Three Finalists Selected for Supporting Services Employee of the Year
Three supporting services employees have been named finalists for the 2025 Supporting Services Employee of the Year. This year’s annual awards, given by SEIU Local 500 and MCPS, are recognizing Esquibel (Celi) Andino, bus operator, Randolph Transportation Depot; Josephine (Josie) Marinucci, school secretary I, Westover Elementary School and John Sparrow, paraeducator, Poolesville High School. The winner will be announced at a celebration in May.
Read more about the finalists:
Esquibel (Celi) Andino, or Ms. Celi, as she is affectionately known, is a bus operator for Greenwood Elementary and Sherwood High schools. In addition to her usual routes, she is always on standby for Rosa Parks Middle School, and she regularly drives for field trips across the county.
She goes the extra mile to start each child’s day on a positive note. She knows that her role isn’t just about getting students from point A to point B; it’s about creating a positive and reassuring experience for students and their families. Each day, she greets students with a warm smile and a pleasant disposition, ensuring they feel safe and ready, and she ends each ride making sure they return home feeling valued. Perhaps some of her student riders say it best:
“Ms. Celi makes me feel happy,” a kindergartener said. “She always says hello when I come on the bus.”
“This morning, we almost missed the bus,” a fourth grader noted. “Ms. Celi was so nice. She stopped in front of our house and waited until I got my shoes on. She always keeps us safe.”
Parents and school staff agree that Andino genuinely cares about the well-being of the students in her care. She keeps parents updated on changes in routine, road closures and delays that could impact commutes.
When restrictions put in place during the pandemic were lifted and schools began to reopen, Andino eased parents’ minds by sharing her cell number with them, and encouraging them to text back their child’s names so she could get to know them quickly. This also enabled her to have parents’ numbers in case of an emergency.
She cares for the community, and the community shows their support and respect for her. When she missed work for a surgery, they rallied, sending in sweet notes and best wishes. Andino kept them posted on her recovery and the children were ecstatic when she returned to work.
For 22 years, Josephine (Josie) Marinucci has been a dedicated MCPS employee. As the school secretary for Westover Elementary School, she is the cornerstone of the attendance office, meticulously maintaining accurate records, helping families navigate attendance policies and cultivating a welcoming environment for everyone who walks through the front doors. She proactively addresses attendance issues by analyzing data and connecting families to the right resources to prevent chronic absenteeism. She helps facilitate kindergarten orientation, plays a musical instrument at the school’s winter concert, schedules and manages IEP and EMT meetings with communication to families and staff, and contributes to the yearly volunteer celebration.
Whether she’s retrieving a Band-Aid or finding a quiet spot for an overstimulated student to rest, she manages to do it with grace, peace and expertise. She makes every student feel loved and appreciated. It is often Marinucci who makes the difference between a bad day and a good one.
She is a shining example of how everyone can make a difference every single day.
She has learned to speak Spanish so she can communicate with Spanish-speaking families, knowing the importance of building strong relationships that contribute to student success. She is inspirational and enthusiastic with staff as well, encouraging colleagues to participate in various wellness challenges and providing staff with motivational treats along the way.
She is a dedicated advocate, confidante and protector who plays a key role in fostering a positive culture at Westover. All of this earned her the highest level of respect from colleagues and the school community.
Paraeducator John Sparrow has dedicated nearly all of his 39 years with MCPS to the Global Ecology Program, and is described as the “heart and soul” of the Poolesville High School program.
He is deeply involved in every aspect of the program, from driving the bus and planning itineraries to setting up tents, preparing meals and managing equipment. These experiences are rich and rigorous academic learning experiences for students. An avid nature lover, Sparrow works closely with multiple agencies to ensure that each field trip connects classroom learning to real-world environmental experiences. He builds relationships with students that help them learn not only the classroom content, but also life skills such as how to read a map, plant a tree or communicate clearly with adults. Nearly every day, he drives the school bus taking students and staff on field experiences, ranging from Sugarloaf Mountain to destinations across the Chesapeake Bay.
But Sparrow’s true value to the program is to the students. He knows all 400 names of his current students, and can recall hundreds of students from the past. He takes the time to get to know them and their interests. He finds programs and internships to guide students in their next steps. He helps them find extracurricular opportunities to help the environment. He sponsors the school’s BayCo Club, which encourages students to take action to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay and promotes environmental advocacy, such as storm drain awareness, creating oyster reef balls and increased recycling at school.
He is also a fixture in the Poolesville community. He fosters meaningful relationships by supporting student events. He coached several sports, where he cultivates strong character building for student-athletes who serve as positive role models. Every year, Sparrow and the BayCo Club run a booth at Poolesville Day to promote efforts to Save the Bay and organize recycling pick ups at the event.