Honoring the Best of the Best
The Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) has selected five outstanding Twin Rivers’ employees to represent the area in California’s Classified School Employees of the Year recognition program. Kim Bosworth, Louie Cervantez, Sue Dean, Isabella Maranon and Phitsamay Sosanavongsa have a total of 61 years of service to students in the north area. They perform important functions critical to our schools and the success of our students. Congratulations to these exemplary employees.
Kim Bosworth’s day begins at 6 a.m. No problem. She’s an early riser. It’s the end of the day that could be a bit rough for anyone other than Bosworth. Three days a week she isn’t home until 10 p.m. By day Bosworth is the nutrition services cafeteria manager at Hillsdale Elementary School. After hours, she’s a straight A student at American River College, which accounts for the late hours three nights a week. She’s taking 13 units this semester, which means homework every weekend.
There is a plus side. She gets to do homework at the table with her 12-year-old son.
“This is my third semester,” says Bosworth. “I haven’t quite decided on a major yet. With any luck I’ll receive my Associates Degree next spring. I’ve been taking early childhood development classes and working on a degree in individuals in society, which lends itself to human resources, dealing with the public, coworkers and employees. A lot of my classes have been about culture and diversity and how that fits into education.”
Bosworth has spent 16 years at Hillsdale Elementary. Her work there isn’t all about serving two meals a day to several hundred students. Bosworth is a member of the school site council and a seven year member of the Hillsdale PTA.
“I’m a person who likes to live my life in service to others,” says Bosworth. “That’s what makes me happy.”
She’s humble, too.
The selection as a one of SCOE’s Classified Employees of the Year was unexpected. And now that she’s in the running for state honors Bosworth, well, is stunned.
“I’m very excited and very nervous because I’m not somebody who pats my own back,” she says. “I don’t do what I do for recognition. I just do it because that’s the kind of person I am and it makes me feel good. It’s a little unnerving to put yourself out there because I don’t necessarily believe that everything I do is extraordinary. But people around me feel that what I do is worth mentioning. It’s kind of humbling. I’m one of a few hundred employees to be singled out as an exemplary employee when I’m part of a wonderful department of fine ladies and gentlemen.”
Louie Cervantez is having a hard time describing how he feels about his selection to represent Sacramento County in California’s Classified School Employees of the Year recognition program.
“I’m just out of words, I really am,” says Cervantez, the head custodian at Garden Valley Elementary School. “I’ve never received an honor like this before. I’m very excited and honored to have this privilege.”
Cervantez has an easier time talking about his job. He’s at work by 5:30 a.m. each day.
“I open some classrooms and get the cafeteria ready,” he says. “I have four classrooms I have to clean in the morning, along with the office area and the bathrooms. So I’m running in the morning until the students have breakfast. After the kids are fed, I go out and clean up around the school.”
Cervantez, who has been a school custodian 14 years in the north area, says he has nothing but love and respect for all the students and staff he has worked with over the years.
“I really enjoy my job. It’s fun working with the kids and staff. They’re all very nice. I’m here for them and they know that. I know most of the kids by name and a lot of them, along with teachers, are congratulating me about the selection as one of the classified employees of the year. In fact, they announced it on the schools PA system. I’m really excited. I love it. I really do,” says Cervantez.
He tries to stay involved in the Twin Rivers community after hours. It helps that he has a daughter on the water polo team at Rio Linda High School. Cervantez says he also tries to attend as many school meetings as he can.
“When I’m not at work, I also like to camp, fish and go bowling,” says Cervantez. “I often run into students and their parents when I’m out in the community. That’s nice. I’ve been with the district so long and have never had any problems. Every site I go to I get along well with everyone.”
Now that he’s on a roll, Cervantez wants to say a little more about his selection as a SCOE Classified Employee of the Year.
“It says I’m a very good, dedicated hard worker.”
Sue Dean could be in a classroom, but the credentialed teacher feels more at home in the library.
In fact, she’s the library media technician at Babcock Elementary.
“It’s a lot of fun, I really enjoy it,” says Dean. “I get to work with kids in a positive way because they look forward to coming to the library. It’s a treat for them, so they’re motivated. They love coming to hear a story and getting the chance to look for new books.”
Dean has been at Babcock for 16 years. She taught high school in Ashland, Oregon, before she got married and moved to California. When her children were young she chose to stay home with them. When they began school she was there, too, as a volunteer in the counseling office and the library.
“It’s fun to come to work,” she says. “There was only a brief time when it was a little frustrating and that was when we were going through a remodel and I had to pack up the whole school library and move it to Plover, our temporary campus. I’ve had to pack up and move a library three times in my life, twice in Sacramento City District and once here. Hopefully, never again. It’s a backbreaking job.”
At Babcock, Dean is also the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) treasurer and the PTA counselor for all the former North Sacramento School District schools. She answers all questions and problems that arise.
And there’s more.
For the past 26 years, Dean has been involved with the Third District PTA (Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, Yuba and Solano). She organizes new PTAs, trains officers and troubleshoots.
It’s not unusual for her to work four nights a week on PTA business throughout Northern California. When that happens she’s lucky to get home by 11:30 p.m., especially if she’s in the Yuba City area.
“Basically, my life for quite a few years has been the library and PTA,” says Dean. “People ask why I still do PTA since my kids are grown. But I’m a firm believer that the world I live in is going to be influenced by the kids out there now. If I can help with parenting skills, I’m going to bear the fruits of it. It’s my contribution to the world.”
October 26, 1998. It’s a date Isabella Maranon still remembers. It’s when she drove her first school bus in the district.
“There was a fight,” says Maranon. “I was driving high school students. I had to stop the bus and my first words were, ‘You need to stop right now.’ I had to say it again and add that I was going to call police services.”
Maranon became a bus driver to be closer to her children. Now she’s the person who trains the drivers. Maranon is a state certified school bus instructor. She attended the CHP (California Highway Patrol) Academy to get certified. During the past two years she has personally trained 27 drivers in the district. It takes a minimum of 20 hours of classroom instruction and a minimum of 20 hours of behind the wheel instruction, plus a battery of testing with CHP and DMV in order to become a school bus driver.
Maranon works hard to constantly improve her instruction skills by attending workshops and certifiable courses of instruction.
“My goal, our goal, is the safety of our students and I really like what I do,” says Maranon. “I really enjoy the job because it’s so independent. I really don’t have to stay in one room for eight hours and deal with student behavior and things like that.”
Going through the CHP Academy and driving that first bus taught Maranon a lot about herself. She’s small in stature, but can be as tough as she needs to be.
“I can be what I want to be,” she says. “Everything is possible and I learned all about my capabilities. I always try to keep an open mind. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t work, at least I tried.”
When she’s not training perspective bus drivers, Maranon spends her time with her five children and volunteering to help women in abusive relationships. At one time she was a volunteer for WEAVE (Women Escaping a Violent Environment).
She’s a little surprised she has been selected to represent the area in the California Classified Employees of the Year recognition program.
“There are no words to describe my feelings. It is an honor to represent our district. But I’m nervous about moving forward to the state level. I want to represent Twin Rivers to the best of my ability. I want to thank everyone, especially my work team. They’ve been there for me and will always be there. I really appreciate the team here, which includes 140 drivers,” says Maranon.
Phitsamay Sosanavongsa has a heavy caseload, and that doesn’t include work on her Master’s Degree in educational counseling at the University of La Verne.
Sosanavongsa is the guidance resource technician at Highlands Academy of Arts & Design. Students are constantly in and out of her office for a variety of services, everything from information about scholarships to testing.
“I enjoy my job and enjoy being here,” says Sosanavongsa. “It’s very busy. It’s just constant student services, in addition to helping the school counselors. This is my fifth year at Highlands. It’s gone by so fast it feels like I’ve only been here a couple of years.”
She has a bachelor’s degree in child development and wants to be a school counselor.
“My passion is working with kids. I enjoy people. This is not just a job for me. It’s a career,” says Sosanavongsa.
With everything going on in her life right now, Sosanavongsa hasn’t had much time to reflect on her selection to represent Sacramento County in the California School Employees of the Year recognition program. But she’s thrilled and proud.
“It was a very exciting experience,” she says. “But I have to say going to those interviews (Twin Rivers and SCOE selection process), I didn’t really expect this coming. I’m very appreciative of it. I was just honest about my job. When you really enjoy your job and you just speak about your passion, that’s nice encouragement. It has just been a wonderful and rewarding experience for me at Highlands. I love the staff.”
When she’s not at her day job, and not occupied with work on her Master’sDegree, Sosanavongsa unwinds by working out. It’s another one of her passions.
“Health is very important to me,” she says. “I also love to shop, hike, play golf and sometimes bike ride.”
She sees her life as full of challenges—work, school, dealing with students and parents, and making sure there’s enough time in the day to spend quality time with her husband.
So far, everything is working out just fine.
“I feel great,” says Sosanavongsa.