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Desert Sands Unified honors employees with service pins, awards and retiree recognitions
Summary
Desert Sands Unified School District held its annual Sands of Time employee recognition event to present employees-of-the-year awards, recognize service milestones (20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years) and honor retirees and staff who died during the year.
Desert Sands Unified School District held its Sands of Time employee recognition event to honor employees of the year, present service milestone pins and list retirees and staff who died during the year.
The ceremony recognized classified employees of the year, teachers of the year, administrative and site-support honorees, and staff reaching milestone anniversaries across five categories: 20-year, 25-year, 30-year, 35-year and 40-year pins. Organizers also named district retirees who submitted retirement paperwork between May 2, 2024, and May 1, 2025, and held a moment of silence for six employees who died this year.
Joe Hyde, assistant superintendent of personnel services, opened and welcomed attendees and introduced Rosalie Romero, a third-grade student from John F. Kennedy Elementary School, who led the pledge of allegiance. Superintendent Kelly Mae Volmer spoke about the district’s reliance on staff and the meaning of a career in education. Dan Borgen, director of personnel and leadership development, led the awards presentations and asked attendees to follow staged instructions for award recipients.
Classified employees of the year selected by the California School Employees Association (CSEA) chapter 106 and announced at the ceremony included Laura Gautier (community technician, bilingual, Indio High School), Rosario Martinez (student information specialist, technology services), Marla Miller (nutrition services specialist, Kennedy Elementary), Jamie Teracio (campus security agent 2, Indio High School), Erica Viera (paraeducator, bilingual, Palm Desert Charter Middle School) and Robert Walker III (custodian, Shadow Hills High School).
Teachers of the year announced by the Desert Sands Teachers Association included Deanna Clark (elementary, project facilitator, educational services), Nanette Davis Kirkevel (middle school) and Jessica Fixel (high school, Shadow Hills High School). Additional district awards named Nora Diaz (confidential employee of the year, executive assistant, student support services), Bertha Celadon (site support employee of the year, caterer, central kitchen), Tiffany Norton (classified administrator of the year, chief innovation and information officer, technology services), Sophai Semak (school counselor of the year, student assistance program), Jessica Morrow (principal of the year, Kennedy Elementary School; noted as absent) and Mike Kent (certificated administrator of the year, senior director of elementary curriculum, instruction, assessment and curriculum and educational services).
Organizers presented service pins for staff who began their Desert Sands careers in milestone years identified in the program materials (for example, employees who began in 2005 were recognized as 20-year recipients). The program showed lists of employees at each milestone; the ceremony also included videos referencing the years when those employees first joined the district.
The program included a memorial recognition for six employees who died this year: Tom Aguirre (began 02/2001), Kyla Burton (began 02/2016), Wilbur Cabassas (began in the district in 1999 and served 25 years at Indeel Middle School per the program), Sheldon Hudson (began 2018), Iris Rodarte (began 2022) and Cameron Rowe (began 2019 and later served as assistant principal). The district invited family members forward and led a moment of silence for the six employees.
Presenters explained a longtime retirement tradition for the district: each retiree receives a golden school bell and all retirees ring their bells together at the conclusion of the presentation. The ceremony closed with that bell-ringing and brief closing remarks of appreciation from event organizers.
Details about retiree names, individual years of service and job titles were read aloud from the printed program; the ceremony announcement noted that not all retirees were present, but their names were read in the program order. The event also thanked many district staff and volunteers who assisted with the program’s production, sound, staging and refreshments.
