FORKS — The job evaluation for Bruce Thomas prepared in August 2004 sparkles with adjectives.
“Bruce is an essential member of the district office staff,” said one sentence from the document written by Frank Walter, Quillayute Valley District superintendent, about the district’s business manager since 1997.
“Bruce’s work is of consistently high quality. . . . Bruce has the most far-ranging responsibilities of anyone in the district. . . . Bruce displays an outstanding work ethic. . . . Bruce is totally dependable.
“People have no idea of how hard he works or how much he does.”
With this type of praise from his boss, it was a big blow to Thomas to learn in July that he was being laid off to save the district his $51,000 salary.
Besides Thomas, the School Board approved cuts to nine full-time equivalent classified staff positions to balance the $10.6 million 2005-06 budget.
It won’t be clear how many classified staff — many of them part-time workers — will lose their jobs until after the district concludes negotiations with the employee’s union.
Heart and soul
“My heart and soul have been given to the district for eight years,” said Thomas on Friday.
“When I first learned of [being cut], I was angry and really depressed for the first week.
“It was a sad, sad day for me.”
