The Backbone of Attendance: Susan Adams

Mrs. Adams has been involved with the district for over two decades. She first entered the district in 1990 as a substitute, and then got hired as a special education para in 1992 where she was involved for 15 years. Following that, she worked as a substitute teacher coordinator for the entire district. A while later she enacted her current position as an attendance coordinator. 

After her long career within the district, Mrs. Adams decided to retire this year to spend time with her family members. 

“My husband retired in December, and we're just going to do stuff around our place, do some traveling and spend time with the family,” added Mrs. Adams. 

With her different experiences with many facets of education, she learned many new things, especially from students. 

“You never stop learning. Even if you think you know everything, you always can learn things, and even students can teach you things. So don't close your mind off. Be open to learning and to change and to accept how every kid is different. Be in their shoes you can learn something new from everybody,” said Mrs. Adams. 

The relationship between her and the students of Muscatine High School can be best defined as professional, yet inviting. 

“She's really good at getting her job done and treating every student the same way,” said Maggie Halloran, a Senior at MHS. 

As a backbone of the Attendance Office, she provides advice for the person who takes over her position. 

“Be willing to change at the drop of a hat., don't. Everything's day-to-day, never are two days the same. Just always be willing to accommodate changes because it's gonna happen, especially with attendance,” shared by Mrs. Adams. 

Reflecting on her extensive career, she recognized the most important thing she learned about her character after being involved with the school district. 

“It broadened my thinking and I relate to kids within Special Education, but it just really makes you know the background of things. You try to teach that to other people so they're not so narrow minded. I guess they are just like every normal kid, you know, because they are normal kids.”

Mrs. Adams reflects on her favorite moments within teaching, specifically being a special education para. 

“When they couldn't do a job or couldn't do an assignment and then when they finally get it or can accomplish that, it's just you feel as if it was your accomplishment too. Because it was like, oh we worked on that together,” reminisced Mrs. Adams. 

Transitioning into the Attendance Office allowed for a different perspective on the education system.  

“There's a lot of kids that have graduated and went on and I still see them. Now their children are here or have gone through here, so it's just kind of nice to know the whole family. It's just kind of a cool thing to know that, hey, I had your dad or I had your mom and now, you know, you came through and so it's just kind of a neat thing to see the generations of kids and students go through,” said Mrs. Adams. 

Within the concept of time, different perspectives arise as she thinks about retiring.

“I'm pretty pleased with everything that has happened and it seems like some days I think, ‘oh wow, where did the time go?’ And other times I think, ‘oh, it's been so long, I'm ready to go,’” stated Mrs. Adams.