Secretaries of the Year (2022)

Robin Dorsett– Martinsville High School

The recipient of this award must be someone who gives exemplary service, plans or assists in innovative programs to benefit all students, and gives special consideration to those who work hard to improve the learning environment for students and staff, as well as the community.

Here are some comments written about Robin:

“Orders all food and items needed to run concession stands and is in charge of all the ordering, organizing, cleaning, and operations of the concession stands at the High School.

She works concession stands for football, boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, wrestling, and swimming. If you need popcorn or a snack at one of the games, you will find her in the concession stands. She works with different athletic teams to organize and run the concessions for all of our sporting events. She uses her own time to grill hamburgers, prepare sloppy joe meat, cook hotdogs, and make the best popcorn in the county area. She assists with contact tracing and volunteers to call parents of students who have been contract traced. This is one area that she feels she can take off the plate of an administrator. She also assists the junior class teachers to organize and run prom. Our school was and truly still is capable of having a prom because of her. The leadership the previous year was lacking. She stepped up, without being asked, and helped save prom. She organized the meetings, fundraisers, event space, supervision/staffing, food, music, and prom gifts. She Prepares announcements for the school wide program, and works with our teacher for the RTV class in organizing and delivering the daily school announcements. She also helps provide important emails and announcements to each grade level of students.”

Lia Hasier – Iddings Elementary School

This is given to someone who works with teachers to implement and support programs focused on student learning.  The recipient must have displayed risk-taking to improve the school in some significant way.

Here are some comments written about Lia:

“She goes above and beyond for the staff and students of our Elementary School.  Our school is an elementary school of almost 500 students in grades kindergarten through fourth grade.  There are typically two secretaries in the Elementary School office.  When one member of the office team had to have surgery and take an extended leave last spring, she stepped up to learn the other aspects of the office job in order to fill the void.  We had various people assist in the office during those 12 weeks but it was she who really kept the office running smoothly.  She quickly learned the aspects of the other team member’s job and was always willing to work extra hours to make sure the office tasks were completed. The school established a One Book, One School initiative this past fall.  Children would be given the same book and be encouraged to read the daily assignments at home.  As administrators, we realized that some students would not have an adult at home in the evening to participate in this book.  We decided to video record the chapters so all students could participate.  If a child did not have an adult with whom to read, he or she could watch the Zoom video of the assigned chapter.  Because her husband works for the local fire department, she reached out to the firefighters to have special guest readers for the Zoom readings.”

Alicia Harper – Triton Central Middle School

This award recognizes an individual who has consistently displayed a caring and supportive attitude that contributes to a positive school atmosphere.  This is someone who truly reflects high standards and promotes staff morale.

Here are a few comments that were written about Alicia:

“She exemplifies the meaning servant leader in our front office. She has a love and a compassion for our student, parents, and staff members that goes way above and beyond the scope of her position. She greets every person to our building with enthusiasm and charisma. She makes our students feel welcome, wanted, and loved. She creates amazing relationships with everyone she interacts with while performing her job duties at an extremely high level. She provides so much to our building culture. During the Covid pandemic she has gone shopping after school hours to provide a special treat to our staff on a weekly basis. She has even donated her own time to come back to school after hours to decorate the teachers’ lounge so that everyone could have a fun, inviting environment to help lift everyone’s spirts. She is so generous to all of our families with her time, energy, and other resources. In closing, our school would not be has inviting, productive, and happy without her. She is an exemplary secretary and, in my opinion, a perfect candidate for this Award.”

Missy Corns- Benton Central Jr/Sr High School

Here, the committee searched for concrete evidence of the recipient’s ability to encourage community and parent involvement in the school.  This person should have been actively involved in training others, initiating new office procedures, and improving the overall office and school climate.

Here are some of the comments shared about Missy:

“She is the go-to person at our school. She is the person our entire staff confides in with questions because she is very personable and knowledgeable in all areas. Our staff looks up to her as a great leader in the secretary role. She is always on the go and continues to take on new projects on top of her heavy workload. She is willing to lean1 new systems and procedures to stay up to date. She took on learning an advanced AutoCAD drafting software to help finish redoing the emergency exit and tornado shelter maps for every room in our building. She is in charge of obtaining substitutes for the building, which has become an ever growing challenge with covid making absences an inevitable part of working in a school system. She works around-the-clock in constant contact with substitutes trying to keep classrooms covered. Any paperwork that gets processed through the office she organizes and keeps filed for record keeping. She always maintains a high level of confidentiality and professionalism inside and outside the school. She oversees both certified and support staff absences and I am honestly not sure how she is able to keep track of just the dates relating to covid absences and returns, let alone every other aspect that is thrown her way.”

Dawn Amor– LaVille Elementary School

For this award, the committee used a well-defined rubric to score all areas of leadership, compassion, service, and going above and beyond.

Here are a few comments shared about Dawn:

“She is the backbone of the elementary school, and some would argue the person who has “it” for not only the elementary but also the high school. You see she has served at our corporation for over 17 years. The elementary secretary who has watched several generations of students who come as frightened kindergarteners and leave high school as accomplished men and women, going into college, careers, or the military. No small number of them point to the person behind the elementary administrative desk as the person who did “it. What was “it”? Made sure they got on the right school bus, that grandma knew that they drew a picture, and it is on display in the hallway, who made sure they got something to eat even if lunch money was forgotten or not even available. The one who secretly made sure they had socks, or a coat or just a safe place to sit for a while. The one with the smile that brightened a morning that started out really difficult. The “mom” who would wipe a tear or laugh at what was not-that-funny of a joke. The one lo whose desk they would nm to tell about a new sister or toy or puppy. The person who is always the first to know when someone is pregnant or has lost a loved one. The person who is always the friendly, and caring.  She is the person who clearly loves those around her. Truly cares. Is selfless in her work and most reliable in her care. She never fails. Even as she suffered the unthinkable loss of her daughter, the pain was turned into a payback to the students of La Ville, the family bas set up a scholarship in her daughter’s name for La Ville Lancer’ students. In a memorial post, she mentions what her beloved daughter said, and what she lives out every day: “It is a great day to be a Lancer”!!!  I saw her become the backbone of our Meals on Wheels program. She kept a running list of who would need the meals each day, and she would reach out to families to make sure they got food. There was no one in the district who knew the families well enough to do this work. Each day she would prepare the list and get it to our Director of food Services, then she would help the transportation department by finding volunteers willing to ride buses and deliver food. The corporation went from feeding a small group in the beginning to nearly tripling the amount of food sent out at the end. After buses, she would then see what else needed to be done. She was basically our school’s athletic director. She scheduled all our games and refs.  She then, could be found in the gym helping to run the scoreboard or keep the books. Her scheduled hours were 8:00-4:30. When we were dealing with substitute issues, she noticed the stress it was causing everyone so she asked to take it over, even though it would mean getting many phone calls or texts at 5:00 am most mornings. Then, she would have to make phone calls and figure out who was covering where. She did this because she knew how much it would help teachers and especially me. She also took on all the attendance coding for our teachers because she knew it would help them by having one less thing on their plate, even though it added a lot to hers. She scheduled parent-teacher conferences for over 700 students and was able to keep families with multiple students close together with time slots because she knew everyone.”