The Patterson Joint Unified School District recognized two employees of the month at its March 5 board meeting. Irma Oliveira, Northmead Elementary School secretary, and Cathy Schulz-Brown, a teacher at Walnut Grove School, were each honored with a gift certificate and a keychain.

Northmead Principal Joe Silveira nominated Oliveira, who he said had performed extra duties in the office — such as translating documents — that resulted in extra hours of work.

“The front office can be a dance,” Silveira said at the meeting. “Irma really became my right hand — she’s the right side of my brain. Irma is one who has gone above and beyond, and she stays on campus until the job is done.

“Irma is a great employee, committed to students and to parents.”

Alma Romo, principal of Walnut Grove Elementary School, nominated Schulz-Brown, explaining that she cares about her kindergarten-through-eighth-grade resource students and strives to make them lifelong learners.

“She makes them understand they can learn at their own pace,” Romo said. “Her time is not limited to special-education students. Her door is always open to anyone who needs her help.”

Schulz-Brown is always seeking ways to make the resource program better, giving it her all, Romo said. She takes time to show all of her students and their parents how to view their grades online, monitor what work they have turned in and understand how to improve their marks.