Everybody Knows Joe
Maintenance Tech Joe Garcia has worked at Sandia Prep for ten years and, by his own admission, has no plans to retire any time soon. Joe quietly takes care of Fluffy, the yellow-and-white cat living around the DesignLab’s vine-covered pergola. He has a deep appreciation of Prep’s teachers and students, and these last two years, he’s had one clear goal: “Keep everything clean.” It’s a part of his job he took very seriously during the pandemic.
What led to you joining Sandia Prep?
In my lifetime, I’ve had maybe five, six jobs because I don't like to be jumping around. I stay in the job and do it. I used to be a truck driver and work heavy equipment; I even drove nationwide. But one day, I got finished with the trucks, and I said, I’ll go to school. I worked in Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) in maintenance and custodial for almost 18 years. There were 4,000 kids there at Valley High School. But then I got out and took a little break for about four years. And then, how I got this job here is, when my wife told me one day, she said, “They’re hiring some people at Sandia Prep.” So, I jumped in my truck and come up here, getting an application, filled it out, and in one week, they called me. [My wife] just let me know—and now she says that she was just joking! But I wasn’t joking. I was serious.
What’s a day in the life for you here at Prep?
My title is maintenance tech, but, see, I do a lot of things. I do whatever. For a year and a half, I’ve been sanitizing. [They asked and] I said, “hey, no problem.” And I have done everything, you see me doing everything, picking up trash, everything. I even used to do the marquee for three, four years. But see, it doesn’t matter to me what they want me to do. I will do it; I like to be a team player. I don’t like to mess around or do just what I have to do. No, I do whatever they want me to do.
Your particular role on campus during the pandemic was crucial. For those who don’t know, would you remind us what you did?
Every day, I sanitized every single doorknob [on campus]. Everything, twice. I started first at five-thirty, finished about eight, took a break and then came back again [after other duties, around] ten, and go all the way around again. My goal was to keep everything clean. If I don’t do it right, I’m not going to do it. Because to me, I was very concerned [about the campus’s safety]. So, I was always here, every single day. And I enjoyed the compliments from kids, from teachers, from staff, from everybody else. But I’m not going to say that without me, they cannot do it. No. Anybody can do it. But we have to put our mind to it and do it. This is not like, clean the room, and if you don’t clean it right, everything’s fine. No, [it’s a pandemic, so] we have to clean it right. It’s not a matter of bragging or anything, but everything went fine. And I thank God for that.
What have you enjoyed about Prep, and what have been some challenges?
Sandia Prep has been the best job I ever had in my life. It is the best job. People are a lot nicer, I think because, they’re not that many, you know what I mean? It’s few people, and you get to know everybody personally, and that makes a world of difference. In APS, you never really get to know [all the kids]. We had to be every day painting [over graffiti], doing everything. When I got into maintenance [at Prep], I got to know some kids, but then I went to sanitizing, into every room, every single day, and I got to know a lot of kids. I like to get along, and I try to treat people right, teachers and all. That’s my goal. My goal is not to get in a fight with anybody and just to do my job. And if I cannot do that job that you want me to do, I will bring you an answer. I will go to my boss and ask, and he will let you know if we can or can’t do whatever needs to be done.
Do you have any parting words to share?
I really enjoy being here, and I cannot tell you when I’m going to retire. I cannot tell you I’m going to retire today, retire tomorrow. I figure as long as I do my job, I have no reason to retire. Thank God that I’m to a certain extent healthy and I can still do a lot of things, you know?
