In the mood for adventure:
School District No. 61’s Glenn Miller By Jillian Mitchell
There are no typical or routine days in Victoria School District, with about 450 acres of property, nearly three million square feet of building space, and over 18,000 students and staff. And Glenn Miller likes it that way. Add to that a name akin to an infa-
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Ops Talk • Spring 2014
mous Big Band legend and daily life becomes anything but commonplace. “Having the name Glenn Miller is an interesting study,” he chuckles. “In my early years, lots of people commented or smiled and said, ‘I liked his music.’ Now it seems that most people who
comment are either over 40 years old or took band in high school.” For School District No. 61’s supervisor of operations, adventure lives in the unknown. Miller started with the district in 1981 as part of the operations department with the hopes of becoming a painter (he served as an automotive painter in the late '70s). In 1988, however, the fourth-class power engineer uncovered a real desire for mechanical systems. It was then that Miller knew facilities management was his true calling. In 1989, with the enthusiastic support of his family, Miller moved to Power River and spent the next two years working for School District No. 47 while completing management courses at the Open College in Vancouver. By 1991, he accepted his first management post in Quesnel at School District No. 28. “I recall heading to Quesnel alone in a truck and camper in early March 1991 with temperatures hovering in the -10
