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EDCOE Team Member Spotlight - Jeff Janoian
01:30 AM - June 15, 2020
Interview with Jeff:
Briefly describe your background (where you grew up, family, why you came to work for EDCOE).
I grew up in Southern California, living there for the first half of my life. My two older brothers, as well as my parents, still live in the suburbs of LA county. In fact, my parents (both 90 years old and still going strong) still live in the house I grew up in. When I was thirty years old, I did some work in the Sacramento area as well as El Dorado County. I fell in love with Northern California, moving first to the Carmichael area in mid-1989. It was about a year later (June of 1990) when I saw the Microcomputer Specialist position in the IT department of EDCOE open up, for which I applied and was fortunate to obtain that position. This position at EDCOE was a great opportunity for me to work and live in the area I really wanted to be, that is, El Dorado County.
What is your department, title, and how long have you worked for EDCOE?
I work in the Information Technology Department (IT) as a Programmer/Systems Analyst located at EDCOE’s main office. I have now been with the organization for exactly 30 years. Time does fly!
Describe how your role helps support programs/schools/students directly or indirectly.
My role at EDCOE is a supporting role. However, I often provide direct support to school administrators and staff as well as supporting students indirectly. Much of my work is in supporting and maintaining our financial system (QSS/HSS) which is used by all districts in our county to run district/school business processes such as Payroll, Accounts Payable, Personnel Services, etc. We are very fortunate in this county to have all of our districts using the same financial system for which we provide the hosting located at our main office. Many counties in California have multiple systems which can make the financial work we do at a county office level much more difficult.
There are many projects that I have been fortunate to be a part of over the years for which I have or had a major role with the project’s development and implementation. Many of these have directly impacted our student population. Here are just a few of those projects:
- CALocalscholarships.org: Scholarship site developed in-house to provide graduating seniors lists of grants and scholarships that are locally given.
- Extended Day Billing System and Time-Clock: Complete turnkey billing/accounting software as well as check in/check out time clock process for parents.
- Academic Decathlon: Created processes for assisting in scoring tabulation as well as assisting the medal presentation process.
- Golden Star Student Awards: Created software for honoring about 20 percent of our countywide student population with awards and recognition given at Fair time.
What do you most appreciate about your department/team?
I cannot say enough about the team I work with. Our team is truly that, a team. We have such a cohesiveness in our IT department. I know if I have a need of support from any of my coworkers, I have it. I have been extremely fortunate over the last 30 years to have so many good people that have come and gone in my department. Having such wonderful personnel to work with made it such a pleasure to be a part of IT.
What is your proudest moment at EDCOE? Why?
I would say that my proudest moment/accomplishment was the development of our Scholarship web site. Our Superintendent at the time, Dr. Vicki Barber, came to me nearly 20 years ago wanting to know if there was a way to house locally-given scholarships on a web site. It had come to her attention that many graduating students looking to apply for scholarships, had applied for a few but were not aware that there were a multitude of scholarships of which they were qualified to apply. I was tasked to create the web site to provide students more comprehensive scholarship listings. The site I created allowed students to input their demographic information along with their honors and achievements, work history, extracurricular activities, etc. Once entered, the algorithms in the program would display the scholarships that qualified for based on their information. This web site has been widely used with our graduating seniors throughout the entire county. It has also been instrumental for many of our career guidance counselors at our high schools. They used it extensively when assisting students in their scholarship needs. Currently, Laura Thomas, a Systems Analyst with our IT department, is working on a new, more modern look to the web site. This site will go so much farther than the original and will provide so much more for both student and counselor. It has been such a pleasure to be a part of this project.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Well, most of our employees at our office are probably already aware that I really love to ride my Harley. My red Harley is quite often nestled in the motorcycle parking area near the Print Shop. I truly love being on the road in the open air. Since I am looking to retire in a year, I hope to do a lot of road trips.
One other passion that I have really enjoyed over the last few years has been the guitar. I love to play and I am always looking to learn more. (Thank you Sean Fitzgerald in the Print Shop, for helping me with your vast guitar knowledge. J )
What is something many people may not know about you?
Well, many do not know that Kim Kardashian is my second cousin. (Yes, I know. Not something to brag about). However, that being said, I think something that hardly anyone knows about me is that I am an airplane pilot. I got my license back in the early 80’s and have over 500 hours of flying. Even though I am not current with my license, flying has always been a passion for me, and I keep thinking of getting back in the plane again. We will see.
If you could meet anyone in the world, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
I think for me it would be cool to talk to Ben Franklin. He seems like someone that I could relate with. His personality, knowledge, humor, and scientific mind along with the fact that he was instrumental in our nation’s founding, would keep me glued to his every word.
From supervisor, David Seabury, Director, Information Technology:
Jeff’s history of maintaining our financial system, designing websites, and delivering custom-built programs is legendary. Considering that he has been working at EDCOE for over 30 years, his knowledge of our organization is vast. When departments and school districts come to us with a unique challenge that cannot be solved by an “off the shelf” program, Jeff is the guy to take the lead and develop a working solution while collaborating with the entire IT team as needed. He is always willing to offer support for anyone that needs assistance. Jeff is an absolute pleasure to work with, and we appreciate all that he has done for EDCOE and our school districts.