Claudene Wilson, longtime custodian at Swedeborg District III Elementary School in Missouri – Credit Swedeborg School DistrictA Missouri K-8 school was debating long and hard over what to rename their school.
The decision-makers could have picked any number of famous Missouri natives, or perhaps a national figure that would inspire the kids to strive for similar achievement and recognition.
But no; in the end they picked the person they all decided meant the most to them: Claudene Wilson, the school custodian.
Claudene Wilson, pictured here in center (grey) – credit, Swedeborg R-III School DistrictThe 64-year-old has been at the Swedeborg District III Elementary School for decades, working not only as a custodian-janitor, but plumber, landscaper, school bus driver, in cafeteria service, and even as a greeter for the kids when they arrive at school.
At a certain point, she told CBS News’ ‘On the Road’ with Steve Hartman, she would be working 13-hour days.
Why did she tolerate such long hours?
“The kids,” she said.
The school board, led by President Chuck Boren, voted unanimously over the summer to designate the school as the Claudene Wilson Learning Center. Boren was in the school’s 8th grade class when Wilson started working there. His son Canaan, now 14, spent his whole childhood learning the same lessons from Wilson that Boren did.
“That’s what makes Claudene what she is,” Boren told CBS. “…These kids get sick, you think they go to the nurse to start with? They go to her. If they had a bad night, they go to her. And she’s there for each and every one of them.”
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You’ll find one gas station, a few churches, and a couple of restaurants on the single country road that runs through the unincorporated communities that make up the Swedeborg School District 100 miles from Kansas City in rural Pulaski County.
“If you go out in the community and say you’re from Swedeborg, if they know anything about Swedeborg, the first thing they’re going to say is, ‘Is Claudene still there?’” Mark Sasfy, the school’s assistant administrator, told CNN.
Many of the school’s employees have never seen the building without her in it—even after she officially retired as the custodian in July. By the start of the school year, she was back as a bus driver.
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“It’s awesome that someone that’s been here, spent their whole life, for 30 years working at one place and having all those connections mean something,” added Jacob Miller, a fifth and sixth-grade teacher who remembers a moment during his first day in the classroom when Wilson passed by the door and gave him a thumbs up through the window.
There’s still one person in the school district who doesn’t feel the honor was deserved, and that’s Wilson herself, telling Hartman at CBS that while it touches her heart, her relationships with the kids are the only reward she requires.
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