Kristie Keener has been named as the new North Carolina Public School Maintenance Association State Secretary.  Kristie is the Haywood County Schools’ Maintenance Administrative Assistant, a position she has held since 1990. Maintenance Director Joe Buchanan, is fond of saying “Ask Kristie, she came with the building.” Kristie began her career as a work-study student-worker at the school system Central Office during her senior year of high school. While working at the Central Office the Maintenance Administrative Assistant position became available. “My business teacher told me I should apply for the job because I needed the experience of preparing my resume and going through an interview. I must have made a good impression, because I got the job. I graduated on June 6 and started work on June 12, 1990,” Keener said.

Kristie not only got the job, she has excelled. “My mom and dad both instilled in me a good work ethic. You do the best of your ability and you work every day, no ‘laying out’ just because you don’t feel like it,” she said. “I don’t really feel that I am coming to work with a bunch of ‘co-workers’ every day. It is more like being with family. I can always depend on someone at the shop to help me with whatever I need, either professionally or personally. If I am having a bad day there is always someone there to either make me laugh, pray with me or let me cry on their shoulder. I don’t know what I would ever do without them. I love them all, just like they are my family.”

Contact:  Dr. Bill Nolte, Associate Superintendent