Clinton Township, Macomb Township

Board honors 26-year transportation clerk set to retire

By Robert Guttersohn
C & G Staff Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Robert Guttersohn Debra Tedder, who has worked at Chippewa Valley Schools for 26 years as a clerk at various schools and departments, looks into the audience for her family during the Feb. 4 Board of Education meeting. She is retiring at the end of the school year. Photo by Robert Guttersohn Debra Tedder, who has worked at Chippewa Valley Schools for 26 years as a clerk at various schools and departments, looks into the audience for her family during the Feb. 4 Board of Education meeting. She is retiring at the end of the school year.

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — For the second consecutive meeting, the Chippewa Valley Schools Board of Education and the administration took time to honor a retiring, 20-plus-year district employee.

On Feb. 4, the administration presented Debra Tedder, who has worked at Chippewa Valley for 26 years as a clerk at various schools and departments, with a ceremonial school bell and a framed resolution from the board congratulating her retirement.

Tedder is retiring at the end of the school year. She currently works in the transportation department. She described her time with the school district as a “wonderful experience.”

“It’s been wonderful working with Chippewa Valley,” Tedder said.

Brendan Wagner, the district’s director of transportation, said Tedder was forced to work as a clerk in the transportation department. “I think, at that time, when she found out that she had to come to transportation, I think she probably wished that this retirement was coming then,” Wagner joked.

He told the board that scheduling the transportation of students can be a difficult job, yet Tedder succeeded at it.

“She’s an absolute superstar in the office — always smiling, in a good mood, hard working,” Wagner said. “She has a genuine concern and passion for her coworkers, and certainly for the children we transport.”

Wagner described Tedder as patient with parents concerned over the transportation of their students.

“Anybody in the transportation would mimic what I’m saying,” he said. “She’s just a wonderful human being, a wonderful coworker.”

Superintendent Ronald Roberts, who first worked with Tedder when she was an office clerk at Algonquin Middle School and then later in the transportation department, said she displayed great customer service, despite the stressful position.

“Talking with parents sometimes with transportation issues is not always easy,” Robert said. “It does take a skilled person, and there could be no one better than you.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Robert Guttersohn at rguttersohn@candgnews.com or at (586)218-5006.