From Her Perch at the Front Desk, This School Staffer Helps Kids Show Up Each Day

Nancy Munoz is in her second act (this time at school).

After a long career working in healthcare, the pandemic has led her to seek new opportunities. She found it in the form of an operational coordinator role within Camden, New Jersey middle school.

In that position, Munoz is sitting at the front desk – what she calls “the face of the house” answers calls, sends emails, and receives visitors. But the true power of her work goes far beyond the traditional responsibilities associated with that role, she says.

Muñoz focuses on lasers on reducing the rate of chronic absenteeism in schools. This is a challenge for many schools across the country. Working with In the wake of the pandemic. She is committed to seeing as many students as possible each day, on time and ready to learn. She even built a morning coffee routine around it.

Our Roll Call Series introduces Unsung School Staff members. The work is less known or misunderstood, but he is an integral part of the school community. In this article, I talked to Munoz about his job that is more than answering a call and greeting school visitors.

The following interviews were lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Edsurge: How did you get here? What led you to your current role?

Nancy Munoz: For 16 years I worked in a hospital setting. The last thing I did was to do was to use cardiac techniques. A pandemic hit, and I started scrambling. I had three children at home and was homeschooling. I had to cut back on my work as I had to stay home with my kids. And then, the opportunity actually emerged. Someone pitched it. They were like, “Hey, try something different.” My husband said, “I stepped into your faith. You’ve been sitting in health care for a long time. Try this. See how you like it.”

They loved me from today when I stepped into the school building. So I was like, “Wow, what would happen if I did this early in my life?” That would have been a different scenario for me. But the pandemic really shaped me. I was defeated. I’m worn out. Healthcare was just like that… [a lot]. And this was like a breath of fresh air. That’s how I came here.

When people outside of school ask you what you are doing, how do you describe your job?

Basically, I describe my job and how I do it, and my job is that I am the “face of the house”. When you come to my house, I am the one who answers the door. I am the one who greets you. I have everything under the umbrella of all your questions, concerns, and being like an intermediary at my school. I answer front desk, field messages, calls and send emails.

For example, if there are people who come and visit, I will take the visitors, I will check them in, I will make sure all their credentials are good, and I will send them wherever they need to go.

We stock workrooms for our staff. I take the bus in the morning. In the afternoon, the kids will take the bus. I do it all.

I’m bilingual so if there’s a language barrier, if the staff can’t communicate with Spanish-speaking students, they come and lean on me.

A big and important piece of work is to ensure that we are where our children are. Do you know what’s going on if they’re safe in the building and not in the building? Where are you? Why aren’t you here? Can we take you with us? Is there anything we can help you?

What does a really difficult day look like in your role?

The really difficult day in my role is when I really don’t know where my kids are. And I say this because I was born and raised here. I grew up with many of their parents. So they feel the comfort.

It’s not much snow here in the last few years, so now when they’re looking for dust, it seems the bus is crazy and there’s a 2 hour delay. One week was cold and cold. So, our attendees aren’t great, so let me breathe and I need to know where my child is. If they’re not here at 8am, I’m like this one [move]? So, I’m just a game plan from there. But that’s a difficult day for me. When I don’t see the kids I watch regularly.

What do you do to track students and take them to school?

Like I said, I usually take the bus in the morning. The junior high school has approximately 472 students. So I get 73 good students from the bus. There’s always this kid who misses the bus. So when I call him and his mom I said, “Hey, what’s going on? Why are you not here? I know there’s no certain amount of absence. What can I help you?”

I grew up with his mom. I was working with her at McDonald’s – so how far we go back and going to high school. Well, they don’t have a car. So I say, “Okay, I’m going to come and take you.” So I take a break and tell work that I’m coming back in 15 minutes and get in the car and get him. I said, “Hey, we’re not going to make this a habit, a daily thing, but please go to the bus stop.” I said, “Use me as a resort, but not every day. But I got you. I’m going to take you there.” And that’s just an example.

Is this a school-wide priority for the growth of chronic absenteeism nationwide or a personal goal?

With the operations team, our biggest thing is to make sure that there is a low percentage of chronic absentees and that our children are ready to learn. This means that you will appear on time and be there every day. Now, of course, people get sick. There have been some bad cases of influenza circulating around at school. That was the most difficult thing besides the weather. It’s just the fact that all the children were sick. The pandemic is pretty over, but I don’t want the old habits like, “Hey, my mom thinks it’s okay to be out of school.” No, I have to go to school.

We have many incentives for our children – not only academics, but also quarterly trips we give to our children, and children know that you cannot miss more than four days in a quarter to get such a type of incentive. We offer a lot, but our main concern is to make sure our kids are in the building, when they are not in the building, and when our absence logs are untouched.

What does a really good day look like in your role?

After not attending the weather in the beginning of February, we returned on the last Monday of the month, with 94% attendance. When we came that Tuesday, we were 96.7% of our attendance. That’s something like, on average, less than 15 of the 472 children we have. That’s a really good day for me. We know the kids are there.

in the morning, [at home]Of course, I have to gather kids for school, but I always have only PS and QS. So I brew Bastero coffee with Culig and blow up the message through text messages to my entire school. thank you. have a nice day. ‘

Usually, I get 5-7 people who actually text me and say, “Hey, we have an appointment. We’re there after that, “Or, ‘Oh, I took my child to emergency care yesterday. He’s very sick and needs to have no fever 24 hours a day. He won’t come back until tomorrow.” Just right there, I know I did half the fight before I got to school, so when I get to school, I can concentrate on the more complicated cases of kids who didn’t show up.

What does that look like when you arrive at school and start working on the rest of your absences?

There will be three rounds of communication going out. Our office managers do 3 rounds in an hour. I’ll start making calls at 9am. By 9:05 she’s blowing up the message. On Dean’s list, she sends additional text messages. [the communication service we use]you can actually create a list just for your absence that day. So it lists all scholars that have not been [marked as present].

So the office manager will email staff, update staff and send robocall text messages to the absentee list first. “Hey, my child is there. Check it out again.” Then she sends audio communications – that’s the standard message already there – and she sends an email. So we get three ways to them within an hour and then she sends the final round to the staff, and it should have our specific number [of absent students].

What is the way your role shapes the day for your kids?

I’ve been busing ever since I started here, and sometimes I don’t know what my kids are going through. When they get off the bus and see me, I’m always happy and know them by name. It can be very impossible to get to know everyone at first, but I try to learn everyone’s names. I want them to know, I want to be personal with you, you want to bring joy to me, you are here, you want to learn, and everything is going right. When they get off the bus, if they know they’re not having a great day, maybe they’re crying, I’m giving them a hug and saying, “Hey, come and talk to me if you need me.”

You never know what your children will go through. These days are different from when we were younger. There were no phones. There was no social media. We didn’t have much [they are dealing with]. So I always said to them, “Hey, if you need me, I’m here.”

Your role provides unique access and insights to today’s youth. What is one of the things you learned about young people through your work?

Try to catch up with them, and always have open ears. I have my own children – 19, 11, 7 years old. It’s important that they become someone they can communicate with now. …I want them to know what I’m hearing, and I like Tiktok. I love dancing as much as I can. My knees are bad, but I love dancing. I love to entertain kids and, like I said, just to be heard. They may not have it at home so I want them to come and talk to me and feel comfortable.

That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned. It’s not always reliable. Listen and listen. And I want them to listen to me too.