidro School District had been embroiled in a wide-ranging corruption scandal including its longtime superintendent, Manuel Paul.  Paul had been charged with accepting illegal gifts from contractors and was under investigation by the FBI. The District was also in dire financial straits and was near insolvency.
“I was elected when the District was on the verge of bankruptcy and we had just had a teachers’ strike,” Diaz recalls. “Teachers and parents worried that our schools would continue down a path of lower test scores and failing students, but we turned all that around,” Diaz said.
Diaz helped bring in an interim administration team led by retired superintendent Edward Velasquez. Within a few months, the District was out of financial danger and on the road to recovery.
A new permanent Superintendent, Dr. Julio Fonseca, was hired last year and his new administration has continued to stabilize the finances and personnel of the District.
As part of the governing board, Diaz helped improve the quality of instruction at San Ysidro schools by focusing on important goals.
“We needed to ensuring our funds are spent wisely, listen and work with our teachers so they have the tools to help our children thrive, and enforce transparency to let the community and staff know what the District is striving to accomplish,” Diaz said. “This has helped create a climate of trust and support from the teachers and our community.”
Diaz says he will continue to work to improve San Ysidro’s schools to give local students the best opportunities for better futures.
“I believe our children are the focus, to get them prepared for the future,” Diaz said. “But we have to give them the tools to be successful, from materials to technology, from great teachers to a welcoming learning environment,” Diaz added. “Our students deserve the same educational opportunities as students in other areas of the county.”
Diaz and his family live in the Ocean View Hills area of South San Diego. Diaz today works as a Financial Services Advisor at BBV Compass Bank in San Ysidro. His term on the Board expires in December 2018.