“It’s fun, it gets me out of study hall, and I like helping people,” junior Maya Peterson-Womack said.

While many students are in class, Peterson-Womack and freshman Isaac Palmer spend one of their class periods running passes and lending hands for the staff in the Guidance and Main Office.

Palmer works in the Main Office with Donna Andre, the attendance clerk. His job includes checking the tardy students in and delivering passes as needed throughout the period.

Palmer has been working with her since he started high school, which was in 2016, and plans on doing continuing next year. He would rather be an office worker than be in study hall because it gives him time for homework, while helping out.

“I’m away from more people, so I can focus on homework,” Palmer said.

Peterson-Womack has been working for Guidance four semesters total. She plans on being a Guidance Office worker next year, although she will have unassigned study hall and will most likely leave when she feels like it, which won’t be often.

Both of the students dedicate a lot of their time to helping out the teachers. Many teachers, such as math teacher Donna Sekhon, believe that office workers are very helpful.

“I think (they) certainly serve a purpose..,” Sekhon said. “There are a lot of things that they can help with that are important.”

She also believes that without the office workers, there would be more phone calls in the middle of class while she is trying to teach. For this reason, she is very grateful that the student workers are able to run passes and help out at the offices.

Peterson-Womack says the amount of time she is out delivering passes varies on what is going on around school. According to her, scheduling time is usually the busiest, especially if there are not many people working in guidance.

She also says that another factor is the other students’ work ethic and if they aren’t too busy to help give out passes.

“If they don’t want to do anything, I’m out taking all the passes,” Peterson-Womack said. “But I also walk fast, so that helps.”

Although Peterson-Womack does stay busy, she is always able to get the homework done that she has planned to do during that period.

Palmer, however, has a set schedule for that period. He gets to the Main Office, delivers the passes that have already been set out for him and then does his homework. When he is finished with his homework, he offers to take out more passes.

At the end of every semester, the Guidance Office and Main Office each throw a pitch-in food party for the student workers. Peterson-Womack says that she really feels appreciated when she is scarfing down a variety of junk food.

“I like the parties because I don’t know many of the office workers from other periods, so I can meet new people,” Palmer said.