Ukrainian immigrant honored as "1998 Employee of the Year" (04/04/99)

Ukrainian immigrant honored as "1998 Employee of the Year"

SAN RAMON, Calif. - A school custodian who plays chess with a sixth-grade whiz before school and carves orange peels into flowers is bound to attract attention. Vladimir Moskalenko, once a cartographer and part-owner of a mapping company in Kyiv, was named "1998 Employee of the Year" by the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce.

The San Francisco Chronicle carried a story about the award and its unusual recipient.

Mr. Moskalenko, 48, moved from Kyiv with his children and parents five years ago to join relatives in Contra Costa County. He has dreamed of living in California since he was a teenager.

Mr. Moskalenko worked two and three jobs at a time when he first arrived in the United States - making pizzas, delivering newspapers and doing other odd jobs to support his family. A friend suggested that he apply for the custodial position at Montevideo Elementary School to secure higher wages and medical benefits for his family.

According to Mr. Moskalenko, he made himself at home: "When I started to work at the Montevideo school, I worked as if I was the owner of the school. If I saw broken stuff, I didn't ask anybody, I just fixed it." His untraditional approach to the job had the principal worried that Mr. Moskalenko's employment would not work out. A logical man, he would do things the way they seemed to make most sense, sometimes disregarding established methods of work. The principal challenged him to an arm wrestling match, after which the winner would determine the way things were to be done around the place.

"He just looked at me and burst out laughing. From that moment on, he never stopped smiling," said Wendy Sparks, the school's principal.

After they talked, she would regularly find surprises around the school. Mr. Moskalenko installed hooks for umbrellas in the staff closet; he built a shelf for a teacher who had books stacked on the floor; Ms. Sparks was delighted to find electrical cords that had been lying across the cafeteria kitchen floor neatly attached to the walls.

He worked the day shift and looked forward to seeing the students. Once a child asked him to peel an orange with his fishing knife, and Mr. Moskalenko unconsciously carved the orange peels into the petals of a flower, as he had learned to do from his father in Ukraine. After that, kids often asked him to peel their oranges for them.

The Montevideo staff nominated Mr. Moskalenko for the Chamber of Commerce award even though he left his job in April for a permanent position at a nearby middle school. Principal Sparks commented: "He was such an incredible role model for children and the staff."

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