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GUSD staff remember Sal Lopez, bus driver and grounds worker
Summary
Greenfield Union Elementary staff held a brief memorial during a district "60 Seconds" segment to honor Sal Lopez, who worked eight years for GUSD as a bus driver and grounds worker. Coworkers shared memories of his willingness to take distant bus routes, help others and a fondness for barbecuing.
Greenfield Union Elementary staff members used a district "60 Seconds with GUSD" segment to honor the life of Sal Lopez, a longtime bus driver and grounds worker who worked for the district for eight years.
Staff members said Lopez regularly took distant bus routes and helped colleagues with maintenance tasks. "Nobody wants to take the faraway, bus routes. I have to take them," said Roy Tullus, a maintenance worker who worked with Lopez for eight years. Tullus said Lopez "stepped up for everybody" and that coworkers are adjusting routine tasks since Lopez died, including turning sprinklers and valves manually.
Nicholas Martinez, who identified himself as a bus driver and custodian, recalled washing Lopez's bus and remembering Lopez pulling up in "his brown truck full of dirt saying, 'Oh, don't wash my truck. It runs better like this.'" Robert Garcia, who said he had known Lopez since childhood and later worked with him on field trips, remembered that "he'd love to barbecue," and that Lopez and coworkers referred to themselves as the "OGs" or "veteranos" when taking routes others avoided. Ramon Moreno, a grounds worker, said Lopez handled sprinkler duties while Moreno cut grass and sometimes intentionally broke sprinklers so Lopez could fix them, adding, "We had a lot of fun together."
The program opened with a district staff member saying it was "a very bittersweet edition" of the segment and offering condolences to Lopez's family and friends. The segment concluded with a statement on behalf of district maintenance, operations and transportation staff: "Sal, we will miss you, and goodbye."
The memorial was a short, staff-led remembrance during a routine district communications segment; no district actions, votes or policy decisions were recorded in the transcript.
