‘King John’ hangs up tool belt after 24 years with district

Manteca High head custodian John Avila will officially retire in December, ending nearly 25 years of service with the Manteca Unified School District.

By PUNEET SANDHU
The Tower

Manteca High head custodian John Avila, affectionately known as “the King” on campus, is set to retire in December after working with the Manteca Unified School District since 1999.

As a young man, the ideals of work ethic and busy hands were instilled in The King, who worked two jobs for many years. He worked as a butcher from 6 o’clock in the morning to 2 p.m. Then he worked at the district for an additional two hours from 6 to 8 p.m. He eventually moved onto six-hour shifts at the district, while continuing to work for six hours at the butcher shop in the morning.

Avila paid his dues, something he says the young generation does not do enough of.

“A lot of the younger generation only looks at the dollar signs,” Avila said. “When you start a job, you start from the bottom and you must work your way up.”

During nearly a quarter century of service with the school district, Avila has worked at multiple sites, including Shasta Elementary and Manteca High School.

Manteca High head custodian John Avila chats with senior Leadership student Emily Inderbitizen, who was painting footballs outside the 60 wing.

At each stop, he has developed a connection with the students, mostly through his interactions as a soccer and volleyball coach. He has a letter from a student that he keeps up on his wall. The student has autism and was on the volleyball team at Shasta. When the student came to Manteca High, he couldn’t make the team since it was harder to get on the team but that didn’t stop him from blossoming. He wrote Avila a letter telling him how he inspired him to lose weight and make friends.

Not only did he inspire students, but he was also inspired himself.

“He inspired me too because he was very closed off before and after that he blossomed,” Avila said, “and he became a nice open kid.”

King moved to Brazil at the age of 10.

There, he developed a passion for soccer. Although, he admits he wasn’t good against the Brazilian kids, he always had a soccer ball, so he played. Avila then moved back to the United States at the age of 27.

“I had got here on a Thursday,” he started, “that day they had already had me signed up to play a soccer game on Sunday.”

Avila King got the opportunity to coach soccer after being here for three years. He coached the Manteca High junior varsity boys for two years and then served as a head coach and assistant with the girls team for the remainder of his coaching career.

Avila has been a hard worker throughout his whole life — and his work-life is a reminder of that. He plans to still keep working even after retirement.

“I will probably continue to work here and there since that’s all I know how to do is work,” said Avila, who owns property with almond trees that he plans to harvest himself. There are also grapevines, chickens, and goats that he is going to tend to during retirement.

Eric Gonzalez, a fellow custodian at Manteca High School and longtime coworker, has shared many good experiences with Avila. Gonzalez learned a lot from Avila, but the thing he believes he’s going to miss the most is Avila’s work ethic.

“John is a hard-working man,” Gonzalez said.

Manteca High students Isaiah Mariscal and Isabella Gillette contributed to the report.