Bend-La Pine Schools is served by nearly 900 classified employees who clean and maintain buildings, cook and serve meals, drive buses, support students in the classroom, ensure technology is performing well, answer phones and greet families and so much more. This week, Bend-La Pine Schools is celebrating all of the support staff members and their contributions during National Classified School Employee Appreciation Week, March 6-10.

“This is the week designated to celebrate the contributions of our classified employees. One week is nowhere near enough time to fully show appreciation for our classified staff in Bend-La Pine Schools,” said Superintendent Steven Cook. “We thank them for being part of our district family, sharing their diverse talents and true dedication, and nurturing students throughout their school years.”

Support staff by the numbers:

• Bend-La Pine Schools is home to 884 classified employees – a wide range of staff members including office staff, custodial, maintenance, transportation, Information Technology, educational assistance, Nutrition Services and more.
• Our Transportation Department traveled 1,452,575 miles last school year for home to school, 44,568 miles for academic field trips and 137,000 miles for athletic field trips. Our drivers transport an average of 3,138 students each morning and afternoon covering approximately 16,000 square miles.
• Our Information Technology team has 30 staff members who support thousands of mobile and desktop devices across 33 schools.
• Maintenance and custodial crews maintain more than 3.2 million square feet of school building space and outside maintenance crews maintain 600 acres of grass, parking lots and landscaping.
• September 2022 through January 2023, our Nutrition Services staff members served 765,622 meals and 81,960 snacks through the fresh fruit and veggie program (free at six eligible schools).