Clerical Services ESP --
Building a Quality Workforce

The Clerical Services Quality Workforce that exists in our public schools does not occur by accident. It comes together when school district Clerical Services ESP are included and recognized as part of the school district’s basic mission -- enhancing student achievement. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive effort must be made by administrations and members alike that should include: result-oriented job descriptions and evaluations, new employee orientation programs, ongoing in-service training programs, and career-enhancing professional development programs for all Clerical Services ESP.

This booklet is designed to highlight some of the challenges Clerical Services ESP encounter as they endeavor to build a Clerical Services Quality Workforce.

Our Job Descriptions -- Who We Really Are and What We Really Do

"Anyone who has been in the military, and in the Navy in particular, understands the meaning of the expression: ‘The chiefs run the Navy!’ As it is in the Navy, so it is in a public school district. The secretaries keep the school running! Administrators, principals, and even teachers come and go. Secretaries are the backbone of the school building.”

-- Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under President Clinton

Our Job Description

Clerical Services Education Support Professionals are essential school employees who interact daily with students, parents, staff and school visitors. They are the liaisons between the parent and the teacher, and the parent and the school district -- the front line of public relations with parents and the community. Their daily work-load can include processing a mountain of paperwork, acting as a nurse when there is no medical personnel available, and serving as the school’s chief information officer.

What Clerical Services ESP really do on a daily basis must be identified and described accurately. Approximately 17% of all Clerical Services ESP have no written job description at all! Most members understand that this is an unacceptable situation. Your written job description matters a great deal! It should describe who you really are and what you really do in a public school district and as part of the Clerical Services Quality Workforce.

A Secretary's "Typical Day"

Clerical Services ESP are not just in the front office! They’re in every department, building and area of a school district, from the superintendent’s office to the transportation barn. Individual employees often have more than one work site, such as when they’re the acting nurse for student health needs. Because of the diversity of their work sites, their days begin at a variety of times -- as early as 5:30 a.m. with the bus drivers, or 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. in the Board of Education Office.

Clerical Services ESP are responsible for recordkeeping and keeping information current. This data entry must be squeezed in between answering phones; meeting with managers, supervisors and principals; arranging for substitute teachers; communicating with other office workers; distributing mail and e-mail; making meeting announcements; dealing with parents, students, or other staff in the work area; ordering and distributing sup-plies for the office and for teachers; making forms, lists, notes and reminders; handling computer and office machinery break-downs; dealing with discipline forms, police and court officers, medical personnel, and medical issues; writing checks, handling money for groups, keeping bank records and other accounts; arranging meetings of parents with school officials; arranging food and refreshments for meetings of school officials; and handling discipline issues with students, including physically dealing with students in the office.

For Clerical Services ESP in transportation departments, a very early and chaotic start is the norm. These employees deal with ringing phones, angry parents, misplaced students, computer routing problems, bus breakdowns, driver absences, new student pick-up arrangements, equipment switches, accident re-ports, etc. They take their jobs very seriously, and don’t leave until every child is delivered!

In many schools throughout the country, nurses and medical personnel are in very short supply. Often they are not available to students more than once a week. During the interim, the school secretary fills the void, dealing with bandages, poison ivy and other skin allergies, asthma treatments, sprains needing icepacks, and other medical issues. They contact family doctors, and inform parents of injuries. Secretaries often dispense medications to students on a regular basis, and so must keep additional medical records. In some cases, the secretary is the only person who remembers what medicine a child needs and when.

More than some other job categories, Clerical Services ESP must cope with the idiosyncrasies of their bosses. For instance, a secretary in Kentucky’s boss is a former Army officer. She is therefore required to provide all letters and correspondence in triplicate, which he then alters and changes so that she is doing the same task over and over and over again! One New Jersey secretary has a particularly difficult time reconciling bank records for the "petty-cash” drawer. The boss leaves voluminous IOUs that he reconciles once a month at best. The boss has the authority to do this, but the secretary has the burden of recordkeeping so that the yearly auditors have no problems with the books.

The Clerical Services ESP’s job can include contacting parents for PTA functions, making appointments with school officials, and collecting money for various supplies, trips, functions and other school needs. The chore of notifying parents of student discipline issues is often left to the secretary. He or she must therefore deal with the unpleasant calls as well as handling the good ones. This list could go on forever. Clerical Services ESP meet these daily challenges with competence and personal attention. They interact closely with parents, students, other staff and the community on a daily basis, often in situations of stress, conflict, or crisis. The school could not function without them.

To Section 2: Federal and State Statutes