Janna Holm started working as the counselor secretary this year. She had worked during the first quarter of last year in the front office as the building secretary, but then she moved to elementary school for the remainder of the year because a job opened up. After she transferred there, she began to miss McDaniel and wanted to come back.
Holm decided to take the role as the counselor secretary after her previous job showed her how cool and nice high schoolers are.
“The high schoolers were so kind, thoughtful, interesting, smart, and so much fun!” Holm said.
She didn’t have to apply to work at McDaniel, but instead she spoke with someone that wanted to work at the school Holm used to work at. There’s a system where if two people want to switch schools in PPS they would need to have an agreement between them and the principals from both schools under specific circumstances. That occurred with Janna.
She was excited to work with McDaniel’s students and staff again and also excited to learn a counseling position since it’s similar but different from elementary schools.
“I hope I get to stay at McDaniel forever,” Holm said. “I love it here, and I don’t want to leave until I retire and then I’ll come back as a sub.¨
Holm started to work as a credit counselor and mortgage loan processor during her early twenties. She was good at doing office work but found it to be boring. However, she realized that if she did office work in a school setting that it would be much more fun. She was 23-years-old when she started working for an elementary school in West Salem, where she stayed for two years.
She has been working an office job for 14 years, but this year was her first as a counselor secretary. The counselor secretary’s job is to set up meetings, transcripts and more. They play a big role in the counselor’s office.
Counselor Crissy Phommachak shared that Holm plays a very important role in the counseling office.
“I feel like Janna is the backbone of the counseling office for us,” Phommachack said.
Phommachack explained how Holm makes student schedules, requests information from other schools, uploads records to our files and countless other things. She also mentioned that she is a bright person.
“She’s great, she’s funny,” she said.
Holm enjoys her job here. She is able to meet amazing people and have fun days like dressing up for Halloween, arts, clubs and more. Additionally, her two kids go here and she loves seeing them as she works.
“We’re in a little city. I love that we have a student store, a health clinic, so many cool clubs, and events, and way more interesting electives that I had at my high school,” Holm said.
But the job is still hard and demanding, especially since she is learning more about working more in the counselor office for high school. She is also getting support from other school secretaries.
Apart from being the counselor secretary, she also enjoys playing flag football with her friends every month, swimming, biking and reading books, and she has a calendar of full moons. When there’s a full moon, she wants to be able to see it. She also works as a freelance writer and editor.
Student success advocate Edwina Konch is a neighbor of Holms and she gets invited to play flag football every couple of weeks. She mentioned that she’s organized, good at communicating, making schedules, and setting up appointments for the counselors.
“Janna is so wonderful to work with,” Konch said.
As Holm continues her job as counselor secretary, one of the things she’s planning to do is win the Halloween costume contest each year. She dressed up as the Sunmaid Raisin girl this year and won first prize as most creative in the staff category.
Holm plans to stay with her current counselor office secretary until her retirement. She is the base of the counseling office, doing many things like registering kids, collecting information from other schools, and much more. She wants to do her job well and have some fun.
