‘Faces of SSHS’
Cheryl Rakestraw and Ann Smythe offer a warm welcome
Cheryl Rakestraw and Ann Smythe are the first faces people see when they come into Siloam Springs High School and the first voices they hear when they call on the phone.
The team of administrative assistants give a warm welcome to students, parents, staff members and visitors. Need to know when the band concert starts, what time the soccer bus leaves for the game, or find out about drivers ed, parent-teacher conferences or semester tests? Rakestraw and Smythe will have the answer and if they don’t, they will find out.
“They are wonderful first faces for the community to meet because they are always smiling, they are always happy and they have a servant’s heart,” said Principal Rob Lindley.
While some people may feel apprehension about visiting the school office because they don’t know where to go or know the procedures, Rakestraw and Smythe put people at ease, give them guidance and get them off to a good start, he said. They are also very approachable and supportive to new teachers and students, he said.
“They are amazingly positive people and present a very good face for our high school, for our people coming into the office, and represent us well,” said Superintendent Jody Wiggins, who worked closely with Rakestraw and Smythe when he served as assistant principal and athletic director at the high school.
A good team
Sit down and talk with Rakestraw and Smythe and you will quickly notice they finish each other’s sentences.
During the past 15 years they have been working together, they have never had an argument or been mad at each other, they said.
“They are just a wonderful team,” Lindley said. “It almost seems like they live inside each other’s brain, they finish each other’s sentences, they complement each other very well and know each other’s next move.”
Their institutional knowledge is very helpful, he said.
Smythe started working in the district in 1999 at Southside Elementary School and then moved to Northside Elementary School. Rakestraw has been working in the district since 1990 and has worked at the junior high, high school, Northside Elementary, the library counselor’s office and in the migrant program.
In 2005, they both came to the high school at the same time and have worked together ever since.
“We are pretty easygoing,” Smythe said. “Cheryl is easy to get along with. We work well together.”
“We are a good fit,” Rakestraw added. “She is the computer-savvy person and I’m the yakker. I can talk to anybody that comes into the office and I do, but we just kind of complement each other.”
“My strengths are her weaknesses, her strengths are my weaknesses and we are a team,” Smythe continued.
Rakestraw and Smythe’s responsibilities include answering the phone, buzzing people into the school, enrolling new students, making announcements, delivering the mail, sending transcripts for former students, taking care of the copy machines, gathering homework for students who are absent and generally taking care of the needs of teachers, students and parents in addition to other assorted tasks, they said.
Multitasking is the most challenging part of being an administrative assistant, they agreed.
“I think people don’t realize how much just goes on,” Rakestraw said. “That you’re multitasking with a phone call, and a parent standing there and a kid needing a schedule, just something that has got you (going) in five different directions. I feel like we are really good at it, it’s just that sometimes it’s overwhelming.”
For example, at the end of the day Smythe sometimes looks at her phone to see she has received something like 112 phone calls, made 58 phone calls and missed 10.
“During the school year we might start telling a story at the beginning of the day and as we are walking out to go home in the evening, it’s like “Oh yeah I’ve got to finish telling you that,’” Smythe said.
Even though they are busy, they find time to have fun. Recent graduate Abby Hornbuckle remembered a time that Rakestraw took a child-sized bicycle on a ride around the office for a test drive to lighten the day. Rakestraw has Chuck Norris’ name on the back of her name badge and Smythe has Sylvester Stallone’s.
“If we have to be tough guys we can, or we can be Cheryl and Ann,” they said with a laugh.
Students the real motivation
Rakestraw and Smythe love working together and love their co-workers, but the students are their real motivation.
“We love the kids,” Rakestraw said. “That’s the reason we are all here anyway.”
Many times, all students need is to have someone to listen to them, Rakestraw and Smythe said. They especially try to watch out for new students and freshmen who are still learning the ropes.
“High school kids are just fun,” Smythe said. “They’re adults without much experience, you know, and they come in and we listen to a lot of kids that come in. They don’t want to go to the counselor, they don’t want to tell their teacher, mom doesn’t listen and they come in and talk to us.”
Hornbuckle worked as an office aide with Rakestraw and Smythe last year. She knew she could always count on the two women for a laugh, encouragement and to help her relax and cheer her up if she was having a bad day.
“They were so much fun, first of all,” she said. “They were super sweet but always got the job done. To just be around them was super fun and it was kind of like a change of pace for my day.”
Librarian Ashley Pledger, who just completed her first year at the high school, said Rakestraw and Smythe welcomed her and helped her feel like she was adopted into the school family.
“They are the face of our school. … It is a very large school but it has a small town feel to it because of how caring they are,” she said.
The two women take ownership of the school, they know the students and their parents and they are problem-solvers, Pledger said.
“They are not putting in their time, they are truly caring about the school community, the Siloam Springs community at large,” she said, describing Rakestraw and Smythe as kind and funny.
“They love kids. They are not just here to run an office, they are here because they love teenagers. They act like teenagers themselves,” she said with a laugh.
‘You will love it here’
When new students and their parents come to sign up, Rakestraw and Smythe tell them “you will love it here,” and they mean it.
Rakestraw chose to bring up her two sons in Siloam Springs Schools and Smythe’s two daughters also came up through the school system. Now Smythe’s grandchildren are attending Siloam Springs Schools, she said.
“When somebody comes to tour your school and they are (from) out of town or out of state, you want to make the best impression, you want to tell them the most positive things about your school,” Rakestraw said.
“We don’t just tell them that, we believe it,” Smythe said. “We’re not just saying that to be nice. We raised our kids in this school.”
If it seems like they enjoy their jobs, it’s because they do.
“I think we are the face of Siloam Springs High School, simply because when they walk in the door, we are the first people they see,” Smythe said. “I think that whenever … the new parents come in, that have never been in our school before, it’s important to be kind, be friendly, smile like we enjoy our jobs, because we do. All of that is real. It’s not something that we pretend to do, because we really do (love our jobs). I think it’s important to show them that this is a good place, this is a welcoming place.”
They are the face of our school. … It is a very large school but it has a small town feel to it because of how caring they are.
Ashley Pledger SSHS librarian