All Things Business
June 2022 Edition
From the Desk of Brian J. Murray, Assistant Superintendent
As we wind down the 2021-2022 school year, planning for the 2022-2023 school year has already begun. The annual site secretaries workshop hosted by Kris Murphy in the business services office is scheduled for July 28 from 8 am to noon. The meeting is always filled with very important information and updates for the coming school year. Please make sure that your site secretary and/or their designee attends!
It is my pleasure to welcome the newest member of the business services leadership team (BSLT), Selene A. Ahumada Tirado. Selene graduated from Cal State San Bernardino with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Administration with a management concentration. She also has two Associate degrees, an Associate of Science in business administration and an Associate of Arts in liberal arts. She comes to us from the San Bernardino Unified School District where she worked for the last eight years in their purchasing, warehouse, and reprographics department. She sees her main attributes being a problem-solver, multitasker, and a team builder. In addition, she sees herself as a manager whose main skills involve steadiness and compliance. Welcome, Selene, to the business services team!
Brian J. Murray, Ed. D.
Purchasing, Warehouse, and Reprographics
We are officially introducing our new Director, Selene Ahumada Tirado!
Hello everyone! I am honored to be part of the PSUSD team. A little bit about myself, I am transferring from San Bernardino City USD where I worked as a Buyer and later as their Warehouse Manager. In both positions I made it my mission to work with admin and teachers to ensure that students had all the resources they needed to be successful. My family is originally from Guaymas, Mexico so I am obligated to say I love seafood and the ocean. I’m also bit of a nerd so I have been known to enjoy a Star Wars movie or two. Oddly enough I am partial to cold rainy days even though I live in the driest part of California, go figure!
I look forward to working with you and if you have any questions my door (and phoneline) is always open!
Purchasing For The New Year – We continue to recommend that sites place orders for technology, musical instruments, and custom items ASAP. We are seeing lead times up to 8 months therefore speed is key!
Warehouse continues to be a hive of activity! Receiving, delivery, recycling, disposal… they’re doing it all! If you find yourself in need of their services reach out to our warehouse Supervisor, Jonathan Bowman (jbowman@psusd.us).
Reprographics – The Digital storefront is open for all of your printing needs! Before paying someone else, email Repro to find out how they can save you money: reprographics@psusd.us
Or visit the store front: https://palmspringsusd.myprintdesk.net/
And as we say around these parts…
When in doubt, call Purchasing! We’re here to help!
Maintenance & Operations
Crystal Pierce began her career with PSUSD in July 2018, as a Custodian at Rancho Mirage High School and was promoted to Lead Custodian II the same year. In 2021, she was promoted once again to the Lead Custodian III position at Cathedral City High School. In her new post she will direct the night custodial services department. Crystal graduated from Cathedral City High School and is currently enrolled at Mt. San Jacinto Community College pursuing a degree in Business Administration. Prior to joining Palm Springs USD, Crystal worked for nine years at two large home-improvement retail stores in a managerial capacity where she was responsible for overseeing a staff of 50-60 employees. With her busy schedule she still finds time to be a mother of an almost two-year old daughter, and a wife.
Fiscal Services
Rosa Barroso-Hurtado is the Fiscal Services featured employee. She is our accountant that handles the categorical or Federal and State programs. This is not an easy job keeping track of the different grants and funding. She does a great job with the program details, financial records, program personnel, and reporting. She always provides great customer support.
This is a quote from one of Rosa’s peers:
“Rosa is an intelligent, versatile, and hard-working employee who always strives for excellence. She has a wonderful sense of humor and the ability to work effectively and positively with her peers. She is always eager to learn and willing to take on new projects and assist anyone who needs help. Rosa is patient, she will stop what she is doing to explain processes and share work tools with her peers and other staff. Her glass is always half full.”
Rosa has worked for PSUSD for 19 years in a variety of departments. Her prior experience working with the other departments has been helpful to the fiscal services team. She can explain operational processes from other departments such as Student Services, Special Ed, and Ed Services. Her insight is appreciated.
Rosa and her husband are the epitome of the American dream. She immigrated from Mexico at the age of 26 with her husband from the same Mexican village. She has worked full time since she arrived, received a bachelor’s degree, raised a family (2 of her children are college graduates that are enjoying successful careers and the youngest is just graduating from high school), and bought a home. She has achieved the American Dream. Here is a great picture of Rosa with her family.
Nutrition Services
In Nutrition Services, we have had the opportunity to share some exciting Farm to School Education with our students on field trips to local agricultural fields. Our students have recently visited Aziz Farms in Thermal, Ca. Aziz Farms has partnered with PSUSD to not only provide fresh produce for our students’ daily menus and salad bars, but also has designated fields that grow produce specifically for PSUSD. At the farm, the students were able to see firsthand where produce that our students receive as part of their school meals comes from. The students were able to learn about different produce such as dates. In the educational lesson, information from growing, to harvesting, and the production process was shared with the students. Date samples were provided for the students to taste and enjoy. Each student was able to also pick fresh items from the fields. Some of the fresh picked items included radishes and sunflowers. The students genuinely enjoyed the distinctive style of learning. PSUSD Nutrition Services plans to continue with Nutrition Education with more field trips in the 22-23 school year.
Facilities, Planning and Development
PSUSD Battery Storage:
PSUSD produces roughly 68% of its electricity from renewable energy solar panels at its schools and district offices. PSUSD’s next step in its energy conservation plan is the installation of battery storage equipment at the 4 comprehensive high schools and district administration center. After the solar panels have knocked out a chunk of energy usage during the middle of the day, the battery storage system will discharge the saved electricity and will reduce demand peaks during high usage time at the high schools and district administration center. The batteries are now installed and will be ready to start storing energy in June 2022. The district’s third-party independent energy vendor performed an analysis showing over the 15-year projected useful life of the Battery Energy Storage Systems, PSUSD will have estimated savings of $3,681,087.
PSUSD’s newest solar canopies:
PSUSD’s newest solar canopies are up and working at Rio Vista Elementary and Mt. San Jacinto High schools. The district was awarded a zero-interest loan from the California Energy Commission for the installation of solar canopies. The loan will be paid back over a 20-year period with the savings provided by the solar canopies. The solar arrays will produce enough electricity to offset roughly 70% of the existing kilowatt usage at these 2 schools with savings estimated at $150,000 per year.
Not business as usual:
The supply chain problems caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are affecting the availability of educational and food service supplies and have produced extremely long lead times for maintenance and facilities equipment and materials. These problems aren’t going away any time soon, and PSUSD’s business services’ departments are working diligently to obtain the materials needed.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the number of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the biggest U.S. gateways for imports from Asia, is improving but is still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels. At its peak, the Long Beach port congestion had 86 container ships anchored offshore in November 2021. Other factors impacting the supply chain include high gas prices and a shortage of truck drivers. All of these factors have put a significant strain on school purchasing and supplies. We are asking our school administrators to help with putting in orders and requests in earlier in the school year and being proactive on ensuring all HVAC equipment is in good working order. If something does not sound right with the mechanical equipment and it does not seem to be cooling normally, put in a work order to have it looked at. It is simpler and faster to fix problems prior to the HVAC equipment completely stopping.
Transportation Services
Effective air purification systems are an essential part of a comprehensive COVID-19 mitigation strategy. Palm Springs Unified School District’s safe approach to indoor air quality extends beyond the school sites to include school buses as well. As of 5-9-22, all the buses servicing our district are now equipped with medical grade HEPA H14 air filters.
The Webasto HFT 300 HEPA Filter systems are secured to the floor on the back wall of the buses. The air filers’ location was carefully picked to avoid impeding any portion of the isle way or emergency doors and to allow for future filter changes.
At a glance, here are some of the key benefits of the air filter system from the manufacturer’s website:
-Removes 99.995% of airborne infections and contaminants
-Provides up to 350 ft3 of fresh air every minute
-Temperature range -4 °F to +140 °F
-Meets WHO / CDC / ECDC / IATA air filtration guidelines
-Capable of filtering Bacteria, viruses, pollen, and mold
-Contamination free exchange / Contactless filter change
Contact Us...
Email: kmurphy4@psusd.us
Website: psusd.us
Location: 150 District Center Drive, Palm Springs, CA, USA
Phone: 760-883-2710