The first full week of March is designated as Classified Employee Appreciation Week. At Clackamas ESD alone, we have more than 50 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 200 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.

James Sang, public service support representative from our human resources department, is the first face you see when you visit Clackamas Education Service District’s main office. Officially, his role is to greet visitors and help them get where they are going, direct calls and answer questions coming into our main phone line, and coordinate meeting room and vehicle reservations. Unofficially, he observes, “I have become a resource. People ask me lots of questions about the agency or about the building and I get to provide the best answer I can.”

James began working for Clackamas ESD in 2000 as a systems administrator. But in 2012, the computers James worked with were no longer going to be supported, and James needed to find a new position. There was an opening at the front desk and James was offered the role. 

“It wasn’t something I would have chosen for myself,” James concedes, “but I guess I changed along the way. I’ve been able to explore being fun, I’ve been able to explore being what I think of as helpful. I’m not just here doing the job that’s on the piece of paper, but rather I found other ways of becoming meaningful to the agency, to the people I work with. It’s become something I really enjoy and keeps me interested on a daily basis.”

As a person of faith, James believes you are where you are for a reason, and he thinks he is here to make Clackamas ESD a warm and friendly place. 

“I like to think greeting people, not just saying ‘hi, hello’, but actually learning their names and saying their names, makes a difference to people,” James explains. “I’ve gotten to learn almost everyone’s name.”

James finds supporting our staff who directly serve students, like our teachers, educational assistants, therapists, and early learning specialists, fulfilling. 

“I want to be helpful as I can to them so that they can do the front-facing work as best they can,” James remarks. “Having a special needs son at home and a special needs little brother who comes over to our house on a regular basis has given me more of an appreciation for what our people do for our community needs, for our schools. It certainly makes me want to be even more supportive.”