By Tyler Dahlgren

Armando Perez will tell you the brunt of his work at Wilber-Clatonia Public Schools is behind-the-scenes, but that doesn’t mean the network and systems administrator’s service goes unnoticed.

Oh, far from it, said superintendent Justin Petersen, who called Perez one of the district’s many unsung heroes.

“We’re spoiled with Armando, without a doubt,” Petersen said. “I’ll text him and say, ‘Dude, I can’t figure this out, something’s not working, or someone’s not getting logged in,’ and within 30 minutes, the problem is resolved and away we go.”

A test conducted over the summer found Wilber-Clatonia to be in the top 10-percent in the country in network security, and, in these hallways, there wasn’t any doubt as to why.

“Everybody in our district would say that Armando is invaluable,” Petersen said. “It’s great to have him here. A lot of schools our size don’t have that luxury.”

Ten years ago, they’d tell you the same thing in nearby Crete, where Perez cut his teeth in computer science before graduating in 2014. As a senior, he was already lending his technology services to his school. He’d always wanted to leave Nebraska, but ended up attending the University of Nebraska Kearney, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

Given his experiences at Crete, Perez knew where he wanted to end up. He tried working in the private sector for a while, but his heart was always in education.

“In the private sector, you primarily only do one thing,” Perez said. “In the education sector, you’re not only the network person, but you’re also the door security person, the camera person and the phone system person.”

Petersen remembers walking into school one day in August and finding Perez with his bag of tools manually fixing doors. Man, there’s nothing this guy can’t do, he thought.

“He’s in my phone as ‘Armando Pizza Party’, because he’s always calling for pizza parties,” laughed Petersen.

Perez brings that kind of levity every day, and though something like a school’s network security might tend to go underlooked, the world he works in is fascinating. And more important than you could imagine. School networks are always under attack. 

The district received a grant through ESU 6, where Perez worked before coming to W-C, under former superintendent Ray Collins that allowed them to put their current system in place. Everything, from the clocks on the wall to the intercom system and phones are connected to network panels through an IP, rather than directly to the internet. They’re less susceptible that way, and they’re able to fend off threats more efficiently.

“Being a first-time superintendent, you learn to understand how valuable it is to have a secure network, and to have the security cameras we put in, that’s necessary in today’s world where you want to be as safe and secure as possible,” Petersen said. “I don’t feel like we’ve taken a back road to anybody. The camera system that we purchased, that’s not middle-of-the-road equipment. It’s very top-of-the-line stuff, and it shows an investment we’ve made to our stakeholders. It tells them we’re making their children’s safety the top priority. That’s the biggest thing, really.”

The school also had a key fob system installed on every door, and the secretaries were given a panic button that would directly contact the sheriff’s office and immediately place the school into lockdown mode if need be.

Perez, who attended a security conference in Colorado just last month, is a busy man. Each morning, he comes into a list of tickets, AKA things people need him to fix. Those are actually some of his favorite docket items. He enjoys working with the W-C staff.

“Oh, they’re all very nice,” Perez said. “They expect things to be fixed, but they’re always patient and friendly. They know I could be helping another teacher or in a meeting or at a conference. We have a good system in place where, most of the time, I can fix their issues remotely, so that’s been nice.”

Perez is unbelievably dependable, added Petersen. When outdated projection screens started to shut down in classrooms across the building, he and Perez sat down to tackle the problem with a solution. They opted for new screens, and ordered enough to have extras on-hand to swap out for a dying projector at the drop of a hat.

That’s one thing Petersen and Perez have in common. They’re both forward-thinkers, and it just so happens that this is a forward-thinking district.

“I don’t ever claim to be a tech whiz, so coming into work and knowing that we’re going to be safe and we’re going to be secure has been a blessing,” Petersen said. “And if something comes up, or if something goes down, Armando is amazing at communication, ‘Hey, something’s down. Just so you know, we’re on it.’ It makes my job easier and allows me to communicate that to the staff, oftentimes before they even realize something is down.”

As a superintendent in a small town, Petersen knows he’s expected to wear several hats. With Perez on the staff, network and systems administrator isn’t one of them. 

For Perez, the work is rewarding. The education sector, he’s learned, is the place for him.

“I like this, it’s a great job and I get to be around good people,” Perez said. “It’s nice to be appreciated by the kids and the teachers. It means a lot when they say ‘Thank you for fixing this.’ At the end of the day, that makes me feel good. It means I’m doing a decent job.”

Perez is the man behind the firewall. One of the key cogs that keeps this machine working like it does.

Now that’s worth a pizza party or two.