Laura Crenshaw is retiring Sep. 1 after almost 36 years of service. Crenshaw is currently the principal secretary here at Anderson High School. She does a lot behind the scenes of the school that people do not know about. During our interview I asked her to reflect on her time here at AHS
Crenshaw said that she hasn’t always been a secretary. “I went to college to be a dietitian and I did that for a couple of years.” But she wanted to spend more time with her kids. “I just realized that being on a school schedule was more was better suited for me being a mom.”
So she applied to start working at Madison Heights. “When I first started working in the schools I just did what was like a ten month secretary job so I had the summers off with my kids.” As her kids got older and needed her less she became the bookkeeper. “I applied to be the bookkeeper here which was a 12 month position where I would work year round.” She then became principal secretary which she has been ever since.
The job of principal secretary is not an easy one. She does a lot around the school including, the attendance for all the staff members, correspondence emails, putting everything together for the new staff members, distributing keys, getting the attendance letters mailed out to notify the parents, graduation programs, and the Veterans program. On top of that, Crenshaw is always in demand. “(The phone rings) at least 25 times a period, every few minutes the phone is normally ringing and the office assistants are always a big help with picking up the phone so lots lots lots of calls.”
That’s not even all she has to deal with in the office. “I can be on a phone call have a student or staff member come up with a question and be called on the radio all at the same time.”
Despite all the responsibilities of her job she still shows up every day with a smile on her face which she said was easy. “Its a joy coming in every single day. I work with a great group of people here in the main office.” When I asked her what her favorite part of her job was, she said, “The office assistant and the wonderful staff here where I sit. I get to greet almost all the staff as they come in.”
Despite how happy she is and how easy she makes her job seem it doesn’t mean there aren’t stressful days like graduation. “Stressful times are graduation because I’m in charge of the graduation programs which is stressful because we want to make sure it is absolutely perfect for the graduates. It’s their big day of celebration.”
Along with being in charge of the graduation program she has more responsibilities on top of that. “One of the duties I do is getting ready for graduation. I also do the senior rewards program which is always just a couple of weeks before graduation.” She says that these times take a lot of hard work. “It gets stressful during those times because in addition to your regular job which you are doing you have to get that done as well.”
Luckily for her she won’t have to worry about that for much longer because she is retiring. I asked her about how she felt about her retirement. “I’m sad because I truly have loved my job. It’s a joy coming in every single day.” Though there is a sliver lining she is excited because she will get to spend more time with her kids. “I see that my grandkids are not getting any younger the oldest one is 11 now and it’s like I want to be able to spend a lot of time with my grand kids” In her finals thoughts one her retirement she says, “I just hope that Mrs. Craib that is taking my job loves my job as much as I have
