The first full week of March is designated as Classified Employee Appreciation Week. At Clackamas ESD alone, we have more than 60 types of classified jobs. These are people who touch every corner of our agency’s work and the districts we support, from providing hands-on help to teachers, children and families, to filling endless behind-the-scenes roles to keep buildings and teams safe, cared for and high-functioning.
This Classified Employee Appreciation Week, we’re highlighting five of our more than 270 classified staff members and contractors, to provide a peek into the diverse ways this large group of employees lives our mission of service. We appreciate our entire classified team and the meaningful work they do.
John Gates is a systems infrastructure engineer in Clackamas Education Service District’s technology services department. Technology is so woven into every part of our daily lives we often overlook all that goes on behind the scenes to make it function seamlessly. Clackamas ESD’s team of experienced, relationships-focused technology professionals collaborates to provide regional school districts, governments and non-profit organizations with a variety of technology solutions at reduced costs. John works on the team that maintains and improves our technology services.
John’s job involves keeping the ever-evolving systems that run our schools operating smoothly. His key tasks include managing the k12.or.us domain for K-12 public education entities statewide; maintaining data center services that provide fast internet connection and secure cloud storage of critical information; and supporting the Infinite Visions and Synergy software schools use to manage their finances, human resources and student information.
John became interested in technology at a young age. In sixth grade, John asked his father, an electrical engineer in the Navy and Department of Defense, for a computer game. Instead of giving John a disk with a game on it, his father handed him a book about BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) and had him try copying code in the book and running it.
“It got me asking questions. How does a computer work? What is happening in the central processing unit? How does a computer do math?” John recalls. “I just sucked it up like a sponge.”
After high school, John took classes in different computer programming languages and completed an internship focused on secure computing before working in systems infrastructure engineering at defense research and development and professional education services organizations.
John joined Clackamas ESD in 2015. He remains engaged and excited about his work because of the relationships he’s built with district staff and the tangible impact he’s making in local schools.
“The work that we do allows our districts to leverage the latest technology without having to have the huge capital outlay that they would have to if they did it alone,” John explains. “The partnership with our districts and the positive impact of the work that we do is more rewarding than making a profit for a corporation.”
The opportunity to learn new methods and technologies is another draw of the job for John.
“You never stop learning. There’s always new technology,” John says. “I have a home lab I geek out on to help me learn new technologies and keep my skills fresh. It’s part of who I am.”
