Arturo Solis: Stepping Up for Our Schools

<figure id="attachment_38694" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-38694" style="width: 242px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/featured/arturo-solis-stepping-up-for-our-…; rel="attachment wp-att-38694"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-38694" src="/sites/default/files/2017/02/Board-Group-Photo-July-2016.jpg" alt="Arturo Solis" width="242" height="300"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-38694" class="wp-caption-text">Arturo Solis</figcaption></figure>
While many simply complain about the state of public education, concerned citizens like Arturo Solis rise to the challenge of taking action to improve schools in their district. Since November 2014, Solis has been serving as a member of the Sweetwater Union High School District’s School Board, taking up the Board’s presidency in 2016. 
“I saw the District’s pay-to-play construction scams as a disservice to our community and I didn’t think it was fair that our students be in the middle of all that,” Solis said in an interview at La Prensa San Diego’s headquaters. “You can say you aren’t into politics, but you will always be involved in politics in some ways. For me, joining the School Board wasn’t a part of my goals, I just saw it as a service in addition to all my years as a teacher.” 
Solis was born in the Los Angeles area and grew up in the city of Lynwood, California. After speaking with him, it’s clear that his commitment to education is an important part of who he is. 
“My mom worked as an accountant back in Mexico and my dad was a very bright but he was taken out of school when he was young so he could work, but they knew that education could change lives. The importance of education is ingrained in me and to this day.” 
Beginning in elementary school, Solis was always focused in doing well in school and succeeding in extracurricular activities. He, along with his siblings, were good students and maintained the necessary grade point averages to be eligible to play sports in high school. 
“I had a lot of positive role models including teachers and my siblings. It was almost as if I had to be great to not let everyone down,” Solis said when asked about who motivated him in his youth. 
Solis graduated as salutatorian from his high school and entered UCSD the following fall. 
“I was the first in the family to leave the Los Angeles area. It was a shocking experience and a bit tough to leave the home since I was so used to being with my family, but I went through with it,” Solis remembered. 
While leaving home was a bit difficult, Solis managed to do well in his courses in computer science. However, an unplanned situation in his family made him step away from his studies for a year. 
“After I finished my sophomore year, my dad lost his job so I dropped out for one year and returned home. I worked at the food services department at UCLA to help out with my family’s house payments,” Solis shared. 
Shortly after returning to UC San Diego to resume his education, Solis met Alejandra Sotelo, whom he would later marry. “The year I came back I met Alejandra and it was over from then she sealed the deal on me staying in San Diego,” he said. 
Solis also changed his major to biopsychology, field in which he would earn his bachelor’s of science and also have a study published by the university.  Shortly after graduating, he began to work at the UCSD Medical Center as an assistant to researchers conducting studies. 
“For about a year and a half I was just helping with experiments. It was a good experience but I think I needed to be able to help out and make a difference instead of being in a lab all day. One day my mom brought up that I should be a teacher,” Solis said. “I decided to do my teaching credentials at SDSU and after that I went back to teach at my high school alma mater in Lynnwood for four years.” 
During those four years, Solis would commute from National City, where he settled with his wife, all the way to Lynwood. Eventually, Solis got a job at Nativity Prep Academy, a Catholic middle school for low-income families, where he has been working at for the last nine years. Nativity Prep Academy currently serves 64 students in grades 6, 7, and 8 with a lesson plan structured around a 10-hour school day. 
A few years ago, Solis heard about corruption and other problems afflicting the schools in the Sweetwater Union HIgh School District and felt the need to do something. Seeing the work that his wife did for the community as a member of the National CIty CIty Council inspired him to take action. 
“A lot of things that you don’t want to see as a teacher were happening at the district,” Solis explained. “Seeing my wife advocating for the community made me think about doing something. I would see her at her City Council meetings and she was  always amazing.” 
Solis ran and won a seat on Sweetwater’s School Board. Since then he has been involved in creating many positive changes in the district. The hiring of a new superintendent, amends to the way in which contracts are awarded, and the inclusion of a legal council, which focuses exclusively on reviewing all contracts, reviews, and litigations so that the board members have all the necessary information to make the right calls, have all been positive changes that the board has made with Solis as a member. 
“As a board, all of the members have been trying to make sure that every school offers the best education possible to our students and I believe that we are headed in that direction because all our kids deserve a great education. I see a bright future.” 
As great as all  the changes mentioned have been for the District, Solis still has a higher goal as a member of the Sweetwater School Board. 
“I want to make sure all our students get the respect, the best facilities and the education that they deserve so they can succeed and achieve,” Solis closed.