Maintenance supervisor to retire after 16 years

From 1967 to 1971, Brian Moran, now plant operations supervisor and maintenance director, walked the halls of Saratoga High as a student. He remembers loving working in the school’s woodshop, where he learned tangible skills for his future as a builder. For the past 16 years, he has used those same skills in his job and played a vital role in overseeing the school’s facilities.

In June, he plans to retire.

Moran, 66, wants to pursue and expand on past hobbies and have new adventures. With Saratoga as his hometown, he has spent the majority of his life making a living through helping the school run, working his woodshop and maintaining his properties.

Moran said, “Satisfaction for me actually just comes from meeting the day-to-day needs of the campus, where education and all the other events take place.”

Since he first found a job in the district through word of mouth, his role has been primarily service-related, ensuring that the students and teachers have adequate facilities, helping beautify the school and making sure that everything on the 40-acre campus is working properly ー all of which he finds rewarding to oversee.

There are certain projects, however, that Moran found particularly satisfying in seeing happen, a recent one being the construction of the new music building that opened in 2017. He attended all of the meetings for the music building and was a liaison with the contractor along with principal Paul Robinson.

Chemistry and Physics teacher Jenny Garcia, who has known him since he started to work at the school, said she has worked with him many times. “He always super happy to fill our requests and is very very supportive of the teaching staff,” she said. “It’s so helpful as a teacher.”

Garcia also recognizes that it’s easy for maintenance to push back requests, but Moran is always good-natured and happy to help.

As for future, Moran, who has three children and three grandchildren, looks forward to traveling and spending time with his family. He also plans to expand as a musician. Though he has played the guitar all his life, he said that “not having a full-time job will allow [him] some more time to pursue the simple things.”

Along with spending more time with his family and lifelong hobbies, Moran has a lot planned for his retirement. He primarily looks forward to maintaining his woodshop and his orchard, along with tending to all the neglected maintenance work on his large property located in the summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

And after catching up on his own projects,  he foresees working more with volunteer organizations. One particular organization that has great importance to him is Club Dust, which helps build homes for young families in Mexico.

Through this organization, Moran recalls traveling down to Mexico at least a dozen times, using his love for building to do something else he loves 一 help communities in need.

“It has been very satisfying seeing people that lived on blue tarps and provide them some security and shelter,” he said. The small 320-square-foot dwelling they built using two slabs of concrete builds a foundation for these families’ lives.

Moran also put his strengths to good use as a responder to Hurricane Harvey last April, and by watching over handicapped children through an organization called Camp Attitude.

Moran’s interests lie in everything from music to vegetable gardening. And after helping the school for almost two decades, he’s retiring to do more service; Moran’s good nature will now more often extend beyond the Saratoga High campus.

And as Moran leaves the school next year, the familiar face who zooms around the school looking for the next project will be missed not only by students, but also by the teaching staff.