Andrew Nelson – Ocean City School District

In his first few days as director of facilities for Ocean City School District, Andrew Nelson set out to do something that had nothing to do with roofs, boilers or budgets: he learned everyone’s name. Not just the department heads, but every custodian, every maintenance technician, every member of the 27-person team now reporting to him. It was a small gesture, but one rooted in a leadership philosophy he had been refining for years, long before he ever set foot on the barrier island he now calls his professional home.

“Within my first few days, I knew everybody’s names, because that is important,” Nelson says.

That instinct for relationship-building has become a defining trait of his tenure, helping him guide a veteran team through an ambitious stretch of capital projects while managing the particular demands of a coastal school district. Ocean City School District serves a resort community devoted to cultivating an exceptional education and rich experiences for a community of high-achieving learners, a mission that depends heavily on the condition of the buildings where that learning happens.

Technical expertise & leadership

Nelson’s path to facilities leadership began in the electrical trade. He spent more than seven years as a lead electrician at Hayman Electric before serving as an electrical foreman at Mercury Solar Systems, an experience that gave him a technical grounding he still draws on today. He later spent over 11 years with the Vineland Board of Education, starting as an HVAC technician and working his way into facilities operations and maintenance. That district, with 16 schools competing for limited resources, taught him how to stretch a budget without cutting corners on safety or quality.

“You have only so many pennies to rub together,” Nelson says.

He joined Ocean City School District in March 2024, moving from a large, resource-strapped district to a smaller one with a different culture and a different set of pressures. The high school was built in 2004, and many of its major systems are now approaching the end of their expected lifespan, a reality made more urgent by the district’s location roughly 1,000 feet from the ocean. Salt air accelerates wear on roofing, mechanical systems and building envelopes, forcing Nelson and his team to think further ahead than most of their inland counterparts. His continued involvement with the Atlantic County Chapter of the New Jersey School Buildings and Grounds Association keeps him connected to peers navigating similar challenges and reinforces his own commitment to staying current on best practices in the field.

Accountability, growth & team success

Nelson describes himself as a leader rather than a manager, a distinction he takes seriously. He works alongside his staff on a daily basis, pairing longtime employees with newer hires so institutional knowledge is not lost when veterans eventually retire. One custodian at the high school has been with the district for 37 years and is still, in Nelson’s words, happy as can be. Another, the head custodian, recently turned 76 after more than three decades in the industry and continues to help shape younger staff members coming up behind him.

“I have one employee who has been here 37 years, he is 69 and happy as can be,” Nelson says.

Retaining that kind of experience matters in a labor market where skilled tradespeople are difficult to find and even harder to keep. Nelson has been developing an apprenticeship-style program to attract younger workers seeking a sustainable career with real benefits, catching interested candidates as early as possible and investing in their growth. He also makes a point of recognizing his team’s contributions, from routine praise to formal staff-of-the-month recognitions, an approach he credits with strengthening morale across the department. Many of his employees are also members of the Ocean City community, some of them former students in the very buildings they now maintain, a source of pride Nelson says cannot be manufactured from the outside.

“We are Ocean City. I want our buildings to operate at the highest levels,” Nelson says.

That pride extends to the technology and methods his team uses to keep buildings running efficiently. Staff currently clean roughly 20,000 square feet apiece per shift, the equivalent of ten houses per person, and Nelson is constantly evaluating new equipment, such as autoscrubbers that clean faster than traditional mopping, to help his team work smarter within a tight budget. Technology, he is careful to note, can take on repetitive tasks, but it cannot replace the people who keep the district’s buildings running.

Proactive planning & stewardship

Nowhere has that balance of planning and stewardship been more evident than in the recent roof restoration at Ocean City High School. Facing a 160,000-square-foot roof nearing the end of its useful life, Nelson’s team used detailed imaging and structural evaluations to determine that the roof could be restored rather than replaced, a decision that avoided roughly double the cost and an estimated two-year construction timeline. Executing the project in a densely residential, tourist-driven neighborhood added layers of complexity most districts never have to consider: coordinating staging for 15 tractor-trailers of material, securing a grass lot from the city for equipment storage, and managing noise complaints from summer renters staying just blocks from the work site. Crews also removed 380 tons of stone from the roof, a demanding and disruptive phase of the project that required careful scheduling around the tourist season.

“We’re a block from the beach, so where do we put the equipment? How do we deal with the foot traffic?” Nelson says.

Despite the challenges, the project has largely stayed on pace, with substantial completion targeted for August 31 so classrooms can reopen without ongoing construction noise. Its success has already prompted Nelson to consider a similar restoration approach at the district’s Intermediate School in the coming years, alongside recently completed upgrades to the high school auxiliary gymnasium floor and facade, both phased carefully to limit disruption to students and staff.

For Nelson, the work is ultimately about trust, the same principle that guides his relationships with his team. He points to his own parents, married 55 years and partners in a small business for a decade, as an early example of what steady communication and mutual respect can build over time. He carries that same philosophy into his department, where he believes trust between manager and staff is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

“If there isn’t trust, you’ve lost and are fighting a losing battle,” Nelson says.

Outside of work, Nelson keeps that same value close to home, splitting his time between his wife and two children, weekly dinners at his parents’ house, and afternoons at the beach that first drew him to the shore. It is a rhythm that mirrors the steady, relationship-driven approach he brings to Ocean City’s schools each day, one built not around any single project, but around the people, buildings and community he has committed to serving for years to come.