Union Operations

• Served 1,523,916 lunches, 107,632 supper meals, 852,390 breakfasts and over 800,800 fresh fruit and vegetable snacks.
• Trained about 170 employees in culinary arts and safe food handling.
• Has four chefs and four dietitians. More than half the employees have received Talents to Strength training to determine employees’ strengths and passions in their work.
• The number of students qualifying for free/reduced price meals has steadily increased over recent years.  About 72 percent of Union students qualified for free/reduced meals for the 2022-23 school year.
• 13 elementary schools participated in the USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which provided $521,000 to purchase fresh pro- duce for snacks every day in the classroom.
• Two dietitians taught 326 nutrition education classes across the district ranging from Rosa Parks Early Childhood Education Center to the High School Tennis team. Four schools enjoyed “Blender Bike” classes that reached all students during specials time and two schools enjoyed the Farm to Student event where students rotate stations to taste fresh foods, learn about how food grows and about proper nutrition.
• 17 sites participated in the afterschool supper meal program. The program reduces hunger among students who other- wise might not get a good, healthy afternoon meal and encourages participation in afterschool programs that tend to drive class attendance and performance.
• Food menus featured student artwork for the first time by partnering with the Fine Arts department. Students across the district created fruit and vegetable art to display on the monthly menus on the district webpage.
• Child Nutrition hosted several students as a part of the Career Connect Culinary program at Union High School. Students worked with district chefs to learn culinary skills, food safety, operate commercial kitchen equipment and competed in a culinary competition.
• The Child Nutrition High School team and district chefs created a “Pop-Up Chef” concept in the spring featuring a variety of themes and cultures including Mediterranean, Filipino and Indian foods.
• Plans are being made to renovate and expand the 8th Grade cafeteria kitchen and serving area. The dishwashing machine at Union High School was replaced. In the summer of 2023, the walk-in freezers and coolers at Andersen and Cedar Ridge were replaced.
• Four schools received Equipment Assistance Grants, collectively valued at more than $75,000, from the State Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs. These grants were used to purchase each site a large rotating oven that is versatile and highly efficient for cooking.

• Union maintained a fleet of 120 school buses and 96 support vehicles and ran 19 daily shuttles to Tulsa Tech.
• Union provided transportation for students in the following programs: McKinney-Vento Foster Care, hearing- or sight-impaired students, Special Services students and Newcomers. Union also shuttled students at mid-day for Athletic, Band, Career Connect, TCC and Innovation Lab programs. The transportation trip miles totaled 126,684 and the route miles totaled 679,524.
• Union purchased 171,887 gallons of diesel fuel and 44,801 gallons of unleaded fuel for a combined cost of $682,979.68.
• More than 10,700 students rode the bus on a regular basis during the 2022-23 school year. Our route buses completed 342 routes per day, transporting students to and from school.

• Employs 109 full-time custodians, a district custodial coordinator, and a district building engineer.
• More than 3.5 million square feet of floor space is cleaned nightly. On average, each full-time custodian cleans more than 35,000 square feet on a nightly basis. This includes more than 1,000 individual classrooms.
• Custodians serve nearly 1,500 district and community events across the district.
• Larger custodial projects include the stripping and refinishing of tile and terrazzo sur- faces across the district and the refinishing of wood floor gymnasiums.
• Districtwide custodial equipment inventory continues. This enables us to accurately identify future needs.
• Daily custodial checklists have been updated and implemented to place a higher emphasis on surface disinfection.
• Every custodian has been provided an electrostatic ionizing backpack sprayer to be able to deep clean and disinfect large areas in a short period of time. This is especially important in the event of widespread illnesses at schools.
• Every elementary school has been provided with new vacuum equipment, replacing aging and obsolete machines.
• Every site district wide has transitioned to the Buckeye “E” chemical mixing and dispenser system. This allows custodians to mix and dispense their various cleaning products accurately and efficiently.
• The Buckeye Honors program has been initiated. This provides online and hands-on training for equipment and flooring maintenance.
• Staff worked diligently to stock and prepare the new Fine Arts band building at Union Tuttle Stadium for its inaugural school year.
• The High School Campus has seen the deployment of the district’s first robotic floor cleaning machine.
• Monthly lead custodian training and monthly crew meetings have been implemented to ensure all staff are trained and adhere to district cleaning and safety expectations.

The Grounds Division employs 12 full-time groundskeepers and equipment operators, one small-engine mechanic, and one district grounds coordinator. The Grounds Division maintains over 450 acres of land. During peak mowing sea- son, each grounds man is responsible for maintaining over 40 acres of land. The grounds division is responsible for mowing, edging, blowing, fertilizing, and treating all district grass and naturally surfaced athletic fields. All landscaping design and maintenance is handled in-house. This includes all district flowerbeds and trees.

Responsibilities

• The laydown and removal of large event set-ups across the district, including the portable basketball floor at the UMAC.
• Inspecting and maintaining all playground equipment across the district.
• Plowing, clearing, and sanding the entire district during severe winter weather events.
• Resealing and repairing smaller sections of our asphalt parking lots in-house. This increases the longevity of the lot and reduces the cost of resurfacing.
• Providing signage and painting for all district parking lots and bus loops across the district.
• Assisting with painting, plumbing, and power-washing projects across the district.
• Major projects included resealing large areas of the Ellen Ochoa Elementary lot, assisting with large underground plumbing repairs, and assisting with furniture moving for large remodel projects across the district.

The Maintenance Division employs 12 skilled tradesmen, 24 building engineers, and one district maintenance coordinator. Our tradesmen include five HVAC technicians, two electricians, one plumber, one kitchen technician, two carpenters, and one locksmith. Our 24 building engineers are responsible for maintaining the mechanical systems of their respective sites. They also are responsible for minor repairs.

In addition:

• Staff closes nearly 10,000 repair and preventative maintenance work orders every year.
• Larger projects include UMAC/High School Campus electrical upgrades, HVAC unit replacements, major water leak repairs, shelving fabrication, small roof replacements, and other large repairs.
• HVAC technicians and electricians worked diligently to reduce energy consumption during PSO peak events, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars returned to Union in the way of rebates.
• Implementing a building engineer training and license test preparation program has been a goal for the division. The goal of the program is to prepare future building engineer candidates from the ranks of our custodial and grounds staff, as well as to ensure all building engineers obtain a minimum 3rd class stationary engineers license or boiler operator license. 10 employees obtained their state boiler license this year.

Union Public Schools employed a director of security and a security coordinator, as well as 12 full-time security officers at the secondary schools, two at the elementary school sites and 25 part-time officers for athletic and special events. One Broken Arrow school resource officer was on call daily, in addition to nine off-duty Tulsa Police Department officers on a rotating schedule, allowing one to patrol the district each day.

Employees completed more than 26,817 assigned training courses, for a training completion rate of 80 percent. The security coordinator met with students at elementary sites weekly and performed routine safety walks at all sites, with follow-ups including the site administrator.
 

Facility scheduling not only encompasses the actual event, but all the communications, operations, and maintenance required to prepare, set up, run, and clean up every event.

Two employees coordinated 51,012 internal events and 2,108 external rentals involving scheduling, contracts, scheduling conflict resolution, staffing, and set-up and tear-down for fiscal year 2022-23.

The Facilities Department also schedules, stocks, and operates UMAC Concessions, serving 35 UMAC events last year.

Completed Projects

• Outdoor canopy at Community Health Connection
• Operations loading dock improvements
• Playground improvements at Peters and Rosa Parks
• Band Building and volleyball renovations at High School
• Freezer/cooler replacement at Cedar Ridge
• Flooring improvements at Jarman, Peters, Rosa Parks, Jefferson, and Alternative Education
• Roofing improvements/replacements at Union High School and Andersen
• VRF Replacement at Rosa Parks
• Pavement improvements at Union High School and Union Collegiate Academy
• Sewer line replacement at Union High School
• HVAC replacements at Grove
• Track and turf replacement at Union High School
• Exterior improvements at Clark and Andersen
• Secure entry and office remodel at Jarman

Ongoing and Planned Projects

• Roofing improvements/replacements at Grove and ESC
• Freezer/cooler replacement at Andersen
• Innovation Lab – Phase II
• Districtwide building automation system upgrades
• Playground improvements at Grove Elementary
• HVAC replacements at Peters
• Flooring improvements at ESC
• 6th/7th Grade Center Improvements
• UMAC lighting and audio improvements
• Building automation system integration at Union Freshman Academy
• High School HVAC improvements
• 8th Grade Center kitchen renovation
• Districtwide pavement improvements
   

• Purchased 3,300 new student laptops.
• Activated 300 home routers for student internet at home.
• Installed more than 70 new interactive flat panels in classrooms throughout the district.
• Continued to enhance physical security measures throughout the district.
• Enabled dual authentication for all user accounts.
• Enabled dual authentication for all servers and VPN access.
• Numerous firewall and cybersecurity updates.
• Deployed a classroom management software piece.
• Upgraded security cameras at the High School, 8th Grade Center, and Freshmen Academy.