A EFM
ILE F O R PR E B MEM
Pride and performance Alex Telford, manager of facilities and transportation, SD#27
By TARYN RITTBERG
B
orn and raised in Williams Lake, Alex Telford
and now spends his days successfully maintaining the
now lives in the 100 Miles area of British Co-
business side of the facilities and transportation depart-
lumbia with his wife and family where he began
ment in SD#27.
working for School District #27. He first worked
part time as a labourer, pouring retaining walls and sidewalks, but eventually transitioned to full-time work with the school district. “I worked my way up to tradesman non-certified rate and then challenged my carpenter trades Red Seal certificate,” says Telford.
“I get a lot of satisfaction from my job, because my team and I provide services and support in so many ways to the entire district,” he says. Telford has been a member of EFMA since 2011, and says that the opportunities he has gotten through the association has been tenfold. He also enjoys planning and managing major projects in his school district. He enjoys oversee-
During his early years with SD#27, Telford independently
ing upgrades and working on out-of-the-box energy man-
learned AutoCAD, a computer-aided design and drafting
agement projects that will help improve the educational
program. He started drawing line drawings of their schools
environment for students and teachers alike.
and gained his managers support and created an on-going project, where he still does the required line drawings for
Although Telford has excelled as the manager of facilities
the district. The next impressive role Telford took on was
and transportation, it did not come without its challenges.
as the carpentry department lead hand, and then the next
Dealing with a large number of employees, budgeting, plan-
year, he also became the manager of facilities and trans-
ning, parent complaints, and looking after schools within
portation for the district.
the district, are just some of the challenges that he deals
This new position provided Telford with fresh challenges, and while he came to the job with 26 years of experience within the school district, he recounts there was indeed a learning curve. With an increased staff, two assistant man-
with quite often. But, with the aid of the EFMA, and particularly the support received at the annual conference and trade show, as well as at Telford’s EFMA zone meetings, he has been able to obtain many helpful insights and ideas.
agers, as well as transportation, custodial, maintenance
“Sharing with colleagues from other districts often pro-
and energy management to look after, there was definitely
vides insight on how to deal with our problems and issues,”
a lot for Telford to learn. However, he rose to the occasion
he says. n
14 Ops Talk • Fall 2018
