Home Office Attendance Secretary, Mrs. Theresa Arduino has spent the last 28 years keeping tabs on roughly 1000 students. From call outs to no shows, Arduino has logged it all. After spending 27 of those years in the same desk, with the same routine, she has finally decided to take a step back from her duties in K025.

While many students may only see her every once in a while, Arduino is at her desk by the time the sun comes up most days, and doesn’t leave until well after the final bell rings.

“[As attendance secretary] I’m in charge of keeping the records for all 1,000 students for either 10th, 11th or 12th grade. So I have to know where everyone is, call parents, it’s a lot.” Thersa Arduino explained.

“I start at 6:30 in the morning which means I’m usually [at North Penn] by 6:15, that’s when people start calling to check their kids out of school. Then I am on Infinite Campus all day, parents calling kids out, last minute leaving early or coming in late. I then have to reconcile the attendance and make sure that everything that the teachers put in is correct and make sure there are no mistakes,” Arduino explained. “I also have to send absent letters out to parents if kids are out for too long. I work with guidance a lot as well. If I see students are out, I bring it to their attention and together we call the parents or if we see the student is back in school, we talk to them about it as well,” she continued. “I am very strict in everything I do. I come in in the morning and I do the same things at the same times every single day and I like that.”

Although she finds peace in normalcy and routine, Arduino had a very nontraditional way of getting to this point.

“I have always worked in offices as a secretary. I went to MONTCO for two years, but because I had to pay for it myself, it was on and off,” Arduino said. “I would go to school for about a year and then get a secretarial position to earn money, and then go back to school for a year until I got married and then I just did secretarial work.”

After spending some time being a secretary, she took some time off to be a stay-at-home mom with her kids.

“[Before being at North Penn] I was a stay at home mom. When my youngest was going into first grade, I came here. I met someone at my gym that was working in HR at the district office and she was talking about how bad they needed people,” Arduino explained. “So I went over and got hired as a substitute so I could pick the days I wanted to work and gradually get into it. Once he was in first grade, it was like I was finally ready to find something new to do.”

The something new turned out to be so much more than part time as Arudino has dedicated nearly three decades of her life to it.

“I’ve been here since 1997. I started out subbing in the district and I found that I really liked being in the high school. I had young kids and I found I didn’t want to work with young kids because I would go home to young kids so I like the older kids,” Arduino explained. “I started out just subbing in high school, and then I got a job as a PPD, which is no longer around for secretaries. But basically I would just come in every day and they just put you where they needed you, which was really great because I got to learn everybody’s job. But a 10 month position came up in 1999, so I went to work here full time.”

It is evident that over the years Arduino had an impact on every student she came in contact with, but little did they know, they also had one on her.

“When I first started in the job, it was like I tried to be their mother and their friend, but you can’t always do that. So now, I just take what they do and it is what it is,” she said.

Although she is ready, leaving a place and people she has known for so long is no easy feat.

“I am going to miss my friends that I met here. The other girl in the office, Robyn [Williams], is also retiring. We both started back in 1997 and we’ve both been together for 28 years and she’s moving to Florida,” Arduino stated. “It’s going to be hard not seeing these people everyday.”

“With that said, this isn’t fully a goodbye. I did sign up to become a substitute, so I am hoping to come back and do some secretarial subbing and stay in the sports activities like I am now. I’m looking to keep my hand still on a few things, but be able to just pick and choose,” she continued.

Although June 17th won’t mark the last time Arduino walks the halls of North Penn, she is looking forward to the flexibility and having more time to herself.

“I have a beach house in Rehoboth so I’m looking to spend some more time there. Not having to come back and go to work on a Monday morning and just stay at the beach is going to be really nice. I have grandchildren in the area so I’ll be with them too. I’m not planning for anything major, just staying here and doing fun things.”

After seeing many graduating classes pass through, and living an abundant life herself, Arduino feels keeping all options open is the key to true success.

“My advice to students would be to keep your options open, and don’t turn down an opportunity. After leaving high school I never would have thought I would end up working in a school, but now I do a job that I love. You never know where you’ll find happiness.”