Job description last updated: 5/15/2023

Position Summary: The ideal candidate will support the District’s mission and vision and will have the primary responsibility of providing routine secretarial support to the school and assisting in coordinating and overseeing the day-to-day operations of school functions and priorities. The Building Secretary will communicate information to relevant parties and engage in routine problem solving, material acquisition and record keeping. Finally, the Building Secretary acts as a liaison between students, parents, staff, and appropriate agencies. 

Attendance Focus:  The secretary directs and participates in the maintenance of student attendance records and reports, and acts as a liaison between students, parents, staff, and appropriate agencies regarding student attendance.

District Summary

The William Penn School District is located in southeastern Delaware County and serves approximately 5,000 students who reside in Aldan, Colwyn, Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, and Yeadon Boroughs. We share a collective vision to educate, nurture and empower all students to become career and/or college ready.

Key Responsibilities & Essential Duties: 

• Types, prepares, and distributes records, reports, and correspondence related to school functions
• Answers routine phone inquiries, routes calls and disseminates messages appropriately
• Greets public, vendors, and staff as required, responds to routine questions and routes others to the appropriate staff/administrator as necessary 
• Takes and disseminates messages for Administrator as required 
• Maintains accurate files, records, and reports for school 
• Sorts and routes U.S. mail, inter-district mail, and materials to the appropriate person 
• Coordinates appointments for administrators/department as needed 
• Effectively operates all office machinery/technology tools and troubleshoots routine problems 
• Makes arrangements for conferences (including transportation, hotel reservations, etc.) as needed
• Completes other related responsibilities as assigned 

Attendance Focus:

• Performs a variety of responsible secretarial/clerical activities related to the functions of the attendance office and assigned administrator.
• Types a variety of material such as memos, letters, forms, reports related to assigned unit.
• Receives, reviews, and verifies documents, records, and forms for accuracy, completeness, and conformance to applicable rules, regulations, policies, and procedures.
• Interviews office visitors and telephone callers and either answers questions, resolves complaints, provides desired information as required or refers to appropriate person.
• Print behavior referrals daily and enter updates in eSchool.
• Orders, stores, and issues supplies and materials pertinent to the functions of the attendance office.
• Coordinates and prioritizes the internal activities and operations of a school attendance office.
• Directs and participates in daily attendance accounting work required to keep accurate school attendance records.
• Receives students in attendance office: prepares and issues admit slips to class, permits to leave school early, hall passes, and tardy slips.
• Prepares and prints school attendance reports and lists for distribution to teachers and other staff members.
• Updates registration lists, attendance forms, attendance cards, etc. for changes in enrollment.
• Contacts parents to verify student absences.
• Compiles and analyzes data and prepares a variety of records, reports, and other correspondence related to student attendance matters and reporting.
• Confers and consults with students, parents, staff, judicial agents, social services, and other appropriate parties regarding student attendance matters.
• Performs related duties as required.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Knowledge/awareness of own cultural identity and how this influences behavior, and desire to learn about the cultural identity of others. 
• Ability to establish and nurture an environment that promotes cultural competence and equitable treatment of staff, students, and patrons of the District. 
• Ability to understand and hold self and others accountable for promoting and attaining the goals as outlined in Focus Forward 2025. 
• Ability to recognize that each person is a unique individual even as we celebrate their group cultural heritage. 
• Knowledge of PA Core Standards and Eligible Content 
• Knowledge of Instructional Planning Guides as it relates to the instructional block 
• Knowledge of Digital Curriculum components 
• Ability to courageously lead conversations focused on equity, closing opportunity gaps, and equal access to technology-infused lessons of rigor. 
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with District staff and administrators, students, parents or guardians, outside agencies, and the public, in a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual environment. 
• Ability to receive and implement feedback to improve practice and systems.
• Ability to work with adults as well as children      
• Basic clerical and computer skills     
• Knowledge of screening techniques 
• Ability to assess emergency situations (triage)

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated proficiency/experience with Microsoft Office Suite (especially Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel) and the Google Suite 
• Strong written and oral communication skills 
• Effective interpersonal relationship skills 
• Strong organizational skills with demonstrated ability to effectively structure the work in an office 
• Secretarial skills and/or experience

Pre-employment Paperwork Requirements:

• Pennsylvania Criminal Background Check, FBI Fingerprinting Background Check, Pennsylvania Child Abuse Clearance
• Sexual Misconduct/Abuse Disclosure Release (Act 168) forms 
• School Personnel Health Record and TB test

Working Conditions & Physical Requirements:

• Work scheduled hours on a consistent basis
• Indoor office environment is subject to frequent interruptions
• Pushing, moving and lifting objects with a strength factor of light work
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a variety of standard office equipment
• Clarity of vision at varying distances
• Verbal, auditory and written capabilities to effectively communicate in an articulate manner
• Sitting and standing for extended periods of time
• Frequent sitting, standing and walking
• Reaching overhead, above the shoulders and horizontally to retrieve and store files and supplies
• Lifting objects with a strength factor of light work
• Occasional bending, reaching and stretching
• Occasional kneeling, crouching and squatting
• Occasional pulling, pushing

Level of Compensation: $15.68/hour (starting rate)

Disclaimer:

The preceding list is not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary. The statements contained herein reflect general details as necessary to describe the principal functions of this job, the scope of responsibility, and the level of knowledge and skills typically required, but should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements, skills or duties so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside their normal responsibilities from time to time as needed.

All employment open positions are made available on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability, or veteran status.

Job descriptions are written as a representative list of the ADA essential duties performed by the entire classification. They cannot include and are not intended to include, every possible activity and task performed by every specific employee.