Many people think the principal is the head of the school, but it’s simply not so. The principal’s secretary is really the captain of the ship and Alisal’s captain has accepted a new position. Yolanda Campos, Mr. Burns’ secretary, is leaving to pursue a career as a counselor at Alvarez.

Campos has worked at Alisal as the principal’s secretary for the past year and a half, but she’s no stranger to the district.

She worked for 10 years at Alvarez High straight out of high school. Campos worked as a clerk for five years, then as the counseling secretary, and finally as an assistant principal’s secretary.

As valuable as her work experience was Campos continued going to school nights and earned her B.S. in Business Administration from CSUMB in 2005. Although she took time off to get married and have her daughter, she planned to continue her education.

Moving over from Alvarez in 2005 to become Mr. Ramirez’s secretary was a bit daunting. “I was kind of nervous at first,” said Campos, “but I’ve enjoyed it and I’ve learned a lot from the teachers.” She saw the relationships teachers had with students and it gave her a window into life outside the office.

While most students will never meet the principal’s secretary, unless they need to see the principal, everyone on campus feels her impact either directly or indirectly.

The principal’s secretary has to work with all the clerical staff and the teachers. “I have to make sure the office is running smoothly,” she said. Campos has to deal with payroll, field trips, conference requests, and collaboration, which affect both teachers and students.

Perhaps the most demanding part of the job is dealing with teacher absences on a period by period basis, or in-lieus. Campos said the worst part of her job is “not having enough subs in the district and struggling to find people to cover classes.” The difficulty lies in getting teachers to give up their prep period, the one period they don’t have to teach, to cover a class that should have been covered by a substitute.

While she won’t miss dealing with in-lieus, Campos will miss the staff. “I’ve become really attached,” she said, “and I really want to come back and work with the staff again.” If she gets that opportunity she’ll be working closer with students than she ever has before.

She’s leaving Alisal to work as a counselor at Alvarez in an intern program. Campos started working on her counseling credential through San Jose State last year. Although she is not finished with her credential, she got the opportunity to do a counseling internship she took it. The internship will give her the training and experience she’ll need once she finishes her courses. She said the only reason she didn’t stay at Alisal was there was no counseling position open.

She’ll be working on her counseling credential for two more semesters, but she’s not stopping there-last semester she started working on her Master’s degree in counseling.

As difficult as the road has been, Campos is glad she made the most of her opportunity. “When I came I was real nervous, but I’m really glad I had the courage to come here and get out of my comfort zone,” she said.

Campos will be plenty busy with her new job, her Master’s classes, and her family, but she’ll be watching for a counseling position to open up at Alisal.