BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Staff Writer
Attendance Clerk Kavia Bradley has been selected by her peers as the School-Related Employee of the Year for Lake Butler Middle School.
Attendance clerk is just her latest position at the school, the only school she has ever worked at. She graduated Union County High School in 2013 and began substitute teaching in 2014 to earn money for college. She liked the flexible schedule which made it easy to work around classes. She said she mostly worked in intensive reading classes for grades 6-8.
She became a paraprofessional in 2018 and then took the position of attendance clerk, in the front office, this year. She is a full-time employee of the school district as she also works at the Tiger’s Den at closing time during the school year and in the summer. She has been with the district for eight years.
“I monitor students’ attendance, keep track of where students are throughout the day, identify and report truancy and monitor trends in student attendance,” Bradley said. “I love my job and working with the students.”
Bradley is from Union County and said she loves it here, but she also loves to travel. She has been to the Bahamas, New York City, New Jersey, Houston, Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee, and Washington D.C. She is currently planning a trip to Jamaica for her birthday in September and looks forward to visiting Bora Bora and Thailand one day.
When not traveling or working at the school, Bradley said she loves to shop for clothes and shoes and engaging in what she calls “restaurant exploration.”
“I love to experience different foods and cultures,” she explained. “I have tried many things, but confess my favorite is Italian. I suppose because I really love pasta.”
When she spends time at home, she enjoys the company of her yorkie-poo Keeka and reading about traveling, romantic suspense and anything by author Nicholas Sparks.
In the future she plans to move to Orlando — a place she said is “not to fast, not too slow,” and live just outside the city but with easy access to it. She already as some classes completed at Florida Gateway College and wants to continue her education and train as a surgical technician.
Bradley said she is happy and proud to be named as the LBMS School-Related Employee of the Year for this school year — an honor she shares with her mother, Leslie Bradley, who was named School-Related Employee of the Year at the Tiger’s Den. The two celebrated together and said they were honored to have been selected by their peers in the district.
“I love doing what I do and that my job allows me to put smiles on people’s faces,” Bradley said. “And I am so grateful that my peers think so highly of me.”
