Stage right...or left out?

NEA Today, Jan 1999 by Harwood, Tudi

Behind the scenes? Bit parts? Not any more. Today's school secretaries must take on starring roles.

In just a year, the much ballyhooed millennium will arrive, and I worry for those of us who do office work in our nation's public schools. Big changes are coming, and I'm afraid many of us are unprepared.

Ten years ago, we were hired for our fast typing and dictation skills. Today, our jobs involve so much more.

Today, we've evolved into self-- directed building managers, handling changing demands in office technology, state and federal mandates, and crisis management. At the same time, we're reaching out to the school community to help improve student learning.

In effect, we're becoming the stage crew of our schools, managing the changing scenes of paper that wrap around every student. It's our job to show the world that our schools are always ready for opening night.

To do that job well, we must rethink a few things. We've got to work differently to make time for many new tasks. We've got to put aside the competitive edges between secretaries that impede growth and learning. And, most important, we've got to be represented on school improvement teams.

In the early 1990s, my district began to examine the future of our two high schools. As a high school secretary working for a key administrator on the committee, I was drafted into the fold -allegedly to represent support staff, but no doubt to type the summaries.

Still, I sat shoulder to shoulder with teachers, administrators, board of education members, parents, and students, as we pondered the future, examined the research, and brainstormed how our district might carve out its own unique niche.

Representation on that committee was a great way of hearing and being heard. And having a sense of the big picture helped me do a better job with every phone call I fielded and every person I greeted at the counter.

Some support employees don't think they have enough to add to the conversation to merit a seat at the table. Too often, secretaries invited onto school teams say, "No thanks, I have work to do." Safe retreat, dismissive smile.

Some say it's easier to leave the big decisions to others. I say, in the long run, our complacency is far riskier. If we stay on the sidelines: We take our lumps. Big change that is done "to" us, without our input, hurts feelings-and productivity.

We risk our livelihoods. You never know when clerical downsizing might be on the agenda. We need someone on the team who understands our value-current and future-and our commitment to the school community.

We damage efforts to improve education. Without realizing it, those who are left in the dark can scuttle schoolwide improvement efforts.

Let me give you an example of the power of uninformed words. A few years ago, an angry parent rang our main office during a curriculum half-- day to complain about "teenagers running wild in the neighborhoods!"

A startled co-worker, within my earshot, sympathetically answered, "Well, the kids were let go for teachers' meetings. No, I don't know what the teachers are meeting about. They never tell us anything."

Lack of ownership equates to zero interest for even the most inspiring school improvement efforts. And when those answering the phones have no ownership, you can't expect community buy-in to follow.

No matter how techno-with-it our high schools become, school office workers are still the front line to the surrounding community. We can only be enthusiastic about where our schools are headed if we help paint the road signs.

To be in the know, we have to take what we do for our schools seriously enough to seek out information-it won't be handed to us.

We must speak out about how new demands have changed our workplace, join committees, offer solutions, and help develop a new approach together.

If we know change is coming, we will be ready. And we will implement that change as valued members of a full cast, producing excellence.

If, on the other hand, we sit these changes out, it just might be curtains for the stage crew at the dawn of the new century.