"Roofer Guy" Takes Charge
May 2001--"It's a new day," said Greg Clark, the new director for general services. "We're going down the right road - bringing services closer to home."
The goal to move services back to school sites, he explained, is tied to the division's vision "providing services that power education." Locating maintenance employees at the schools, as opposed to all at Rock Quarry, improves response time and enables employees to learn particular campuses, address preventive maintenance and plan accordingly. "You'll end up with jack-of-all-trades at the schools and the licensed tradesmen at Rock Quarry Road," said Clark.
A year ago maintenance began a pilot cluster program to do just that - bring services to the schools. Each cluster has four maintenance people assigned to it: three multi-tasked employees (MTEs) and one area facility manager (AFM). AFMs report to a regional facility manager. Five to seven schools form a cluster, and four of five clusters make a region.
Clark hopes to have personnel in place to roll out a new region of 28 or 29 schools in the southwest Wake area by the end of July. Although the director of building and grounds also has a region of 29 schools (southern Wake), it will still take some time before the program covers the entire system.
Part of the reorganization of maintenance and operations Clark has been charged with includes bringing parity in salaries to those in trades - both tradesmen at Rock Quarry and those in the cluster program.
As maintenance prepares to reorganize, Clark wants to clear up some misconceptions in his new department. "Your job isn't going away. What you do tomorrow may be a little different than today, but your job isn't going away."
In addition to managing the general services' trades, Clark, often referred to as the "roofer guy," will carry roofing projects over from his previous role as construction project manager. Although it is a heavy load, "it's the right thing to do," said Clark. "I want to make sure the projects keep moving." Clark's roofing work should finish in about 18 months and a new project manager started in mid June to help handle the day-to-day roofing operations.
General services includes the following areas: AV repair, carpentry, fire extinguishers, flooring, furniture repair, glass repair, intercoms, locks, masonry, master clocks/bells, millwork, painting, roofing, smoke/fire alarms, and vehicle repair.
Clark has served WCPSS since 1984, when he began as a masonry foreman. Since then, he spent 10 years as a general services supervisor and another four years as a construction project manager before being named director of general services.
Clark traveled with a band for a year-and-a-half between graduating high school in Chesterton, Indiana, and beginning college. But, he did not just go to college…. He worked for Inland Steel while he studied business management at Indiana University and management and drafting at Indiana Vocational Technical College. Starting as a labor foreman at Inland, he worked through a masonry apprenticeship and two years as a masonry supervisor before moving to North Carolina.
Now, married with three children and a new granddaughter, Clark knows he has much to be thankful for.