Employee of the Year 2020 | Julian Palechor
May 4, 2020
Flexible, team player, never too busy to help, always friendly, dedicated, committed. A complete list of phrases and adjectives to describe the unanimously nominated P.K. Yonge 2020 School-Related Employee of the Year could fill a page and then some.
This year, Julian Palechor, P.K. Yonge’s Custodial Superintendent is the unquestioned choice for School-Related Employee of the Year. Never too busy to help or hear about a problem, Julian is one of the most dedicated members of the P.K. Yonge community. The first to arrive on campus and often the last to leave, Julian’s work intersects with 75 faculty, 45 staff, and more than 1100 students and their families. Described by a faculty member as “always willing to help all the faculty and staff when needed,” Julian attends to small things – an offer to walk a new staff member through disarming an alarm, to big things – being the first on campus after a hurricane to assess impact, and everything in between.
Recruited to the Blue Wave community in 2013, Julian’s skill and dedication became quickly evident and resulted in a wide range of increasing responsibilities and a number of promotions – the most recent being to Custodial Superintendent. In this role, Julian manages the daily cleaning and helps to maintain 41 (circa 1957) rapidly failing buildings on the 33 acre P.K. Yonge campus.
Julian is distinguished by his incredible work ethic and his embodiment of all that P.K. Yonge represents – a sense of family, care for one another, a do-what-it-takes-to-make-things-happen approach to work, life, and school community. Julian is on call 24-7 for his area of responsibility and has a highly developed awareness for information or events that impact all areas of the school as an organization and community. Julian is often bringing things to the attention of administration and other units on campus that may have been overlooked without his keen eye and finely tuned awareness.
In addition to managing his custodial crew’s daily assignments throughout the school year, Julian responds to emergency needs that can range from a broken water pipe to a raccoon in a trash can! He and his crew support special events almost daily on P.K. Yonge’s bustling campus and Julian is often found filling in when a crew member is out sick.
According to a faculty member, “No I can’t help” is not part of Julian’s vocabulary, “The fact that he was unanimously nominated represents the respect and gratitude everyone on campus has for what Julian does, day in, day out.”
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