Thirty-two school secretaries from across the city were honored at the union’s 38th annual school secretaries awards celebration on June 6. “I love what I do at the school and at the union,” said Erica Stewart, who received the Goldie Colodny Award for her work on the UFT School Secretaries Chapter’s executive board and as a secretary at PS 361 in Brooklyn. “I feel like I found my purpose in life.” School Secretaries Chapter Leader Sheryl Pender and AFT President Randi Weingarten, a guest speaker, extolled all the ways that school secretaries contribute to their schools, from handling payroll to welcoming parents and other visitors. “A lot of people don’t understand what it takes to be a school secretary and how intricate it is, but we know,” Pender told the 250 guests at the soiree in Shanker Hall. Sherri Montgomery, an honoree from Ballet Tech, The New York City Public School for Dance in Manhattan, long wore two hats at her school as secretary and chapter leader. “I’m very proud of my union,” she said, “and it made me even prouder that they celebrated me.”
School secretary and the Goldie Colodny Award winner Erica Stewart (second from left) of PS 361 in Brooklyn is joined onstage by School Secretaries Chapter Leader Sheryl Pender (center) and Stewart’s fellow chapter executive board members.
