At 5:30 am, Office Manager/Administrative Assistant Alicia Tasker walks into SHS. Her job is to ensure the office is up and running. This means collecting room numbers of absent teachers, emptying out Principal Brian Knight’s folder, filling out sports timecards from the day before, working through the bills and budgets, keeping the webpage and spreadsheets up to date and helping new employees.

A little bit of everything, as she puts it.

“(I) love my job, I love working here (and I) love getting to work with the kids and the staff,” Tasker said. “I think I have the best job in the school.”

Tasker’s days at SHS are filled with lots of work, but she still remains passionate about what she does.

A little over 11 years ago, Tasker came back to SHS after graduating in 1989. Over the last seven years, she has worked as the Administrative Assistant to the Principal. Almost three years ago, her title changed to Office Manager, although she still holds the responsibilities of the Administrative Assistant.

When Tasker began at SHS, she was an Instructional Assistant, then a Dean’s Clerk, the Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Principals and finally the Administrative Assistant to the Principal, who was Barbara Brouwer at the time.

“She’s been here for a long time,” Knight said. “She’s worked in about every role in our office area over the years.”

While Tasker has worked her way through numerous positions, she has never lost passion for her job. Whatever she might be doing at the time, she does efficiently to help the school she loves run smoothly.

As an SHS alumnus and parent of SHS graduates, she carries a lot of pride for the school and the Cardinal environment. Tasker will scold anyone that wears blue inside the building, Associate Principal Amy Boone jokes.

“She cares about this school a great deal, which definitely influences the work that she does.” Knight said. “And she wants this to continue to be a great place, and wants people to have as great of an experience as she had when she was here.”

Tasker’s passion for the school and her job is evident to her colleagues. She is very helpful and willing to answer questions or help with any projects that may come up. According to Knight, the love and deep admiration she has for the school makes her fantastic at her job.

Her colleagues also value the caring nature she has towards them. According to Boone, Tasker is known to help everyone, acting as a “motherly figure” for the rest of the staff. She thinks not only of the teachers’ or office staff’s needs, but of the custodians, cafeteria workers and substitutes too.

“She always tries to take care of everybody; she tries to take care of us in the main office like we’re her kids,” Boone said. “She tries to do that for all of the staff, so that they can take care of the kids.”

Not only is Tasker passionate about her job, but it is essential to running the school. Since she holds so many responsibilities, especially concerning things like paying the bills, updating spreadsheets and helping Knight, there would be a large space to fill if she was not here.

Without her, Knight explains, people would feel the inefficiency of things they don’t even realize are happening, as Tasker knows how to get things done and do them well.

“She would be one that if she left, it would take a few people to really step up to make sure everything that she does gets done,” Knight said.

Tasker holds a lot of responsibilities, but her work is mainly behind-the-scenes. Because of this, not many students are aware that the work she does affects them every day. For example, the lanyards students wear, as well as the bus tags, are sorted and organized by Tasker for a seamless distribution later on.

“She does a lot more than anyone knows and does a lot behind the scenes,” Knight said. “And honestly she doesn’t want credit for any of it, so she’s not one that is out there telling people how much she does.”