Just recently at McHenry High School, Staff Member of the Month awards had been given out to one special member of the staff who have shown their hard work and dedication to the school. The winner at West Campus was the registrar/student services administrative assistant, Sally Hepner. At East Campus, it was the custodian member Elanor Rogan. Even though both staff members perform two entirely different tasks, their reactions to the award have a lot in common.

Rogan and Hepner both had no clue they were going to receive the award. “I don’t even go to [faculty] meetings…it’s usually for faculty and teachers…Two of my friends that I work with kind of bribed me to go down because they said that we’re going to have apple cider and popcorn,” She joked. “And that’s when Miss Potthoff, announced it. And I was shocked. I was really shocked.” Rogan felt the same way, the award to come as a complete surprise to her and she felt very happy to receive it.  

When it comes to the reason for receiving the award, both felt it simply had to do with all the work they’ve done for the school.

“This past summer was really difficult as far as the change in the program…went from Infinite Campus to Skyward, and that was a big change,” Hepner said. “Parents didn’t know how to do the registration, and I’m the only one here at West that does registration for new families. So between that and then all the other jobs that I have to do on a normal day to day basis … I was under a little bit of stress over the summer, and the people I work with knew that I had small breakdowns here and there.”

Both Hepner and Rogan share the same sentiment on the importance of this award, and just how it feels to be recognized for their efforts. “

I think it’s great. I think it’s great recognition and it makes what you do more worthy,” Hepner said. “Because your co-workers actually think enough about you to nominate you. So I think it’s a good thing. It’s a privilege.” 

Rogan completely agreed. “Yes, that’s exactly [it]…it just feels good,” Rogan said. “it’s a good thing to have to just kind of feel good, and recognize what you do.”

The Staff Member of the Month is not just a meaningless award given to random teachers. It is a way to acknowledge the unspoken, hard work put into the staff of McHenry High School, and make them feel not only good about what they do, but feel that their work is actually being noticed by the other faculty members.

Though students may not realize they have the ability to vote for the staff member of the month and miss the opportunity, when students take some time to acknowledge all the hard work MCHS’s staff puts in to the school year, it makes a difference to those teachers.