Sky Joyner

Some individuals are just naturally easy to communicate with and seem able to help you in any situation. I had become acquainted with Sky Joyner when I first became Assistant Suprintendent at Corona. Both of us were members of California Association of School Business Officials or CAPSBO and the Association of School Business Officials of the U. S. and Canada or ASBO. Members of both organizations were dedicated to helping each other.

When I encountered a problem with management of School Food Services, I thought immediately of Sky Joyner, Business Manager of Los Angeles Schools who had recently put on a program at a CAPSBO meeting. Corona had a Food Services Supervisor who had no record-keeping system for either food or money. I was insisting that we organize an accounting arrangement to allow us to tell where we were at every school. I furnished her with sample systems used in other school food operations. She refused to implement any system at all and ,in fact, defied all attempts to get an accounting of cafeteria funds.

I must admit this Supervisor had me "out gunned" because no wedding in Corona was complete without the catering services of this lady. She was a pillar in her church and her reputation as a "feeder of people" was wide spread and unimpeachable. Who was I to challenge her management of food services?

I knew what I could do. I called Sky Joyner who had indicated in his recent CAPSBO program that Los Angeles had some problems similar to mine. To solve them, he had hired a consulting team from San Francisco, a man and his wife, who specialized in establishing record systems for food service operations. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Flambert were truly experts in food service. He in preparation and service and she in record keeping. They had advised hotel and restaurant chains, steamship lines and college and university food services all over the world. When I called them they agreed to spend a few days in Corona and evaluate our food services system.

Sky had spent five minutes on the telephone with me but now I was not the one pointing the accusing finger at the Supervisor. It was the food service experts whose qualifications were unquestionable. The Flamberts attended a Board of Education meeting and made an oral report to the Board. Of course their report was accepted and the Supervisor resigned.

I could cite dozens of incidents that illustrate the work of Sky Joyner. He was always available to help school districts of all sizes and in all states. He became President of ASBO while I was in Torrance and I had the privilege of serving on his Convention Committee and we met at the new Statler Hotel in Los Angeles.

I recall sitting at the San Francisco Airport with Sky while waiting for a flight to Los Angeles. We discussed the problems of a fellow Business Manager who had just lost his job. We agreed on a way to get him a job and it really worked out just as we had planned.

After Sky and I had retired, Guin and I had lunch with him in Santa Monica where we were both doing some consulting work for that school district. Sky had cancer and knew his days were numbered but he was the same person as always, interested in the well being of all his friends. It was indeed an honor to have worked with Sky Joyner, the "Top of the Line" in school business management.