I n T h i s I s s u e Tips for the Summer

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Guess Who 2

2nd Annual M&O Career Days

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Switch to CFL’s and Save $$

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Fire Extinguisher Reminder

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Custodial Corner

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B a s i c # 1 — E v e r y t h i n g w e d o w i l l a d v a n c e o u r V i s i o n , M i s s i o n a n d M o t t o , w h i c h s h a l l b e k n o w n , o w n e d , a n d e n e r g i z e d b y a l l .

M & O NEWSLETTER

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Our New Safety & Transportation Supervisor On February 2, 2009, it was our pleas-ure to announce Don Lester as our new Supervisor of Safety and Trans-portation. This position is vital to main-taining safe and orderly campuses as well as working with First Student (transportation) in improving safety on our buses.

Don began his career in VESD as a Site Adminis-trative Manager for Mo-jave Vista in February 2005. He quickly became known for not only his customer service, but also his thirst for knowl-edge of his position. In

the four months that Don has been Su-pervisor of Safety and Transportation he has covered everything from bus tickets to bomb threats, and once again, he is continually adding to his

bank of knowledge.

Prior to VESD and after attending Eastern Oregon State, Don ran a success-ful business for more than thirteen years. He has been married to Jackie for twenty-nine years. They have a beautiful family consisting of his three children and three grand-children who are the ap-ple of “PaPa’s” eyes!

Don Lester Safety & Transportation

Supervisor

J a y i s R e t i r i n g – D o n ’ t G o !

We cannot express how deeply sorry we are to see Jay Cliff re-tire.

Jay has been a rock in the Maintenance de-partment for 22 years.

He has done just about every job in the department that a maintenance worker could do, without complaint.

He has been one of the HVAC technicians for the last three years, which is a highly demanding job.

On top of working hard every day, Jay often rides his bike to

work all the way from his home in Hesperia. What a MAN!!!!!

Please wish him a happy retirement when you see him.

Good luck, Jay! We will truly miss you!!

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Now that summer is coming, it is time to check some things around the house to maximize you cooling equipment and lower your bills.

Change the air filters on your air intake. This will help maximize the air flow through the system and reduce the drag on the fan mo-tors.

Hose off the air condi-

and make sure it isn’t loose and oil the fan cage bearings. This will help reduce friction and maximize air flow. You should also inspect the evaporation pads and make sure they are free of holes and not caked with mineral deposits. If they are, they need to be replaced.

Have a fun summer and stay cool!!!

tioner coils. That big, noisy unit on the out-side of your house has cooling coils in it and when dirt and dust fill in the tiny space in the fins the compressor has to work harder and longer to keep up. Just make sure it isn’t on when you hose it down and only spray the coils.

If you have a swamp cooler, check the belt

WD-40 AND LOCKS DON’T MIX I have something for you.

How many of you use WD-40 on your locks at home?

In the High Desert, we have a dry climate and lots of wind blowing dust in the air.

WD-40 doesn’t dry, which leads to a build up of dirt in your locks. This wears out your keys and locks.

To avoid this prob-lem, you should use a

dry lubricant in your locks.

You want to use a chemically inert, non-oily, fast drying lu-bricant that turns to a powder. The coating is more slippery than silicone, graphite, or oil.

It’s applications are very numerous where machinery is used or wherever a release agent is re-quired.

- David Wilson M&O Locksmith

FIRE EXTINGUISHER REMINDER

TIPS FOR THE SUMMERTIPS FOR THE SUMMER By Michael BenzienBy Michael Benzien

GUESS WHO?? A) B)

**Answers on the bottom of the last page**

D) C)

We will be servicing our fire extinguishers in mid-August this year. Please collect all your site’s ex-tinguishers in one area, preferably in the MPR entrance, or another cen-tral location. The extin-guishers need to be re-placed as soon as possi-ble, so please don’t let them sit. THANK YOU!

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As summer approaches and things heat up, it is time to pay more attention to your lawn. Start by running a test cycle to see if you have head to head coverage. Adjust the spray pattern as needed. Check for dry areas and adjust or change out heads if needed. Adjust the mower height to a higher setting - two inches is good. You will need to add watering time, too. Try to do a visual check daily and make any necessary adjustments. If you keep on top of it, you will enjoy a really nice looking lawn all summer! By Graham Booye, Grounds

2nd Annual M&O Career Days We are happy to announce that we just completed our 2nd Annual M&O Ca-reer Day Event and it was a huge suc-cess!

In June 2008, we hosted our first ever M&O Career Day Event and had 600 VESD 5th grade students and their teachers in attendance. The event al-lowed the students an opportunity to get a “behind the scenes” glimpse of what it takes to maintain a school dis-trict beyond the classroom setting.

This year’s event was even bigger and better! Over 1500 VESD 5th grade stu-dents attended, almost our entire 5th grade class.

The students rotated throughout ten different stations which were led by our M&O staff and First Student’s staff. Students learned about the duties and “soft skills” pertinent to each career within the department while interacting with each employee in a group setting.

Some of the favorite highlights for the students included touring the supply warehouse, observing the engine of a school bus, and encountering a multi-tude of hands-on demonstrations such as welding, electrical, and painting.

Thanks to all our participants and presenters! We had a great event and look forward to next year’s 3rd Annual Career Day!!

SWITCH TO CFL’S AND SAVE $$

14875 S. Mojave Dr. Victorville, CA 92395

Maintenance & Operations Office

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PHONE 760.245.3533

FAX

760.245.5043

E-MAIL dlester@vesd.net

mbenzien@vesd.net rlopez@vesd.net

Office Staff lblackwell@vesd.net

tmendibles@vesd.net cconlon@vesd.net

Attention All Teachers & Staff, Please review the following checklist before leaving for the summer: 1. Teachers clean out, unplug, and de-

frost refrigerators. Unplug microwaves. Note: Be sure to take refrigerators out-side to defrost to avoid making a wet mess in the room.

2. All critters should be taken home for the summer. Custodians will not take care of them and the AC will not be on.

3. Personal items should be removed from the room. There may be a variety of people in your room over the sum-mer to do repairs.

4. Remove all food from rooms to avoid an ant infestation.

5. Walls will be washed. It is suggested that all room decorations from walls and ceilings be removed. Keep in mind that in order to be in compliance with the Fire Department, next year we will

be going with fire retardant paper (butcher, poster, etc.) for decorations/projects/boards. If you are planning on keeping your current decorations, please leave a note for the custodians and make sure to notify the SAM so we can track the use of the spray retardant on those areas.

6. Equipment Care: Power down all com-puters and monitors, unplug, and cover with plastic. Printers and scanners should also be unplugged and cov-ered. Projectors should be locked up and overhead projectors should be unplugged and covered as well. Trash bags will be available to cover these items.

7. All classroom floors will be waxed and carpets washed. Teachers please box up everything that is on the floor. If it is on a bookshelf/case and you would like to have it cleaned, then the books must be boxed.

8. Push student desks and chairs to the middle of the room (in the carpet area).

9. Please leave a note for the custodial team in regards to any bookcases or furniture that you would like to have moved to a different location in your

room. The custodians will move the furniture and then bolt in the new loca-tion, if necessary. This step also allows them to clean and/or wax the area where the furniture currently sits.

10. Carpets should be rolled and moved to the side (make sure they are vacuumed before rolling them).

11. You may want to consider taking out any personal furniture from your rooms (such as couches or big items). This year, as in previous, our custodial team would really like to get into as many corners as possible.

If you plan on visiting your campus, it is highly recommended that you first check-in with the custodial crew to ensure the area/room is not being waxed or cleaned when you plan to visit. Use check-in/out board to notify others of your presence on site and for security purposes.

I want to end with thanking all of our custo-dial team for a job well done throughout the year. And please welcome our newest mem-ber to the team, Todd Gonzales!

Stay cool and have a great summer!

Hello VESD Employees,

With summer rolling in fast and money rolling out even faster, it is good to think about how to save a few dollars here and there.

The latest trend we are hearing about is Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL) vs. standard light bulbs. The question is, “Is it really worth the time and money to convert to CFL’s,” and the answer is YES. Using CFL’s can save hundreds of dollars a year on your electric bill. On the average, each CFL can save $30 over its lifetime.

What scares most people away from converting their light bulbs is the

difference in cost be-tween the two. Standard bulbs cost about $2 for a pack of four, whereas CFL’s average about $2 per bulb. If you do the math, in the long run it is well worth switching to CFL’s.

There are a few things to be aware of when buying CFL’s. Like the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” It is always best to look for the Energy Star symbol, which is a good indicator of a quality light bulb.

Another thing to keep in mind is that CFL’s cannot be used with photo con-trolled fixtures or dusk till dawn fixtures. Also, be aware when using CFL’s for dimmable fixtures

because they can’t always be used on these kinds of fixtures.

If you need more help choosing the right CFL’s, log on to

www.energystar.gov.

I hope this helps save everyone enough money to go on your dream vacation.

Have a great summer!

Ruben Santos Electrician

CUSTODIAL CORNER

A) Bob McCance, Groundsperson B) Lisa Blackwell, Support Services Secretary C) Joe Pont, Maintenance I D) Jay Cliff, HVAC Specialist

WELCOME!!