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Forever in blue jeans: Jim Garfield celebrates his 13th and final year at SD 58
Forever in blue jeans
Jim Garfield celebrates his 13th and final year at School District 58
By Jillian Mitchell
For Jim Garfield, the day-to-day work holds much excitement – and the School District 58 maintenance supervisor prefers it that way.
“It makes life interesting,” he chuckles. “It’s a good job and I work with a great bunch of people. We work hard and we play hard. It’s been fun and that’s what makes it worthwhile coming to work.” bring learning to LIFE www.chparchitects.com 604-795-9445
The B.C.-born-and-raised Garfield has been at the School District 58 (NicolaSimilkameen) for 13 years, of which he has taken great pride – especially when it comes to his blue jeans.
“There’s a standard joke here that I wear blue jeans [both at and outside of work],” he jokes. “I’m a blue-jeans kind of guy. One year, the whole secretary team came dressed as the maintenance supervisor – that’s the kind of great team we have here.”
Though Garfield is quite comfortable in the educational sector, he started his career as a trades helper in the mining industry. In 1970, he was hired on at Newmont Mines, where he worked
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for 22 years as a heavy-duty mechanic.
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When he left in 1992, he had worked his way up the ranks to mine master mechanic (which today equates to maintenance superintendent) where he was in charge of all mobile maintenance.
His decision to leave the industry was based on instinct – “it looked like it was starting to head downhill” – and he soon moved on to a mechanical superintendent’s position for a highway contractor in Hope, B.C. After a series of odd jobs between 1996 and 2000, Garfield applied for the maintenance supervisor position at School District 58, a district comprised of 13 schools, 2,800-plus students, and 300 staff. He was promptly hired.
“If it isn’t educational or financial, I look after it,” he boasts. “Busing, carpentry, electrical work – the whole nine yards. It’s a small district so you have to be versatile.”
He joined the Educational Facility Managers Association of B.C. (EFMA) when he was hired on at District 58. As the self-professed “new guy on the block,” Garfield was quickly taken under the association’s wing and worked his way up to a position on the executive in 2004.
“Coming into the industry blind, it was a huge learning curve for me,” says Garfield, who was EFMA treasurer in 2009. “To be able to have this type of access to people who are in the industry, to have them push me in the right direction, was huge and I’ve met a lot of people, made some great friends in the industry through EFMA.
“It’s a great organization. The big thing, for me, is the ability to network. I can pick up the phone and call any one of my counterparts in the province and they will help me out unequivocally – no questions asked.”
As this is Garfield’s last year at the district, future plans include much fun outdoors – and yes, in blue jeans.
“I like to hunt, I like to fish, and I like to trap. And I’ve got a few places on my bucket list I want to travel,” he says of his retirement plans. “Plus I’ve got two daughters and four grandchildren all in B.C. – lots to keep me busy!” b
