Amber Raby's office sits just off the cafeteria, but her real job happens wherever a fifth- through eighth-grader needs help, whether that is a bus change, a band-aid, or just a minute to calm down. As the middle school secretary at Benton Grade School, she works closely with both Principal John Pulliam and Assistant Principal Jason Moore. This is only her first full school year in the role itself.

Before this year, Mrs. Raby spent time as the K-4 attendance secretary. She occasionally filled in on the fifth through eighth grade side whenever someone needed a hand. These days her days run from registering new students and coordinating bus routes with the district's head driver to fielding parent calls and simply being available whenever a kid walks through the door needing something, a nurse visit, a schedule change, or just someone to listen.

Her path to Benton looked nothing like this a few years ago. Amber grew up in Crab Orchard. She trained as an occupational therapy assistant through a program based in Herrin, working as an occupational therapy assistant for a little over two years before the pandemic hit. She met her husband, a physical therapist at the time, on the job. After their first daughter was born, Raby did not feel comfortable returning to a medical setting during COVID, so she stayed home instead, keeping her license active just in case. A second daughter followed, and eventually her husband's connections at Benton led her to apply for a part-time attendance secretary opening as a gentle way back into working life. Her older daughter now attends school right alongside her, and her younger daughter, who just turned four, will likely follow in a year or two. Her husband has since moved on from therapy himself, now working as a sales rep for an apparel company, a career shift almost as complete as her own.

Raby describes the fifth through eighth grade wing as noticeably more laid-back than the K-4 side. Younger kids there need constant attention and get sick far more often. Middle schoolers, she says, bring their own kind of energy instead, quick to joke around and build real relationships with the adults in the building. "It's really fun," she said, pushing back on the idea that school offices are anything close to dull. "You develop a good relationship with the kids over time."

That relationship is the part of the job she takes most seriously. Amber wants students to feel comfortable walking into her office, confident that their thoughts matter even though they are still kids. Several have come in upset, needing nothing more than a quiet moment to collect themselves before heading back to class. "I want them to be heard and to feel understood," she said, describing the empathy she tries to extend to every student, since nobody in the front office ever really knows what a kid is carrying from home. "They're kids," she said, "but they're people." Being a mother herself has only sharpened that awareness, reminding her how many students go without things.

Taking the job full time turned out to be a good decision, mostly because of what it meant for her family. Instead of dropping her daughter off, she now gets to have her close by all day, a change her daughter greeted with real excitement. Looking two decades ahead, Raby can easily picture herself still in a Benton office somewhere, maybe even at the district level eventually. It's the kind of job that fits her family's life, and that's enough to keep her here for the long haul.

These days, when her daughter walks past that office door, she does not have to wonder where her mom is.