Many people enter their workplaces each morning with a good idea of what tasks are ahead of them that day. They have certain assignments allocated to them in advance, and specific schedules that they must follow. For these individuals, everything is predetermined and predictable. However, Plant Equipment Operator (PEO) Sam Powell is not one of these people.
Each day, Powell arrives at the school at 5:30 a.m. to open up the building. Afterwards, he is responsible for attending to whatever facility-related problems arise throughout the day. This ranges from changing ceiling tiles, filters and grease motors to fixing problems with heating and air conditioning and replacing light bulbs. Essentially, Powell must do "whatever [his boss] wants [him] to do or whatever needs to be done."
In short, an average workday for Powell can mean just about anything. And remarkably, Powell, who retired December 1, has confronted this type of hectic schedule almost every day for the past 38 years.
From 1958 to 1971, Powell worked as a landscaper at MA Olend. However, landscaping did not offer the health benefits and financial security that he desired. So in 1971, Powell began working at Sherwood.
Since starting at the school, Powell has gone through a number of job titles. He first attained a job as nighttime building services worker, which he maintained for years before acquiring a position in which he was mostly responsible for outdoor work.
Eight years later, after taking classes at the Rockville Campus of Montgomery College and obtaining a special license, Powell became a PEO and assumed responsibility for the school’s heating and air conditioning systems.
Throughout his extensive time at the school, Powell has witnessed many changes, both in the student population and the building itself.
"When I first started working here, I think there were around 1200-1300 kids," says Powell. At present, more than 2000 students attend the school.
The school has had to accordingly adapt and expand to accommodate its growing student population. Most recently was the K Hall addition constructed in 2006; many of the school’s other features also underwent drastic changes. Powell had firsthand experience of how drastic these changes were.
About a month before the 2007-2008 school year started, Powell had to come to the school and learn how to use new systems.
"[The building] got bigger and it changed chiller compressors so you had to learn all of that over again ... You had to work with the guys who were putting it in to learn what’s working where," says Powell. "Then you had to learn [about the changes in electricity]. It’s a lot."
But Powell set his mind to learning everything in time for the upcoming school year, and he ultimately did.
Powell applies the same dedication and determination to everything else his job entails. So it comes as no surprise that after 38 years of working at the school, Powell wants to retire, move from Silver Spring to Hagerstown and do "hopefully nothing."
Nonetheless, Powell says, "I guess that I’ll just miss getting up and coming to work ... It’ll take awhile to get used to that. I’ve been working 54 years out of my life. I’ve been working here 38 years," he says. "Basically that’s what I’ll miss ... Just getting up and going to work."
After retiring, Powell simply wants to be remembered as "a good guy." Building services worker Shelley Washington, with whom Powell has worked for seven years, considers him to be much more than that.
"If you ask any building services worker, [Powell] is a great person," she says.