From the window in her office at the Lawrence Township administration building, Wendy Donahue can see who is walking up the sidewalk to enter the building and who is walking down it after they have left t
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
From the window in her office at the Lawrence Township administration building, Wendy Donahue can see who is walking up the sidewalk to enter the building and who is walking down it after they have left the building.
Ms. Donahue describes it as the “window to the world” — and for her, that has been true in more ways than one. She is one of the first people that newly hired teachers will see, and one of the last that retiring teachers will visit, too.
That’s because Ms. Donahue is the personnel specialist and operations manager in the Lawrence Township public school district’s Personnel Department. She works closely with Rebecca Gold, the district’s director of personnel.
But Friday marks Ms. Donahue’s last day to peer out of that window to the world. She is retiring after a career in the personnel office that has spanned more than two decades.
Or as Ms. Gold likes to put it in “Wendy by the numbers,” she has been involved in the hiring of more than 1,200 employees and the retirement or resignation of more than 1,100 in those 23 years in the personnel office.
”My job is the beginning and the ending of (employees’) careers,” Ms. Donahue said. “About 99 percent of the time, it is joyous. The best part of the job is sitting in this chair — at the start of their career when they come here, and when they are ending in their profession. People are leaving with a big smile on their faces.”
”Here I am, sitting on my side of the desk, thinking about it. I have absolutely loved this job, but I wanted to go out with a smile on my face,” she said one day last week, as she contemplated her own pending retirement.
There is one thing that Ms. Donahue does know. She and her husband, Michael Donahue, plan to move to the Hershey, Pa., or Harrisburg, Pa., area to be near family. She said she would like to start another career, possibly working for a nonprofit organization or with senior citizens. She studied therapeutic recreation at Harrisburg Area Community College before she married.
The Donahue family moved to Lawrence 28 years ago and Ms. Donahue quickly became involved in her children’s schools. She became active in the Slackwood Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Organization. She learned that the school district needed someone to work with special needs students at the Ben Franklin Elementary School for a few months.
”I fell in love with that position. In the fall, the district opened a new kindergarten classroom at Slackwood. I was hired in a permanent position in the morning as a kindergarten assistant and I did clerical work in the school district office in the afternoon,” she said.
When the personnel specialist at the school district office needed to take a short-term leave of absence, Ms. Donahue was asked to help out.
”I was going to help out for three months in the personnel office, but three months turned into 23 years. I was hooked. I found my niche. I loved the little guys (kindergarten students), but I realized this is something I could do,” she said.
”This office is the resource for people who are employed here. When they get hired, they are bombarded with information. My job is to make it as easy as we can to fill out the forms and to be a friendly face. I love the hiring process. It is the beginning of their (professional) life and I know I am helping them,” she said.
To say that there is never a dull moment in the personnel office is an understatement. Ms. Donahue said she is extremely busy. She makes a list each morning of the tasks that need to be accomplished — from placing student teachers, posting job openings, collecting data for the school board’s personnel agenda and dealing with workmen’s compensation issues.
”If I get to check off one thing, it has been a successful day. It changes constantly. Summer is the busiest time. Summer, to me, never meant sunshine and the beach,” she said.
Ms. Donahue said she loves helping people. When people are hired, she said, she often gives them her home telephone number so they can call her if they need help. Teachers are hired to teach the children, and “we are here to make their life as easy as we can,” she said of the Personnel Department.
Ms. Gold readily agreed. At the district’s retirement dinner for employees, she seized the opportunity to gently tease Ms. Donahue — while calling attention to her dedication to the school district — in a letter of recommendation for her.
In addition to her involvement in the hiring and retirement process, Ms. Gold said, Ms. Donahue has helped to conduct more than 50 charitable collection drives for families in need at holiday time — from collecting money and gifts, to wrapping them and delivering them.
”She has been a dedicated and extraordinary employee. She shows up early, stays late and rarely takes lunch. The next question you may ask is, ‘What are her flaws?’ As her new boss, here is what you have to be careful of,” Ms. Gold said.
”She works all the time. She doesn’t know how to read a watch. She doesn’t know how to say no to anyone that asks for help at any time of the day or night. She does not know the difference between a Monday and a Sunday. She answers work calls ‘24/7,’” Ms. Gold said.
”She refuses to see the negative in any person, situation or just anything. She can find a smile in the craziest of situations, and we have many of those in the district. So, if she is standing in front of you, looking for a job, do not let her leave your office.”
”Hire her now. Stop reading this and hire her. It will be the best hire you ever made,” Ms. Gold wrote.