St. Regis school maintenance engineer making a difference

ST. REGIS – As the students and staff at the St. Regis High School go about their daily tasks like taking tests, giving tests, studying for ACTs and SATs, worrying about who to take to prom and all the other things that happen on a daily basis at this school, it might be easy to take for granted the work of one man who arrives at the building before they even get to the bus stop or their parking spot.

But for John Pienciak, the work he does isn’t meant to be noticed or necessarily appreciated (although it is by many). It’s just his job and what that job entails is making sure things work at the high school in St. Regis. From making the sure the gym floor sparkles for the next home game to making sure light fixtures provide a safely lit facility, Pienciak goes about his rounds doing what is necessary beginning in the wee hours of the morning.

Pienciak, who hails from New Jersey originally and who has called Montana home for the last eight years, said for him, his position as maintenance supervisor for St. Regis High School affords him the opportunity to put his skills to use for a worthy cause.

“I maintain the whole building inside and outside,” Pienciak said. “I do painting, cleaning…whatever it takes. I fix the boilers, fix the tractor.”

Pienciak gets to the school at 6:30 a.m. every morning. He said he starts by getting projects out of the way that might otherwise cause commotion that could disrupt normal school operations and then it’s business as usual performing whatever tasks are required that day. But he doesn’t just stop at fixing the building and making sure things run smoothly. He also makes time to help students when they have something that needs fixing.

According to St. Regis High School Principal Joe Steele, one student brought a remote controlled car to play with recently during recess and is often the case with youngsters, they played a little too rough with the toy. When brought to his attention, Pienciak took it upon himself to repair the car and within a half an hour, Steele said it was running better than when it arrived on the playground.

“He’s a really great guy,” Steele said. “He’s got a big heart and he works really hard. He doesn’t need much direction. He finds things that need to get done and he just does it. He’s amazing at what he does. He also does things for our special ed department. They didn’t have anything for kids to practice fine motor skills so within half an hour he built something for the kids to work their finger muscles. He was able to fix some other devices for them that were broken. He’s been a great asset. He was able to fix that little kid’s toy and he says it works better now than when he took it out of the box. I don’t think there’s anything he can’t do.”

Pienciak, in typically modest fashion, said there wasn’t much to the actual repair job. What mattered to him he said, was that it mattered to the student.

“They gave it to me to see if I could fix it,” Pienciak said. “I just glued the wheels back on. It wasn’t a big deal. But for the kid it was. He was ecstatic. It’s little things like that that make me happy. He was happy, so I was happy.”