BY LARRY DUPEE
Special to the Times
Lake Butler Elementary School has selected the School Related Employee of the year for 2021. From the many who dedicate themselves to the best quality of education, Dawn Riser has demonstrated her abilities to coordinate the business end of the education process. A Lake Butler native, she attended Union County schools. After graduating from Union County High School in ’96 her first job in ’97 was as secretary for the Acorn Clinic Dental office near Brooker. She was promoted to office manager for a time. Seeking experience in other fields she worked as general business manager for three years in Lake City.
When she was young, she said that she could not wait to be a teacher. Riser started helping out as a sub when her daughter started Kindergarten in 2011. She subed thru 2013 when she applied for a secretarial position that opened in the school office at LBES. Riser has served as secretary for LBES since 2019. Her main job is coordinating the processes that are required to maintain organization in an ever changing environment.
To keep a level head while multi tasking the many diverse functions encountered in daily office procedures is a skill Riser has mastered. From answering the phones and making sure that the messages are delivered correctly, to coordinating substitute teachers. She takes simple pleasure from doing the right thing to make sure the process flows as smoothly as possible.
Keeping Principal Marcie Tucker’s schedule fluid is one of her most important assignments. She prints honor roll certificates, backs up people who are out to lunch, assists in the clinic, establishes the campus calendar of events, prepares and discusses surveys, collects Santa Express forms to assist the P.T.O and push wherever needed.
Riser said, “I always want everyone to have what they need and to get done what they need to do. When asked how she felt about being selected S.R.E. she said “I felt flattered honestly I thought they were joking! I could not believe it. To be here working with such a great team … for sure no other job has felt so much like home.” Riser says she plans to stay on at LBES and start every morning there. She said, “I’m the first one here, get the subs ready, check in parents and open the school up for business.” “We have a big team here we all do it together.”
She loves the kids and misses the classroom a lot but she feels that she has comfortably settled into the position she has. Riser has been married to her husband Tony for 19 years. Raising two children a son 19, and a daughter, 10, family life involves scrapbooking, small art projects, puzzles, spending time at bonfires, fishing and family projects.
She likes to read non-fiction to learn about how to figure out kids and how to help them overcome their problems. She also enjoys fiction, especially thrillers, to help her relax. She likes Christian music but said she will listen to anything. Her favorite T.V show is Grey’s Anatomy.
Riser said, “Working at LBES with so many great people with such positive energy and concern for students academic as well as emotional needs, and being selected by them to represent them, I can only say Thank You!”
