Interview With High School Secretary, Linda Gleason
Most days the work of a high school secretary is overlooked. These workers almost seem to glide through the office answering phones, filling out paper work, organizing files, helping students, typing memos and making it all look easy. At the same time, nobody would say that running a high school is easy, and this is exactly what a secretary does. It’s even harder to interview a secretary at her desk. The following is an interview I conducted with Talawanda High School secretary, Linda Gleason. Regardless of the fact that the school day was over, the fact that Mrs. Gleason and I talked at her desk, led everyone else to believe she was on the clock, which made for an interesting interview.
Starting at the beginning, Mrs. Gleason told me that she was born in July of 1948 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Michelle Shaw: So how did you get to Oxford from Indianapolis?
Linda Gleason: I married a Hamilton fella, and we’ve been married 21 years.
I moved here when we were married.
S: So, how did you two meet?
G: Believe it or not, we met when we were 15 and 16-years-olds. His brother
married my best friend, so he was the best man and I was the maid of honor.
He lived in Ohio, and I lived in Indianapolis. So then we just parted ways,
and then, well, our families just knew one another and we got reacquainted,
and then we were married.
S: So then when were the two of you married?
G: Umm, May ninth, of, oh look at me not remembering, of 1981. That’s
right, 1981.
S: So that’s when you moved here?
G: Yes.
S: What did you do before you came to work for the school, or did you begin
working here as soon as you moved into town?
G: Well, when I moved here, I knew we wanted to start a family, so I didn’t
work outside the home. I was a homemaker. Then I had my daughter and stayed
at home till she was, gosh, till she started high school. She started high school
and I got the job in the same year, so we started here in high school together.
S: What year was that?
G: 1997, I subbed here the prior year, a little bit, as an educational assistant,
and I did study hall duty and worked in the library just kinda different things.
S: So then how old is your daughter now?
G: She’s 20. She’s at Miami [University]. She’s a sophomore.
She wants to be a teacher.
S: So what exactly do your responsibilities at Talawanda include now? I always
see you running around, so I know you have plenty to do.
G: I know. Well basically what I do now is answer phones, take care of the desk
and take care of visitors that come in here; getting them signed in. I’m
responsible to the two assistant principals and help them with their work; just
kinda try to maintain order in the office with the kids coming in and out, seeing
the principals, dealing with discipline issues; just basic secretarial duties.
S: So what did you do before this? I know you told me that you were a homemaker
after you were wed, but what about before then?
G: Well before I came here I was a secretary in Indianapolis. I worked in the
state government for the public service commissioners. The commissioners oversee
all the utilities within the state of Indiana, we set the rates, and so I was
secretary for the commissioners. I was there for about nine years. I then lived
in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a couple years and worked for a company down
there as a secretary in the purchasing department. So, I’ve done secretarial
work since I left high school.
S: So when you’re not here at Talawanda, what are you doing? What interest
you outside of work?
G: Well, I used to do ceramics. I still do when I have the time. I love to read,
but really I just love spending time with my family.
S: Speaking of your family, what does your husband do?
G: He is a manager of telecommunications at Ohio Casualty Insurance. He’s
been there about 32 years.
S: So, outside of school, what kind of community involvement have you had?
G: Oh, none really. … Well, I did when we first got married. I volunteered
at a hospital, doing, what would you call it, outpatient work. I would just
help the people out, you know, figuring out where they needed to go, but that’s
basically it. Well, I guess, when my daughter was little, in elementary school,
I did a lot of volunteer work at her school. Helped reading with other children,
opened the library and did playground duty. I did the the whole mother volunteer
thing. I spent a lot of time working with the PTA [Parent Teacher Association].
S: OK, back to Talawanda. What do you love about this job? What gets you up
and in here every day?
G: I think, well, I work with a good group of people number one, and I like
the variety. No two days are ever the same. I enjoy being around the kids. There
are some that are a challenge, and some that can get your blood pressure going,
but there are a lot of rewarding things that you see and you kinda maybe look
hard at. You see a kid who maybe when you first met, this kid was really out
of control and sort of a nasty individual; and I’m seeing one example
right now, this one kid, when he would come in here, my blood pressure would
go up. And now he and I, we’ve developed a bond, and sometimes he comes
in here and he helps me. His teacher says now she sees an improvement in his
work and he’s not getting in as much trouble. That makes me not that I
feel like I have this huge part in that but maybe I had a little part in that.
And it’s those kind of little things that keep you going and make you
feel like maybe this is where I should be at this time in my life. Maybe there
is a purpose for me being here.
S: So what originally made you choose Talawanda?
G: Basically, my daughter being here.
S: So what do you like about working here in Oxford?
G: It’s a nice community. It’s nice being associated being so close
to the university. It’s just a real nice town.
(Break to deal with a man who has decided to bring candy for a fund-raiser after school hours.)
S: Most of the time one campus the only news we see about the high school comes
in the form of short news articles about levies, bonds and test score. Is there
anything going on in the school that you wish got more press?
G: Hum, hold on just a second.
(Break to once again deal with the man who has decided to bring candy for a fund-raiser after school hours, followed by a student stopping by to check with Mrs. Gleason about one of the school’s afternoon announcements.)
G: OK, so you’re going to have to repeat that for me.
S: No problem. What I was saying before about the school only getting attention
when it comes to bonds and test scores. What do you wish the press paid more
attention to in the school?
G: Oh yes, I think that we just have a lot of talented kids, through athletics,
through drama, through…
(“Hello,” shouts a custodian on the speakerphone. He attributes for our third and final break.)
G: I think that there are some really talented, really smart kids that I’d like to see get a little more attention. There are lots of positive things about this school, and it seems like the papers get really discouraging and can’t get past the negative. No we can’t pass the levy, and the Hamilton papers always seem to have things in there that ding us. There are a lot of positive things about this school. There are a lot of wonderful teachers that give 100 percent more than they have to, and I would like to see the focus on the good students that give so much, and the teachers that give so much, and the administrators who give so much. There are a lot of good things about this school.
S: So then do you see yourself staying here for awhile, or where do you see
yourself going in the future?
G: I’d like to stay here till my husband retires, then I’d like
for us both to be able to start that together.
S: Well, will you stay in the area?
G: Yes, we will stay around here. His family is here, and we like it here. Unless
we win the lottery or something, then we might move.
Mrs. Gleason is a vital part of the administrative team at the high school, and she loves it. She works hard to make sure that things around the school run smoothly, while still genuinely caring for her students and faculty. Most schools could do nothing but hope to have someone like her on their team.
Read a story by Michell about Talawanda students taking a stand against hate