The women who work behind the attendance desk might be some of the hardest working people on campus. Attendance secretaries Mandy Armes and Julia Peck are the first people to arrive to the office every day, bright and early at 7 a.m.
While Peck is in charge of keeping track of disciplinary procedures and school facilities, Armes’s job involves handling everyday attendance and absences.
For Armes, the day starts with the daunting task of listening to and sorting out all of the calls that flood in from the answering service throughout the morning. Armes then logs in all of these messages, most of which are from parents, and writes all the off-campus passes for the day.
Armes has run into some rather awkward situations at this time of day, confronting the occasional student who tries to cut class by calling in as his or her parent.
“At this point I’m pretty good at telling if [the voice] belongs to a student or their parents,” Armes said. “I’m just like, ‘Sorry, but no.’”
Peck also tackles messages and emails in the morning, but these are regarding requests from people who want to rent the facilities at the school.
“The McAfee, the gym, the rooms, you name it, it goes through me,” Peck said.
In addition, Peck works closely with the maintenance staff since the use of school facilities and their services often run parallel with each other.
The attendance office doubles as a health office, and both Armes and Peck are responsible for arranging rides for students who do not feel well. In addition, Armes is in charge of keeping track of the lost and found.
“There’s always a huge mess of everything in the [lost and found] cabinet,” Armes said. “But rarely anyone comes to pick them up.”
As assistant principal Kevin Mount’s secretary, Peck works closely with him and the campus supervisors to enter all information regarding Saturday schools, referrals and other punishments into the discipline files on Aeries, the school's online grading and attendance system
Although the routine in the attendance office usually runs smoothly every day, some students still do not know the attendance policy, and this can cause huge problems.
“Even if [a student’s] parent calls in, it’s still considered an unexcused absence because [the students] don’t come get their passes,” Armes said. “That’s when I run into a lot of angry students and parents who want to battle me on the policy, but that’s just the way it is.”
On top of all of this, the attendance office is a resource for information. “We answer lots and lots of questions here,” Peck said. “Since we are pretty much in the very front of the office, we end up directing many confused parents and students.”
