NJHS secretary to retire after 28 years

After 28 years in the Neosho R-5 School District, Judy Brown is ready to retire and spend her mornings on her front porch sipping coffee rather than in the junior high school office helping staff and students prepare for the day ahead.

Even though retirement appeals to Brown, it comes not without its bittersweet moments.
Brown said she has enjoyed nearly every minute of her job as secretary at Neosho Junior High School.

She began her career as a teacher’s aide. Brown’s first day on the job had her working in the print room, the junior high school office and even helping in the nurse’s office because the nurse was out that day.

She was later promoted to junior high school secretary. In her time there, Brown has worked for 12 different principals. Brown moved to Neosho with her husband, Jim, in 1981 after he retired from the Air Force. Jim now drives a bus for the Neosho R-5 School District.

Now, nearly 30 years later, Brown is getting ready to enjoy her own retirement years.
But, before she goes, she answered the following questions from the Neosho Daily News.

Q: What makes you love the school environment and working in education for all these years?

Brown: “The kids. They rev you up and tear you down all at the same time. There is just so much that goes on in the school. Education, to me, is really a ministry and it is about caring for people. If you don’t plan on biting the bullet and serving people, please don’t get into education. It has become who I am. I am ‘Ms. Judy’ to all the kids. I love all the teachers and working with all the different administrators. You love something different from all the administrators. In fact, I prayed for years, ‘Lord, I don’t want to quit this, and let me know when it is my time.’ I am sure now is the time, because the pace has probably tripled since I started. The job has changed, and technology is my weakness and people are my strength. I will be 65 soon, so it is time.”

Q: Can you talk about some of the students you have met during your 28 years behind the desk at the junior high?

Brown: “Oh, yes, because now I am seeing kids of kids I had here in the junior high school. It is funny that I now get to tell some of the kids stories about their parents when they were in school. I see similarities in a lot of them. The kids are just so real these days. This age (junior high school, 8th grade) is the most difficult age that they will ever go through. They experience the baddest of the bad, and the best of the best. Being in this building (the high school) is horrible, because the junior high school kids are trying to impress the big kids by doing things they normally would not do. My greatest desire is to see the seventh and eighth grade in their own buildings.

“The things some of these kids tell you are great, and then some of them are heartbreaking. This age group is the most difficult to work with. You must love them. It means so much to them that we care. There are a lot of kids who we are the ones who care for them the most. Society has changed so much that respect for themselves, adults and teachers is missing. It is very worrisome to me to see the direction our kids are going. There is a lack of effort and leadership in many of our children.”

Q: Do you have one good story to share, or a day or a moment that you will always remember from your 28 years at NJHS?

Brown: I will always remember 9/11, and how the students and teachers reacted that day. When that happened, my husband and I have son in the military, Chief Master Sgt. Jeff Brown, and I knew he was in Washington D.C. on leave with family the day of 9/11, and when the attacks happened and I heard the Pentagon had been hit I almost lost it. I had to go home and make some calls. When I made contact with (my son), I came back to school and I was so impressed with how wonderful the teachers were with the kids. Normally, you would expect them to fall apart because they knew what was happening — but they didn’t.”

Q: Do you feel the reward with working in education is feeling like you make a difference?

Brown: “Today, a student, who was in the office because he was in trouble, asked me if I thought he was a bad kid. I told him that he wasn’t a bad kid, but that decisions he made were not good. Everybody in a school building can make a difference.”

Q: It is August of this year, and it is the first day of school. What will Judy Brown be doing?

Brown: “I have thought a lot about that day. I don’t feel any melancholy at this point. I am going to miss a lot of things. I will be up (at the office) quite a bit helping my replacement. She has told me that she is going to have me on speed dial. I am looking forward to drinking my coffee on the front porch watching the hummingbirds and the flowers. I love to garden.”