Classified Staff Week Focus: Jose Velasco come home
The Colton resident was recently promoted to head custodian at CHS and now looks to make this campus “respectable and honorable”
Jose Velasco is the head custodian at Colton High School.
“In yourself you have to have pride for the place you’re working.”
Jose Velasco, the new head custodian at Colton High, has very good intentions and is working hard to make campus respectable and honorable.
“It is my goal to put in my best for Colton High School,” Velasco said.
Velasco came to Colton in 2016 after a stint in Jurupa Valley, and took the opportunity to become head custodian. Although it was not that simple to get to where he is now. There were some hard and difficult times.
“A couple of times I failed,” Velasco said, talking about taking a test needed for consideration as a head custodian. “I didn’t pass, but I had to keep in mind: even if you fail, you got to keep on trying and trying. If you fail, you fail. But you’ll learn.”
After a lot of hard work and dedication to the job, Velasco was offered the position for head custodian.
Before working for the school district, Velasco worked in quality control. From that he got a lot of experience and training, but after working at that job for years, he didn’t want to stay there because of the poor health benefits.
“You need to think about the future,” he said. “When we are young, we think about the money and not about the future and about our health.”
He wanted something better, and realized that working for the school district provided better health benefits for him and his family.
Family is part of the reason Velasco is now at Colton High. He has a son currently in 10th grade, and not only does he want to make the school his child attends a better place, but he also wants to make it a clean and safe environment for everyone.
Colton is central for his entire family. Not only have his children grown up in the city, his wife works as a noon aide at Grant Elementary School. When he worked for Jurupa Valley, she was the one who convinced him to transfer districts. “She told me, why are you working over there when your kids are growing up over here?”
Now, Velasco is settled in at home, both in the city he loves and at the school which serves as the city’s heart.
Recently, the CHS Publications Department experienced a major theft as over $20,000 in photography equipment was stolen from our studio over Spring Break. This included all cameras. Any amount you donate will help rebuild our program. Thank you!
