School secretaries keep the whole show humming. 

Secretaries and other administrative professionals are the lights, the cameras and the action. They light up their schools every day, keep an eye out for every child and never stop doing. They make a school's success possible. Yet too often, administrative professionals remain underestimated and overlooked.

Secretaries are the hub of a school, streamlining its operations. They usually have many jobs rolled into one: payroll, enrollment, technology, logistics, phones, parents, forms, deliveries and supplies, as well as covering for absent colleagues and mobilizing help in a crisis.

"We're like an octopus," says Charlene Jones, pupil accounting secretary at P.S. 133 in Harlem and a member of the United Federation of Teachers, the AFT's affiliate in New York City. "The parents, the phones, the student records ... fuhgeddaboudit!!"

Some secretaries are responsible for maintaining two sets of records, one "legacy system" on paper and one on computer.

"Many think all we do is answer the telephone, and that is the farthest thing from the truth," says Huey Moore, a secretary at Keidan Special Education Center and a member of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees. "Teachers, paraprofessionals, school administrators-they all depend on us."

Because his school serves students with special needs, Moore helps handle a lot of upset children and parents, not to mention medical emergencies. Keidan enrolls about 260 moderately to severely impaired children. They come to Moore when they're having a bad day or feeling sick, and sometimes he has to summon a nurse.

Debra Tillis, a secretary at an alternative school in Florida, has a similar relationship with students and parents who require a high degree of patience and understanding.

"If I could do one thing that would help these kids, if I could make a difference in their lives, that would be worth a lot," says Tillis, who works at Bannerman Learning Center and is a member of the Clay Education Support Personnel Association. "I care for the kids, and I show them that on a personal level. This is not a job. It's a calling."

Ambassadors and role models
As the most visible representatives of a school, secretaries are "directors of first impressions." They strengthen the image their school projects to the community. And of course, they are important role models.

"The office sets the tone of the building, so that's your professional responsibility," says Rosalind Kennedy, a secretary at James Edmonson Elementary School in Detroit and also a member of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees. "Every staff member is setting the tone—not just teachers—and creating an educational experience for the students."

Kennedy's school is nestled right in the city's cultural center, within blocks of the science center, public library, African-American museum and opera house. It's also within three miles of a major university. "These are partners that have long-term interaction with the school," she says, and the secretary plays a vital role in welcoming them.

Rewards, recognition, respect
Aside from the obvious issue of compensation, school secretaries mainly want respect. In a recent AFT survey, about 70 percent of clerical members said that the school administrator knew a great deal about their jobs, and 62 percent felt the administrator greatly respected their work.

Many principals send flowers during Administrative Professionals Week, the last full week in April. "That always feels wonderful," says Jones. "But just saying, ‘Good job. Thank you. We couldn't have done it without you,' also helps."

One of the highest marks of respect is listening. "They do listen to us and hear our concerns," says Denise Carpenter, a classified school registrar and administrative assistant who belongs to the TOTEM Association of Educational Support Personnel in Anchorage, Alaska. "Three or four times a year, they get all the registrars and administrative assistants together and ask for our concerns. If they keep us in the loop on things, then we can do a better job."

But just as a high mark of respect is listening, a low mark is overlooking secretaries and even stealing credit from them. Secretaries do a lot of the work of assistant principals, says Ann Harper on AFT Voices, an online forum for AFT members. A retired teacher and member of the Fort Bend (Texas) Employee Federation, Harper says secretaries' duties there include paperwork for student discipline, school maintenance and repair requests, budgets, curriculum, assigning and keeping track of keys, and coordinating substitute teachers.

"We've even had secretaries chase chickens that someone left in the stairwells. The Future Farmers of America brought them in to be judged at the county fair," Harper says. "And for all this, it is the assistant principals who get the credit, not the secretaries."

The benefits of a union
In New York City, Charlene Jones is a prime example of how a union is only as good as its members, and how every active member benefits everybody else. Jones really started participating in the UFT about 10 years ago. Since then, she's been able to get ergonomic chairs by advocating for better equipment; secure overtime pay for staff who were being asked to work late without compensation; help match newly licensed secretaries with available jobs; and coach secretaries through the dos and don'ts of their duties.

"Sometimes a principal doesn't know what a secretary does-or how," Jones says. In her role as an activist, Jones asks for meetings with principals and explains the juggling act that secretaries perform. "I tell you, I'm able to resolve a lot of things before they get to a grievance," she says. "Once you explain it to them, they understand."

Some administrators don't get it, though, and in those cases the union can help. Kennedy worked for more than a dozen years before needing union representation to file a grievance for the first time.

Sometimes the union can help in a way you may not think of. Once, when Moore was laid off, his local union president counseled him "and helped me keep my head up."

And then there's the bottom line. Besides basic wages, many local unions have bargained pay differentials for clerical employees who obtain professional certificates. One such AFT affiliate is TOTEM, which also negotiated a no-cost health insurance option, longevity pay, pensions and retirement healthcare for support staff.

Things weren't always so good, though. A few years ago, the previous superintendent fought TOTEM into a strike. "We walked a picket line at 20 degrees below zero and froze our little tutus off," recalls Sandy Thompson, an administrative assistant at Creekside Park Elementary. The current superintendent is a mom who worked her way up from noon duty and is more "appreciative of what we do—and every employee, not just the teachers."

All in all, secretaries who have both the respect of their school community and the support of their union do feel appreciated. "You have some principals who think you're the real boss of the school," Thompson says.