Every year the last week of April is dedicated to National Administrative Assistants Appreciation Week. At Saint Louis High School there are two very dedicated office ladies, Mrs. March and Mrs. Russell. Many of the tasks they complete each day may go unnoticed, but are an integral parts of making each day run smoothly at SLHS. They answer ridiculous amounts of phone calls, emails, and doorbells each day. They do all this while still making sure students are in class, as well as making all the announcements throughout the day to keep the students and teachers up to date with the happenings of the daily schedule.

Mrs. March always enjoys helping students. She loves being the frontline of the school, but she shared, “The hardest part about working in the office is being front row to students making poor decisions.” 

Mrs. Russell agreed, “Our favorite part of working at SLHS is being around the kids and the excitement they generate. It is also very fulfilling to be able to solve problems, and help make students’ days smoother if at all possible. We love all of our faculty who have turned into friends and look forward to seeing them everyday.” Mrs. Russell joined the St. Louis Community early this year and has loved every bit of it. She continued, “The most challenging part of being Administrative Assistants is not being able to help students that really need it because our resources of time, money, and ability are limited.” Like Mrs. March, she doesn’t enjoy watching students make mistakes and not being able to help them. She wishes she could help every student be the best version of him or herself. 

As if these ladies weren’t busy enough, for this article, they were asked to track each phone call, email, and doorbell they answered throughout the day. 

At the end of the day, both of them combined to answered 64 phone calls, 41 doorbells, 40 emails, and wrote 35 late passes. In addition to all of those statistics, they also called 14 students out of class. Additionally, they handled all the logistics of ordering lunches, scheduling meetings as well as arranging for substitutes for teachers who are off. 

Mr. Kuhn said, “We have two of the best women on the planet working in our office. Both Beth and Joy help me with whatever request I have even if it has nothing to do with our day-to-day life at school! They also help the wrestling program out in so many ways, which takes so much stress off of me. They are absolutely irreplaceable.”

Without Mrs. March and Mrs. Russell it would be very difficult for the school day to run smoothly and efficiently. The Shark Scene staff and entire student body here at SLHS want to thank Mrs. March and Mrs Russell for their endless support for students and staff!