General News
Spotlight shines on school secretaries
Sep 21, 2007 10:23 AM
UFT honors those who ‘keep things running’
A minimum of 30 college credits is required to get a permanent school secretary license and the UFT Secretaries Chapter helps reimburse the cost of tuition with money it raises on its own. This year, applications nearly doubled. Checks in the amount of $150 each went to 21 recipients who wrote essays discussing “Why the DOE should reimburse secretaries for tuition.” Sharing a moment are (back row, from left) Sen. Diane Savino, School Secretaries Chapter Leader Jackie Ervolina and UFT Staff Director Jeff Zahler, and (front row, from left) Christina Ficalora, PS 120, Queens; Eileen Foulds, PS 499, Queens; Maureen Lopez, Bryant HS, Queens; Martha Jordan, PS 241, Manhattan; Ana Solano, MS 206B, the Bronx; and Conchita Torres, PS 208, Manhattan.
From making sure everyone gets paid to ordering supplies to tracking student records, school secretaries are the ones who keep New York City public schools running smoothly. Constantly interrupted — a sick child, angry parents, a demanding principal who wants it done yesterday — they are adept at triage and at keeping things flowing.
Paradigms of grace under fire, the women and men who keep the wheels of day-to-day business in motion were feted at the annual UFT School Secretaries Awards Luncheon on June 9 at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.
“There’s a lot of honor in being a school secretary,” said School Secretaries Chapter Leader Jackie Ervolina. “This event is the time to shine the spotlight on the work our members do every day.”
UFT Staff Director Jeff Zahler, formerly Queens District 30 representative, admitted to being in awe of school secretaries.
“I’d been in the school for years as a teacher and chapter leader, but I really didn’t know your issues with any kind of depth until I was elected district rep and met regularly with secretaries for a year,” Zahler said. “I came away with a profound sense of respect and gratitude not just for what you do every day but for how you deal with the kinds of headaches particular to your job.
Bronx Secretary of the Year CeCe Laggenbauer, from IS 131, points out an item from an historical exhibit on school secretaries. With her are colleagues (from left) IS 131 Chapter Leader Kathy Meyer, payroll secretary Diane Timper and Anita Menihan.
“You’re the face of your school to anyone who visits. You folks get everyone paid! While you deal with everyone’s problems you organize the office and keep things running.
“Your chapter has been an integral part of the UFT almost from its beginning and has a proud history,” he said.
Memorabilia from those early days were prominently on display, collected by Ervolina for the occasion, and drew crowds eager to see the photos, rosters, timekeeping books and other tools of the trade going back to the early 1960s.
Whether entering data into a book by hand or on spreadsheets at the computer, the job of a school secretary has always “demanded a lot of responsibility,” Ervolina said.
“The public schools could not function without the work of these superwomen and supermen,” said keynote speaker Diane Savino, state senator and a longtime leader in AFSCME Local 371.
The spotlight shone on one such superwoman, Connie Donohue, when she was presented with the chapter’s highest award for service and unionism, the Goldie Colodny Award.
Donohue, who for 19 years has worked at two schools in Brooklyn — most of those years at PS 346 and most recently at PS 4 — is described by colleagues as super-efficient, articulate, cheerful, warm and down to earth. She has been a longstanding supporter and organizer in the Secretaries Chapter.
Staten Island Secretary of the Year Helyn Nagi (standing, second from left) is celebrated by IS 72 colleagues (seated, from left) Randi Hoss and Christina Paribello, and (standing, from left) Chris Giachetta, Chapter Leader Jeanne Casanovas, Barbara Finkelstein and Barbara Rich.
“The UFT affiliation is important for secretaries,” Donohue said. “They are in a unique position — in the school office where everyone’s path crosses — to work with chapter leaders, helping to ensure that all members get pertinent information about their rights.
“Often members are not aware of their rights when they get hurt, like when a teacher is attacked by a student,” Donohue said by way of example, adding that she makes it her job to make sure members file the proper paperwork with the union and with the Department of Education to get proper medical attention.
Donohue serves as the secretaries’ Brooklyn borough coordinator and is a salary representative in the Brooklyn UFT office, where she offers assistance on topics covered in the contract. A strong showing of UFTers was on hand especially to laud Donohue when she accepted the award.
[A New York Teacher feature story on Donohue is on the UFT Web site, www.uft.org. Click on My Chapter, then School Secretaries, and finally “Secretaries on Overload” from the box on the right.]
Secretary of the Year awards were presented to winners in each borough: CeCe Laggengauer of IS 131, the Bronx; Marie Brauer of Brooklyn’s PS 268; Rosie Lugo of PS 155 in Manhattan; Ann Saglimbene of PS 65, Queens; and Helyn Nagi of IS 72 on Staten Island.
