It’s been 23 years since Brenda Ristau started working at Fillmore Central. She started out as a special education paraprofessional in 1994. Three years later, she moved into working with the hot lunch accounts and stayed in that job for four years. Finally, she accepted a position as an administrative assistant and has doing that for 16 years now.
Brenda’s ability to know each child who walks through the doors of Fillmore Central Elementary School is astounding. “I grew up in the area, so I’m familiar with a lot of the people,” she explained.
Brenda admits that being an administrative assistant is not where she originally saw her career path heading. She started working with individuals with disabilities when she was just 16-years-old and planned to go into nursing. However, she found that working at the school was a good match for her, especially when she started having kids of her own.
Brenda’s two oldest sons are grown now, but her youngest son is a senior at Fillmore Central. “It’s kind of sad, but they do grow up,” Brenda mused. If her boys minded her working at the elementary school when they were attending, they never said anything. “I knew everything that happened with them,” Brenda chuckled. The boys couldn’t get away with much while at school because their mom knew before they got home.
During the interview, a student came into the elementary office to ask for some medication. “See, I’m still kind of doing nursing stuff,” Brenda laughed.
“Seeing the kids everyday is beneficial,” said Brenda. “I love watching them grow up. When they get older, I still see them at high school functions.”
Everywhere Brenda goes, she’s recognized and is somewhat of a local celebrity to the many children who know her.
The biggest challenge Brenda has in her job is coordinating schedule changes for the many families the elementary school serves. “Schedules change a lot, so it can be hard to keep everything straight,” Brenda commented. But she manages to do just that, keeping the fluctuations in check and hasn’t lost a student yet.
“It’s a very rewarding job,” remarked Brenda, adding that while it’s not a hard job, it can be busy and hectic. She loves that the community is so involved in and supportive of their school.
“One of the hardest things I have to do is make decisions about hurt students,” Brenda said. She generally errs on the side of caution and calls the parents, regardless.
In her years working as an administrative assistant, there have definitely been some changes. “The technology has changed a lot,” she pointed out. Security measures have increased significantly as well, with many changes happening in the last 5-10 years. Drills run for crisis situations now include active shooters as well as the usual tornado and fire drills. The doors of the school are monitored with video cameras, and Brenda must screen visitors before buzzing them through the locked doors.
Brenda’s duties as administrative assistant include making sure all the students are accounted for each day, completing the detailed state reports, finding volunteers for the hearing and vision screenings, coordinating kindergarten roundups, maintaining office files, handing out medications to students who need them, and more. “I stay pretty busy all the time!” she laughed.
Throughout the day, Brenda is often inundated with questions from students, parents, teachers, and other school employees. “I do my best to know the answer, but sometimes I don’t,” she admitted. However, if she doesn’t know the answer, there’s a good chance that she knows someone who does.
“There’s never a dull moment, and things never stay the same!” Brenda said, adding that it helps the day go fast.
Brenda recently acquired some help in the office from the youth services program at the high school. Senior Emily Fishbaugher comes in for an hour each day to help Brenda with some of her tasks. “It’s been so nice,” Brenda commented.
“This is just a good place to work, and we have a great district,” Brenda said.
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