Songs, Smiles And Hugs Part Of Fallen Timbers Secretary’s Job

BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Jo Baer’s job description includes answering phone calls and making copies. But the students at Fallen Timbers also count on her for smiles, songs and hugs.
While she didn’t break out in song when she was named Staff Person of the Year for Anthony Wayne Local Schools, she was all smiles.
“This is a great place to be. It’s like having 350 kids of my own,” she said of the middle school, where she’s worked as secretary since 1996. “The staff is fantastic and the kids are adorable.”
The fifth- and sixth-graders are not too cool for hugs or chatting with her, yet not as needy as younger kids, she said.
Wherever she goes, Baer runs into current and former students, who call out her name and run up for hugs.
“My husband teases me that it’s like he’s walking around with the Queen of England,” she laughs.
Answering phone calls, making copies and assisting teachers are an expected part of her secretarial job, but it’s soothing children with stomach aches, handling sticking locks and smoothing ruffled feathers that make her job unique.
“We have a ‘no fear office’ for kids and teachers alike,” she said.
Before accepting the position at Fallen Timbers, Baer was a licensed practical nurse, working briefly at Whitehouse Country Manor and as a private duty nurse in Port Clinton.
“I love patient care. This is a perfect blend, but I can be creative here,” she said, referring to how she sometimes talks students out of the “illnesses” that bring them to the office. “Sometimes all they really need is some attention.”
Her “importance of breakfast’ lecture,” equating a morning meal to fuel for a jet plane, is one she gives on a nearly daily basis.
In addition to hugs and smiles, Baer incorporates songs into her day, such as singing “Walk This Way” (Aerosmith, 1975) as she leads kids down the hall, or the lyrics to “Poison Ivy” (The Coasters, 1959) which instruct the scratching students “You’re going to need an ocean of calamine lotion.”
“I like to make the kids smile. They make me smile,” she said.
When she graduated in 1971 from Anthony Wayne High School, it was in the old Monclova school, she said. Her son and daughter both graduated from Anthony Wayne, as did her husband Mark. They have five grandchildren with one more on the way.
“Some of these kids’ parents I babysat for when they were kids,” she said. “They struggle to call me Mrs. Baer because they knew me as Joey.”