Repairer still ‘all about the children’ after 35 years
Samuel “Mike” Bray
Samuel “Mike” Bray has been a member of Team HISD since 1979, when the Goodyear blimp was still housed in a hangar north of Houston, the Pointer Sisters were on heavy rotation on the airwaves, and Astroworld was barely a decade old, but he might not still be here at all if it weren’t for a bit of divine providence.
“I started out as a helper at McCarty,” he said, “removing the radiant heaters out of T-buildings and doing the heavy lifting. It was my first real job out of high school, and at one point, I was thinking about heading over to Brown & Root. But one of the guys upstairs heard about it and offered me a position in the mechanical equipment shop, so I stayed.”
After a number of promotions, Bray is now one of only four Construction & Facility Services employees responsible for monitoring HVAC systems at more than 260 schools via computer, making adjustments electronically and providing support to on-site repair personnel as necessary.
“HISD has been my life,” said Bray. “When I started here, it was all about the children, and I still believe that now. Everything I do is for them. And I’ve met some of the best coworkers anyone could ever have had the pleasure of knowing along the way.”
Bray officially marked his 35th anniversary with the district on Feb. 12, but several other employees also marked theirs this week (Feb. 9–15). See if you know anyone on this list:
25 years
- Yolanda Arcizo, clerk, Herod ES
- Maria Montes, school business manager, Chávez HS
20 years
- Sharon Perez, executive secretary, East Field Office
- Blanca Saldaña, senior secretary, Middle Schools Office
- Lisa Stillwell, teacher, Sterling HS
- Madelyn Traylor, teacher, Dodson ES
15 years
- Roslyn Gafford, secretary, Bruce ES
- Nina Jolivet, teacher, DeBakey HS
10 years
- Leonardo Castro, custodian, Construction & Facility Services
- Elisoliet Corsino, teacher, Bonham ES
- Ponciano Lozano, custodian, Construction & Facility Services
- Ana Morales, custodian, Travis ES
5 years
- Chelsea Curtley, assistant, HR Business Partners
- Shaji George, secretary, Health and Medical Services
- Chadrick Ray, plant operator, Construction & Facility Services
| Check back next Friday for more February Milestones. Leave a comment below if you’d like to congratulate any of the above employees. |
How do you get on this list? I have over 20 years in the district.
Just check back during the week you were hired in a “milestone” year (e.g. one in which you logged 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. years of service as of that date) and you should see your name. According to PeopleSoft, your original hire date was June 7, 1977, so you will log your 40th year of service on that day in 2017.
I recieved my certificate but I never saw my name in the milestone. I checkd all of 2013 in the 20 years and did not see my name.
Please help me locate my milestone.
Thanks in avance,
Angie
Hi Angie–
I checked with HR, and they show your start date as 8/27/1992, so you would have hit your 20-year anniversary in August of 2012, not 2013. We didn’t launch the Milestones feature until enews was redesigned in late October of 2012, so it looks like we missed you by just a couple of months. I’m sorry we didn’t get the opportunity to recognize you in that way at the time, but please accept our congratulations now. Twenty years is quite an achievement! Thanks for your service to HISD’s students!