January always delivers an opportunity for fresh starts. At VPCS, we’re kicking off 2024 from our beautiful new headquarters, where we’re gearing up for another year of service to a growing list of California’s K-12 communities. Here are just a few things we’re excited about as we look ahead:
A bigger, better home base. We recently relocated our central offices to a space that suits our growing firm. Still rooted in Fairfield, we’ve moved just up the road to the Busch Campus Business Park at 450 Chadbourne – easily accessible from I-80, I-680 and Highway 12.
Room to gather. The new office expands the opportunities for members of our team to spend time here – to meet, work, collaborate, visit and more. “Now that we have this space, it changes how we can do things as a company,” says Vice President Kelli Van Pelt Jurgenson. “It gives us flexibility and keeps us all more connected.”
Access to co-working facilities. Our Busch Campus tenancy affords us privileges at a supplemental space called The Daily Desk, located right next door. This shared work facility essentially serves as an annex to our own offices, giving us access to additional individual workstations, enclosed offices and large conference rooms. “We can use it for staff training or larger gatherings for up to 100 people,” says President Mark Van Pelt. “Anyone in our company can use this space and when they do, they’ll have the latest presentation and collaboration technology right at their fingertips. It’s really amazing.”
A hub for service. Upgrading our headquarters gives us a stronger foundation from which to address all of our clients’ needs. “We’ve always been good at collaborating across teams but having a space that really encourages people to come together helps us serve every one of our districts better,” notes Kelli. “Some of our districts require only three-person teams and others need ten or more of us, but when questions come up for any client we harness the expertise of every single one of our employees until we find the answer. It’s an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
Thoughtful growth. Even as we steadily add new K-12 districts to our client roster and expand our reach into new communities around California, we carefully manage our growth. “We’ve grown both in terms of new districts and in employees over the past few years, but we’re still a family-run, service-oriented business,” says Director of Business Development Jennifer Gibb. “We’re capable of serving the state’s biggest districts but are still honored when asked to support its smallest. We deliver the same quality and integrity, whatever the size of the client.”
Staying true to our core values. Even after 28 years, we know how lucky we are to be in this business that we enjoy so much. Our industry has changed since we opened our doors in 1996, and we’ve enjoyed steady growth because we’ve adapted along with it. Still, we’ve never forgotten that we started out as two brothers with a desire to do things a little differently. Today, we’re a successful ~50-person company that’s recognized around the state as a leader in our field. But our fundamental ethos has never changed. That’s why we look at the start of each new year as a gift and vow, once again, to give all that we’ve got to our clients and their communities all year long.
January 29, 2024