Once you step through the front doors of the 200 building, a series of offices are along the hallway.

Behind the final door on the left is the office of Sonia Fernandez, with a desk full of important paperwork. Whether answering a call or responding to an email, she is helping to ensure the school days run according to plan.

She is the Administrative Assistant in the Academic Office. She is coming up on three years of working at Bishop Kenny, as she started working in May 2023.

While her job title may seem simple, Fernandez actually does a tremendous number of things that most people wouldn’t know about.

Her main role is to assist Vice Principal Michael Broach in whatever he needs.

“I help him stay organized,” Fernandez said. “But he’s great on his own.”

This is not all Fernandez does on an average day at Bishop Kenny.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Fernandez jokes.

She files paper work for volunteers, assists the academic deans, schedules faculty meetings and more.

“If students missed a scheduled test, and they are unable to come back that same day with the teacher, it goes through the academic office,” Fernandez said. “I’m the one [who] schedules the makeup exams along with the teachers.”

Scheduling makeup tests and quizzes isn’t difficult for her, but onboarding can be tedious. She has to “chase people” for their information, she said, to where it can feel a bit like babysitting.

On the other hand, she does find that reassigning classrooms to teachers that have students on crutches and can’t make it up to the second floor to be around the middle in difficulty.

Her day starts at 7:30 AM, and she then goes on to file make-ups from the previous day, and double check the calendars to ensure everything is correct.

Sometimes, all the things she is in charge of can make the day pretty hectic.

“All of that is going on at the same time: students on crutches, teachers going out, teachers being sick, being late, if they get the train, anything like that,” Fernandez said.

There may be a lot to do on a typical day in her life, but that doesn’t stop Fernandez from doing what she does.

“We just go about our days making sure that everything is handled and smooth so that you guys can have a good day,” Fernandez said.

Something that always makes her day when she’s at work is when students say hello to her when passing by her office. It can be hard to notice her sometimes in her office, so it’s nice whenever students properly greet her.

Fernandez loves working here, and a huge part of the reason why is the people around her.

“It’s a sense of family that you get from working here,” Fernandez said. “Like everyone feels like a cousin that wants to help you out.”

Her coworkers help to make her feel like she belongs.

“Everybody has a good attitude,” Fernandez said. “It’s just a positive place to be.”