Photo by Ryan Gladstone / St. Joseph News-Press

Lake Contrary Elementary School secretary Connie Shirey, above, wraps a package of homemade kettle corn for a police officer who used to speak at the South Side elementary school. Ms. Shirey recently was named the Support Person of the Year by the St. Joseph School District Foundation.

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Two hundred forty-eight students attend Lake Contrary Elementary School.

Connie Shirey can rattle off all their names, knows which parent each lives with and almost knows phone numbers by heart.

“If there’s some type of issue where a kid doesn’t get on the bus or there’s some other transportation issue, when Connie’s here, we know that kid is gonna get home OK. If she’s not here, we all kind of hold our breath,” said Nancy Pease, Lake Contrary reading teacher. “Nobody knows our kids like Connie does.”

Ms. Pease and the rest of the Lake Contrary staff nominated Ms. Shirey for the St. Joseph School District Foundation’s Support Person of the Year award. Last week, the foundation selection committee named her the winner.

Ms. Shirey — a South Side native — took a secretary job at Neely Elementary School 18 years ago. Her daughter was grown, so she was ready to end her housewife life. Twelve years ago, she moved to Lake Contrary.

Of course she takes care of those secretary tasks, such as answering phones and compiling attendance.

But she doesn’t stop there.

In preparation of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt’s Lake Contrary visit, Ms. Shirey shined up the front windows and doors. When a sixth-grader can’t afford a yearbook, she buys one.

Thursday morning, Connie’s tasks were nonstop.

Remind students to grab breakfast in the gym before heading to class.

Find the daily joke for Principal Mark Wheatley to read during the morning announcement.

Make sure the fire departments knows the kindergartners, or “kenny-gartners” as she calls them, are coming for a field trip. Last year, the visit caught the department off-guard.

Copy receipts.

Track down a teacher who needs to get on a field-trip bus.

Ms. Shirey took on another task when the school nurse had to leave for the morning. A staff member walked in the office with a kindergarten girl. Hand sanitizer got in the girl’s eye.

Come with me, Ms. Shirey said.

Ms. Shirey put water in a cup, poured water in the girl’s eye and told her to blink.

“Does that feel better?” she asked in her motherly way.

The girl nodded.

The students — that’s what keeps Ms. Shirey going.

“These are my kids,” she said. “When they leave in the evening, I worry about them. Will they get a good meal? Will they be safe?”

Ms. Shirey, 53, plans to stick with “her kids” for a while.

“I’ll be here until I retire,” she said.

Nancy Hull can be reached

at nancyhull@npgco.com.