A middle school maintenance man has a much broader title: finder of lost boys, teacher of real life.
By ELISABETH DYER
Published August 27, 2004
DOWNTOWN - Wilfredo Diaz draws troubled boys to him like grouper to a sardine.
While his duties as groundskeeper at Stewart Middle School are simple - keep the outside of the school neat and the lunchroom clean - his real work is with boys who come to school without decent shoes or a desire to learn.
He looks for ones who "don't have the love of a father," he says.
Diaz, 49, finds them at in-school suspensions or struggling in class. He wins them with tenderness.
"I don't scream. I don't holler. I don't like to be loud," he says.
First he gives them respect. Then he gives them a job.
They wipe tables and chairs in the lunchroom, carry trash out and help with landscaping at the school.
"I don't leave them alone," he says. "I always am close to them."
The boys clamor for the opportunity to be under his tutelage. With parental permission, they learn job skills and responsibility. Diaz rewards them with a couple of dollars. They often buy pizza for lunch.
For mentally disabled students in Heather McConnell's class, working with Diaz is a treat.
"He shows them real-life skills they're going to need," she said. "He is phenomenal."
Some students come back over the summer to help with school landscaping. Diaz pays them out of his own pocket, he said.
This marks Diaz's 10th year at Stewart, a magnet school next to Blake High School. More than 50 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced price lunches, and 33 percent are Hispanic. Diaz converses with them in Spanish, his native language.
He landed the groundskeeper's job while on a fishing cruise with the former principal, Watts Sanderson, who died of a heart attack last year. They bonded over a love of the sea and a hankering for grouper.
The friendship grew from there. Photos of the pair's prized catches adorn a supply closet at the back of the school.
Diaz doesn't need the paycheck from Stewart. He and his wife, Rosa, own two day care centers and three rental houses. He gets a monthly disability check from the Army for a broken arm that didn't mend properly.
"I just do it because I love them," said Diaz, whose father died when he was 9. "I know what these kids go through."
Diaz has bought shoes for a boy whose mother does drugs and a bicycle for another. He paid the fee for some low-income eighth-graders to go on a class trip to the Florida Keys.
"Can I work with you today?" a boy yells as Diaz walks through the lunchroom.
"You have to keep your grades up," Diaz replies.
He knows what education will do for them.
After Diaz's father died, his mother moved the family from Puerto Rico to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They were poor, and Diaz dropped out of school to sell fish to hotels.
At 17, Diaz joined the Army and was stationed at Fort Dix, N.J., where he earned his high school diploma. Later, Diaz worked as an aircraft mechanic for Boeing. Ten years ago, he came to Tampa on vacation and decided to stay.
He says his goal at Stewart is to coach kids to overcome poverty and get an education.
"You need to have school," he tells them.
"Without school, you won't have anything."
Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at 226-3321 or edyer@sptimes.com
Wilfredo Diaz
AGE: 49
FAMILY: Wife Rosa; sons Emmanual, 21, and Wilfredo Jr., 14
JOB: Groundskeeper at Stewart Middle School, owner of day care centers, landlord
BORN: Puerto Rico
GREW UP: Puerto Rico and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands
PRIOR JOBS: U.S. Army, mechanic for Boeing PASSION: Kids
