Westminster Public Schools honors three employees with Fred Awards for customer service

Westminster Public Schools presented three Fred Awards at the district’s Feb. 27 board meeting, honoring staff members singled out by colleagues for exceptional customer service and support for students and families.

The Fred Award program, introduced by board presenters during the meeting, grew out of a 2013 initiative to standardize customer-service protocols across schools. The program uses a “three‑legged” implementation — training, protocols and celebration — and includes a short training video credited to Jeff Colbank and inspiration from author Mark Sanborn’s Fred Factor materials.

The first honoree, Amaranie (Amorani) Medina, a school secretary at Tennyson Knowles (identified in the nomination materials), was recognized for repeatedly going beyond routine duties to support students and families — including personally delivering groceries to a family in crisis and organizing staff events. The nominator, identified in the meeting as Molly Boyd, praised Medina’s role as a trusted adult for students and presented the winner with a trophy, a Fred Factor book and a Colorado STEM gift.

Paula Moldenhauer of Colorado Sports Leadership Academy was honored in absentia. Mary Camarillo was recorded as the nominator; CSLA principal Lindsay read Camarillo’s nomination, which described Moldenhauer’s extensive work creating bilingual, visual lessons to support English learner students and the long hours she dedicates to classroom preparation.

Sonia Gomez, secretary to the principal at Hodgkin’s, received the third award. Doug Krasowski, identified as the assistant principal at Hodgkin’s and listed as the nominator, credited Gomez with extra efforts to support newcomer students and families, including coming in on weekends to deliver clothing and supporting students with diabetes-related needs.

Board members and staff took photographs and offered public congratulations. Presenters noted that the Fred Award program is a recurring recognition the district uses to highlight employees who advance the district’s customer‑service and family‑engagement goals.

The meeting’s presenters framed the awards as part of a broader strategy to celebrate positive staff practices and to embed consistent customer-service expectations across Westminster Public Schools.