Eleven WCPSS Employees recognized with Employee Excellence Awards
June 8, 2004 - Eleven Wake County Public School System employees were recognized by the Board of Education with the Employee Excellence Awards at the board's June 1 meeting.
The Excellent Employees include Bill
Brown, Alfred Dennis, Trophimus Fondren, Russ Smith, James
Underwood (left to right on back row) and Lien Bui, Carl
Clark, David King, Rob Olevsky and Mazie Smith (left to
right on front row). |
The May 2004 Employee Excellence Awards were presented to Tom Bartle, a Briarcliff Elementary School CCI Teacher; William Brown, WCPSS Human Resources Senior Administrator; Lien Bui, Olive Chapel Elementary School Custodian; Carl Clark, Moore Square Museums Middle Head Custodian; Alfred Dennis, Fuquay-Varina High School Custodian; Trophimus Fondren, WCPSS General Services Multi Task Employee; David King, Assistant Supervisor, WCPSS Energy & Physical Plant HVAC Shop; Rob Olevsky, WCPSS Technology Services Programmer; Mazie Smith, WCPSS Auxiliary Services Director of Organizational Development; Russ Smith, WCPSS Security Investigator; and James Underwood, Durant Road Elementary Data Manager/SAC Member.
The Employee Excellence Awards were created to recognize Wake County school employees for their hard work, and providing one of the country's top-performing school districts. Employees are nominated for the honor and selected by a committee.
Deputy Superintendent Del Burns presented the employees to the board. Burns awarded the employees a plaque as Assistant Superintendent Maurice Boswell described the employee's achievements.
Following is a brief description of the October Employee Excellence Award winners:
Tom Bartle, CCI Teacher, Briarcliff Elementary School - Tom Bartle is a kind, caring, and remarkable person. All who know him have great respect and an abundance of praise for him. He works with special needs children in the CCI classroom. He not only has genuine care for the students' education but he truly cares about their welfare to the point that he devotes himself entirely to them. He has many fine qualities, a person who is unselfish and compassionate, one with true ethics and composure, a teacher with spirit and class, one who has values, a teacher and human being who has a fondness and great respect for all children and people. Bartle is one who was truly born to be a teacher.
William Brown, Senior Administrator, Human Resources - Bill Brown responds in a timely manner to all information requests. He researches state contracts and vendor information to obtain the best available options for the department's present and future equipment needs. He also creates purchase order forms recommending desired equipment to accomplish the department's goals within the limited resources inherent in a schools system's budgetary constraints. He develops reporting tools which are flexible enough to meet the ever-changing needs of Human Resources in education and user-friendly enough to allow manipulation by all staff members for their various requirements and situations. Not only does he create programs that are user-friendly, but for those difficult problems that no one understands he troubleshoots them to determine the hardware or software that has failed and the options available to resolve them. Human Resources is very grateful to have him in the department.
Lien Bui, Custodian, Olive Chapel Elementary School - Lien Bui is the world's greatest custodian at Olive Chapel Elementary. We applaud him for being a dedicated and concerned worker. He is always willing to come to work, even during bad weather. When the school was hit by bitter cold weather in January, he called in to say he was coming in to clean up the mess. His concern for the safety of school staff is really inspiring. He and the school's principal began to break the hard ice with a shovel to get staff safely to the front door. He shoveled snow for 8 hours straight to clear the sidewalks, parking lot and carpool lane, not to mention, the bus lane drop-off and portable ramps. He cleans 14 trailers in the rain, snow or sleet and never complains. His work performance is outstanding. He doesn't waste a moment while on the job. Bui is consistently here and takes pride in our school. He goes above and beyond the call of duty. Hats off to Lien Bui, he is a great and dedicated custodian.
Carl Clark, Head Custodian, Moore Square Museums Magnet Middle - Carl Clark works hard. He makes sure the school is clean, secure and well maintained. He always has time to look into any problem that arises with the building whether it is new scuffmarks on the floor or the roof leaking. He interacts with everyone in a positive and professional way and keeps a smile on his face and in his voice even when he has to deal with some of the unpleasant aspects of his job. The staff of Moore Square says that it's an honor and a privilege to work with Carl Clark.
Alfred Dennis, Custodian, Fuquay-Varina High School - Alfred Dennis is a custodian responsible for the 600 hall of Fuquay Varina High School. This area of classrooms is used during the day as well as for after school programs and community activities in the evenings. Dennis is very respectful of teachers' workspace, and chooses only to clean a room when it is empty. This can be a challenge in such a busy area. Not only does he keep the school's halls clean, he goes above and beyond the call of duty by doing little things such as fixing wobbly desks and repairing ripped bulletin boards. He listens to teachers' concerns and follows up on work orders for bigger problems such as room temperature. He does these things, not because someone asked, but because he wants his hall to look its best and for the teachers to be able to do their jobs in a workable environment. Alfred Dennis is an invaluable addition to FVHS as well as a superior role model for students as they leave school to enter the job market.
Trophimus Fondren, Multi Task Employee, General Services - Auxiliary Services has embarked on a crusade to improve the maintenance of WCPSS schools, the essential part of this crusade is Preventive Maintenance. A successful Preventive Maintenance program requires accurate data on all the equipment in order to determine their maintenance needs. The gathering of this data is a slow and painstaking process. Since Fondren was a new hire he decided to volunteer for this thankless job so he could use it as a way to learn what types of equipment is being used in schools and to better his mechanical skills. To say he was successful would be an understatement. What should have taken a year to accomplish was done in four months. He not only helped collect the data for the Northern Region but was loaned to the Western Region for data collection and then taught the Central Region how to properly collect the data. Because of his hard work Fondren has received written accolades from our Senior Director and the staff that is charged with implementation of the Maximo system. To top it all off, Fondren has received a promotion since being nominated for the Employee Excellence Award. He is now the Planner/Scheduler for Maintenance & Operations.
David King, Assistant Supervisor, HVAC Shop, Energy & Physical Plant - David King has been with the school system for over 13 years. As Assistant Supervisor of the HVAC Shop, King and his co-workers are responsible for all the heating, ventilation and air conditioning repairs made in the system. It is often a thankless job, a job that often requires work on nights, weekends, and holidays as well as during bad weather conditions. Those who know King know that he always has a smile on his face and a positive attitude no matter the circumstances. Best of all, King will always remind you that he loves his job because he is doing it for the benefit of the children.
Rob Olevsky, Programmer, Technology Services - Rob Olevsky was recently asked some questions regarding documentation and accountability of social work cases. His response led the person asking for help to say that they came away feeling the pleasure of working with a most professional person dedicated to excellence far above and beyond any expectations. They attributed the high quality of his work to a combination of seeking to provide customer satisfaction and a personal need on his part to produce the best software that could possibly be developed. Olevsky is a perfectionist in his services. We believe that individuals like Rob Olevsky help make Wake County Schools achieve the highest recognitions of excellence and demonstrate that WCPSS has among the best and brightest employees in all fields.
Mazie Smith, Director of Organizational Development, Auxiliary Services/SAC Member - Mazie Smith started working with the school system in 1996. She has contributed in numerous ways to successful projects and programs in the school system. She currently serves on the Support Advisory Committee (SAC), which is designed to serve as a voice for the concerns of support employees. She has served on the committee since its inception in 2000. She has also served on the Compensation Study Committee and Communications Committee, which are sub committees of the SAC. She has also been an active participant at the Support Team Conferences. She has been a contributing factor to the success of the SAC.
Russ Smith, WCPSS Security Investigator - Russ Smith has been with WCPSS as a Security Investigator since 1998. He is currently assigned to the Eastern Area as the Investigator. He also has been instrumental for the past three years in researching and assisting in the development and updating of the WCPSS Emergency Crisis Plans. He has taken on the task of reviewing and approving student suspension reports for all the schools in Wake County. This task in itself could be a full time assignment. He spends approximately 2 hours extra every day working on the reports. He has to continually contact school administrators with issues connected with the process. He makes himself available to the school administrators if they have questions or concerns. The report's review and approval is a vital task that is essential to the daily operation of all the schools in Wake County. He has never asked for assistance with this important and huge undertaking. He continues to handle his assigned investigative area without missing a beat. Russ Smith is a very critical component of the WCPSS security department as well as the school system as a whole.
James Underwood, Data Manager, Durant Road Elementary/SAC
Member - James has been with WCPSS since 1986. He has served
in various positions throughout his years with the school
system. Aside from his normal day-to-day activities of being
Data Manager at Durant Road Elementary, he is currently serving
on the Support Advisory Committee. He too has been on the
committee since its inception in 2000. Underwood has also
served on the Compensation Classification Committee and the
Communications Committee. He has been chairperson of the Support
Advisory Committee as well. He has been an active participant
of the committee in addition to the Support Team Conferences.
He is not only a great asset to the Support Advisory Committee
but also to the school system.
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