During a brainstorming session, The Connection staff wanted to present its readers with light feature articles about the people of the district. Before we knew it, we were inquiring about couples who work for Sac City.

We didn’t have a problem finding them. And as we started our interview with one couple, we found that more couples exist in the school or in a department. Five couples were initially interviewed. This is the first of an ongoing series. If you have a couple in mind, call 561-4900.

Sac City has played a big role in the lives of Jacqueline and Vincent Matranga. Not only professionally, but personally as well. They met while working at Peter Lassen Junior High now Hiram Johnson High School West Campus. She was a teacher, and he was a school police officer.

Vince: What first attracted me to Jackie was her attire. She wore the nicest clothes to work. She was so well dressed that I originally thought she was the principal. When I saw her, I said to myself that I have to get to know this person.

Jackie: For him it was love at first sight. For me it wasn’t! (laughing)

Vince: I guess this one of those situations where opposites attract. We became friends and then we started dating. In 1983 we got married.

Jackie: While I was working at Peter Lassen I was also a Mary Kay consultant, and for our first date Vince invited me to his house for a facial.

Vince: Before she came I put on all this after shave to smell good. When she put on the facial, it burnt the heck out of my face.

The after shave and the facial somehow reacted with each other, and there was this burning sensation. I was sitting there thinking that I don’t ever want another facial.

Jackie: After the facial we went out for dinner with Vince’s uncle and his wife.

Vince: My uncle, who’s a real comedian, kept giving Jackie a hard time for burning my face.

Jackie: The first two years we both worked in the same place and that was really nice. Vince helped me out and he was someone I could always count on. I was used to working with friends and having him there was a bonus.

Vince: We don’t see each other very much at work. We work in completely different areas. Jackie’s a vice principal at Goethe Middle School and I’m in security services. My office is downtown. I only see her if I drop by Goethe, but I kind of like it that way. Then, when we see each other, it’s at home in a more relaxed setting.

Vince: Not really. When I leave work I like to leave it behind.

Jackie: My job has more of an impact on us. I’m a workaholic. I work all the time. Vince leaves work at work, while I bring it home. Sometimes I come home and tell him not to talk to me because I have a huge project to work on. Then I lock myself up and work all night. There are times when Vince’s work interrupts our personal life too.

Vince: I’m on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I get phone calls at all hours and on weekends. Not too long ago my pager went off while we were having coffee and listening to music in a restaurant. Most of the things I’m paged for after hours are emergencies, and I have to take care of them right away.

Jackie: Vince is good at handling situations like that. He doesn’t get upset or frustrated — he just takes care of it.

Jackie: We spent two years designing our house together. We sat down and drew it all from scratch. We went to model homes and open houses and got ideas to find out what we liked and didn’t like. Now, we like spending time decorating it.

Vince: We have an eight-year-old son, Vincent, and we try to spend as much time with him as possible. I want to be as active as possible with Vincent. I want us to be close together as he grows up and Jackie and I get older.

Jackie: We try to create memories for him and think of things we can do as a family. Vincent is at a great age right now. We play games with him and help him with his homework.

Vince: We also enjoy sports together. We share Sacramento Kings season tickets, and we also like to go to baseball games.

Jackie: Hopefully, I’ll still be working for the district. I have worked in Sac City for 19 years and I like it. Both Vince and I have an interest in the education of children. We enjoy working with kids.

Vince: I will definitely work for Sac City. This is my 27th year in the district and I look forward to going to work every day. I look forward to seeing the people I work with. I consider them to be family. I also look forward to the day when I can go to work in the new administration building without being plagued by all the parking problems!