Everyday Heroes is a regular feature in this staff blog. Remember to submit names of employees districtwide who have done something deserving of encouragement and praise. Give a shout out to one of your colleagues at your school or support building and watch for it to appear in an upcoming Everyday Heroes blog post.

Here is our newest honoree:

Everyday Hero
Matthew Murdock, Electrician, Support Service Center

A few weeks ago, a few first- and second-grade teachers had their students ceramic Halloween pumpkins explode in our school kiln. I mean, every one of them blew up! So, the children made more pumpkins and this time put a hole in them to let the gasses escape. Talk about perseverance!

Unfortunately, after the catastrophe, the kiln wouldn’t work right. It wouldn’t keep its temperature and would shut off early. So, I asked Brendon (Chertok) to put in a work order and within two days, electrician Matthew Murdock contacted me.

Not only did he tear apart the kiln electrical box and explain the components to me, he researched our particular kiln and found some answers since the electrical components were in working order and not the cause of the problem. He even came back to the school and took some pictures and sent them to me of how to set the kiln and how not to set the kiln. I love visuals!

Besides being a very nice man, he went far and above what he had to do to help our children produce ceramic Thanksgiving pumpkins…just in time for Thanksgiving!

It just goes to show that every single employee in our district touches children’s lives in some way.

Matthew, in my book, is amazing!

Submitted by Jason Finney, Teacher, Garfield ES

How to nominate an Everyday Hero

• Email the Communications and Community Relations Department (communications@osd.wednet.edu) a few sentences, and no more than 200 words, about why the person deserves recognition. It’s easiest to write as if speaking directly to the colleague, such as “Thank you for helping with…” or “I really appreciated when you…”
• Write Everyday Heroes in the subject heading of the email.
• Include your first and last name as the person submitting the comments.
• Include the first and last name of the OSD employee you are recognizing.
• Include the job title and work location (school or department) of the person you are recognizing.

All submissions will be posted in this blog on a weekly basis and archived each week.

We can’t wait to hear about all of our Everyday Heroes, because we know that every day our teachers, bus drivers, child nutrition staff, custodial employees, paraeducators, school and district office staff, and others are doing amazing work on behalf of students.