Overview:
Understanding school personnel is crucial for effective teaching, as office staff, custodians, cafeteria workers, counselors, and health professionals each play vital roles in supporting students and maintaining school operations.
Schools rely on a multitude of people to fully function for each child. The same child who needs a bandage today needs a counselor tomorrow, requires a reading specialist next week, and could benefit from a table adjustment that requires a custodian the day after.
Often teachers feel as though we wear multiple hats in our day, but great teachers know how to reach out and use the school resources to get the job done. These teachers also know how to make sure these things are done by the folks meant to do them, so that they have time to pee at recess. And that means we teachers need to know very concretely who the people are who work on our campuses. We must know what they do, what they can do, what they can’t, and what to do when they won’t.
With that in mind, here is a venerable list of who’s who on school campuses. More importantly, here’s what they can and should do for you and your kids.
Office Staff
Starting with office staff makes perfect sense, because without the office, the entire school couldn’t open. Office staff are your miracle workers, but they are also an incredible asset to you as a teacher, if you understand a few things about them.
Let’s start with my favorite person on campus, the school secretary. My dear friend, and the best school secretary I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with, Cathy Lopez, described her job to me this way:
“The school secretary is the link from administration to the kids. She’s the bridge. Our specific functions involve budgets and budget strings, spreadsheets, correspondences for the principal, scheduling events and calendars, staff attendance, payroll, materials for staff meetings. There’s a lot more, but basically what teachers want to know is we’re the person you come to when you want to get paid, or when you want to know if something can be paid. And we’re the person you come to in order to make sure you will be paid. A good secretary knows people in the district, because she’s called everyone at some point. We’re a good starting point when a teacher has a question.”
In other words, the school secretary is more than just someone who handles the business end of the principal’s inbox and mailbox. She’s the person you want to speak with early, to make sure that your event can and will happen, that you’ll be paid for your hard-earned time, that your credential won’t expire or when you should apply to summer school jobs. And if she is anything like Cathy, you’ll be lucky to have her there.
Offices generally employ others for various tasks. However, in addition to a school secretary, every office has an attendance clerk. It can be hard to tell who is who in the office as a new teacher, but generally the attendance clerk will be the person sending you the most emails-reminding you to take attendance, and signing your attendance logs! But the attendance clerk does far more than that. Cathy explained the position to me this way:
“The attendance clerk is usually the first point of contact. She’s recording, monitoring attendance, and she’s making calls to families. She hears it all and can then refer families to outside agencies for help, or to programs and people on campus-such as the school counselor. She’s the person who knows who is struggling, who has a 3-hour border wait each morning. The attendance clerk is a busy person, but teachers can really learn a lot about families they work with by communicating with this person. Remember, she’s making dozens of calls a day, so she can’t always email teachers with everything she knows. But smart teachers don’t just grab a candy from her tray, they stop and ask how families. The attendance clerk will know.”
Custodial Staff
Cathy’s got great advice for new teachers about their custodial staff as well. She told me,
“A good teacher always remembers that the custodial staff are not their personal assistants. Sure, they are there to change a desk height and to clean up unfortunate messes from sick kids. But they aren’t just waiting around for these things to happen.”
She reminds new and more veteran teachers alike to take care of their custodial staff, by only seeking help when they truly need it.
To understand these amazing folks, first Cathy says, “You want to know that every site has the equivalent of a BSS, or a manager who oversees the safekeeping and cleaning of the school. The BSS typically is on site before anyone that day, starting generally around 6am, and leaving often just before school dismissal. You will most likely see other custodians coming in during the last hour of your day, that is the cleaning and night crew. Importantly, they work under the supervision of the BSS.
The BSS handles orders like school supplies, except for educational materials like adopted texts. They also handle the structural elements of the school, and coordinate anything that needs fixing with your district or outside help. For example, if a toilet is broken, the BSS may often attempt to fix it, but if it’s beyond their scope, they’ll call for a plumber. The BSS then coordinates cleaning and management of tasks with the cleaning and night crew that comes in at the end of the day. These fine folks will typically work until 9pm or so, taking care of the day’s business before you come in the next day. They will clean up the cafeteria area, remove trash from rooms and clean different portions of a school on a rotating basis, among many other tasks like setting up for school events.
Cathy’s advice for getting along with your custodial staff is sage. “I know some people think that they can bring a six-pack of soda to their BSS and ask for special favors. But honestly, it’s best just to get to know the people who take care of you like this. Get to know their names, their family make-up. These people work really hard, and they clean up after a wild group of small people every day. When you need tables lowered, just ask. It’s their job. But be mindful of asking for special favors. If you have a bad back, and some people do, they’ll get it and probably be glad to help. But it’s not going to endear you to them to know that you then hiked Mt. Everest on your vacation.”
Cafeteria Staff
The cafeteria staff are perhaps some of my favorite people on the planet. Maybe it’s the Lunch Lady song from Adam Sandler. Or maybe its just that I’ve known so many “lunch ladies” over the years that have been the sweetest humans to me. Like custodial staff, your cafeteria staff are extremely busy.
Get to know them as well and be sure to both greet them with a smile, and teach your students to respect them as well. They are often the brunt of extreme rudeness in school, and any cafeteria staff will greatly appreciate you making explicit expectations of your class to treat them kindly, as they should be.
Cathy’s biggest advice with this group makes a lot of sense knowing how busy these people are:
“When there is a change to any lunch schedule coming up, whether it be a field trip, or the fact you are throwing a huge pizza party on a Friday and the kids won’t be eating, make sure you discuss this with cafeteria staff on their preferred timeline. And whenever possible try to be on time to lunch. These crews work on a tight schedule, and they cannot clean up, and go home on their designated time, unless they complete their work that day. If you’re the teacher in grade 5 who is always running late, you are then always making them go home late, most likely without compensation.”
Counselor and School Psychologist
When it comes to the school counselor, it’s wise to understand what they’d prefer to spend their time doing. A school counselor is responsible for a host of things from talking with students in bereavement, to managing a host a programs that aim to keep students social and emotional well-being at the fore. Nevertheless, often a school counselor has far less time to build these bridges than they’d like, because they are asked to put out fires constantly.
I asked the best school counselor I know, Adriana Goni, about what teachers should know regarding school counselors.
“I like to begin an email thread about any child that there is a concern for, and I like to do it as early as possible. Teachers are welcome to do this too, and they are welcome to do it long before something develops into an emergency. Using email threads is a great way to keep anyone we need involved in the loop, when a child is on someone’s radar.”
In addition to the school counselor, a school psychologist is available. A school psychologist is like a nurse these days, and their hours have been cut back in budgets coast-to-coast. Typically, a school psychologist is on site two to three days a week, assessing and preparing reports for IEP and SST meetings. However, a good school psychologist is an important tool, above this for new teachers.
A school psychologist I have trusted for many years, says, “When teachers aren’t sure about a child’s mental health, we are here to help. We can observe and begin a process that a teacher may be unsure to start themselves. Also, a school psychologist is a great person to consult with prior to an IEP or an SST meeting because we value a teacher’s input. Often we will ask teachers to fill out questionaires to be used in these meetings. But we gain a lot through communication as well. Stop in and talk with us, that’s what we’re here for.”
Health Staff, Nurse and Health Tech
When it comes to student health, new teachers must understand the staffing of two main positions: the nurse and the health tech. Not all schools will be able to have both a nurse and a health tech. In some cases, neither person may be found on site in a given day because of staffing shortages, sickness or budgeting. However, a typical school will have both, at some point in their week.
Your nurse is a registered practitioner, similar in a way to a credentialed teacher. Nurses do much more than clean soccer scrapes and take student temperatures. They are responsible for referrals for things like glasses and dentistry, and they handle prescriptions for students with everything from diabetes to epilepsy. They administer medications and monitor serious conditions like diabetes and heart conditions. They work with attendance and are often the link between health services beyond the school for families in need. Unfortunately, most schools these days only staff a nurse two or three days a week, unless the school has the funds and agrees to use them to staff them for additional hours.
Instead, schools more and more function with a part-time nurse, and position commonly referred to as a health tech. If the nurse is akin to a credentialed teacher, than the health tech may be thought of as a para-educator. The health tech at your school, like the nurse, is someone you also want to get to know. Cathy describes them like this:
“Health techs do a ton. They’re like a sort of HMO of the school. They keep clerical records and handle sick kids going home, and calling parents about medications. They administer first aid, monitor students with various ailments, diseases and conditions.”
Cathy’s advice for your nurse and/or health tech is simple: Get to know them both. Don’t just assume you know what that little symbol means next to the kid’s name. Go in and find out more from them, confidentially of course. When you think a child might need glasses, or can’t hear you, talk to the health office staff. If a child seems uncomfortable, physically or in some way that could be related, get in touch with your health staff. They are your link to helping that child in a way you can’t yourself, and frankly in a way the family may not be able to do themselves.”
