SECRETARY DAY SURPRISE - on Secretary Day this spring, Karleen Leaton was surprised by the arrival of all the principals she has served with over the years. They treated her to lunch at The Edge in honor of Secretary Day and her coming retirement. Here she is shown with Skip Wilson, Gene Hobbs, Jerry Nelsen, Phil Uhlorn, Jerry Uhling, Steve Higgins, Angie Baldus and Shannon Wilson.
Another fun day at school
By Ronda Nelson
“When I hear someone say ‘I have to go
to work tomorrow,’” Karleen Leaton says with a sparkle in her eyes, “I think to
myself, I don’t have to go to work—I’m going to have another fun day at school.”
Fun days at school are about to give way to fun days of retirement as Leaton
closes the chapter on a career that spanned 30 years with District 171.
Leaton began her career as an aide in the resource room at Orofino Junior High School on Jan. 2, 1979. She worked there for a year and a half before moving to the position of secretary at the school. She has remained as secretary through two generations of students. “I used to be a mother to them,” she says laughing, “but now I’m a grandmother.”
The work, she says, has been a joy. “I just love working here with the kids, seeing them grow.” The age group at the junior high is one she loves. “They are so full of life,” she says, admittedly, sometimes “a little too much.” She believes the hustle and bustle have kept her younger than she would have been otherwise.
Besides being secretary, Leaton coached little league and volleyball (“I really really loved doing that.”) and did the school annual.
Referring to the staff she says, “it’s just like family…we do a lot with and for each other. I couldn’t have asked for a more loving, caring bunch of people to share these last 30 years at the junior high.”
Leaton cites one example of caring that occurred when her husband John suffered a heart attack nine years ago. The staff and volunteer Chris Coonts kept the office going, while Karleen spent a month in Spokane with him.
Upon her return, Leaton was called to an assembly where the student body presented her with several hundred dollars they had collected, an event she says was overwhelming.
Over the years Leaton has worked for seven different principals. Gene Hobbs hired her, and was followed by (not necessarily in order) Skip Wilson, Phil Ulhorn, Jerry Nelsen, Shannon Wilson, Steve Higgins and Jerry Uhling. Angie Baldus, was vice-principal at OJHS before moving to Orofino Elementary as principal. After Hobbs, most were first time principals. “It seems like as soon as we had one trained,” she says, “they would leave us and we would have to start over again.”
Her most precious memory occurred on Secretary Day of this year, when those eight administrators came to the school to surprise her and take her to lunch at The Edge. Yes, the surprise made her cry. In fact, for several weeks after the event she cried whenever she told the story. “It couldn’t be any nicer,” she says. “That’s better than a gold watch or anything else.”
Through the years, her biggest challenge has been learning all the computer programs which, she says, started out with a simple one years ago, with more than she can count added since.
She grew up in Almo, ID before moving to Malta, ID where she attended high school. She will return to Raft River High School in Malta for her 50 year reunion this summer.
Leaton met her husband John when both were attending Links Business School in Boise. After John went into the service, Karleen worked as a private secretary for an insurance company in Boise, before joining him at Fort Ord, CA for his last year of military service. Following his discharge they moved to Orofino.
They have three daughters and four grandchildren, with another due this fall.
Margie is a homemaker at Bainbridge Island, WA. She and husband Larry have two children, Henry John, 14, and Lindsay, 12.
Daughter Jean and her husband Martin, live in South Berwick, ME, where Jean is a homemaker and teaches classes in English as a Second Language.
Their youngest, Malia, is a Physicians Assistant. She and husband John have Claire, 4, Noah, 2 and a baby on the way.
Her first plan for retirement is “to get rested up.” Following that, Leaton will devote more time to golf and to travel. With only six weeks off each summer and the extreme heat and humidity back east, she hasn’t visited her children as much as she’d like, something she plans to change with more time on her hands. She’s looking forward to traveling to Maine in the fall for the birth of her next grandchild.
She looks forward to celebrating her retirement with her co-workers and a family celebration planned for this summer.