DeJaynes was named Teacher/Staff of the Month for May by The Beacon..
By Chris Faulkner
The two most underappreciated jobs in a school system are a tie between the custodial staff and the cafeteria workers.
But Gayle Binder, a cafeteria worker herself, wants the public to know that Ann DeJaynes does a stellar job as head cashier for Aldo Leopold Intermediate School.
“She’s the best boss I’ve ever had,” said Binder of DeJaynes, who is the Burlington Beacon’s Teacher/Staff of the Month for May.
Binder has worked many different jobs over the past 35 years and in the Aldo Leopold cafeteria for just a year.
“I get along with her,” Binder said of DeJaynes. “She’s very personable. She’s direct if she’s got a problem. I really like working with her.”
DeJaynes came to work for Aldo Leopold as a server in 2019.
“Then 2020 happened,” she said, “so I didn’t really come to work for that. I did the summer, and that was about it.”
She returned to work in the 2020-21 school year, but she had to take care of a sick family member and give up her position.
DeJaynes was able to return late in the 2021-22 school year as a cook. But she was soon promoted to lead cashier — the person who runs the cafeteria — and she’s held that for about a year now.
So what’s it like running lunch duty for close to 500 students?
“They have their good days and their bad days,” DeJaynes said. “Most of the time the pretty chipper. Sometimes they don’t want to listen. They want to cut in line.
“But I enjoy just coming into work and talking to them in the morning when they come through for breakfast,” DeJaynes said. “We’ll talk a little bit, and we’ll see them at lunch. You can tell if they’re having a good day or a bad day or what their favorite foods are or whatever.”
She also likes the vacation schedule a school calendar provides, and not just having the summer off.
“The Christmas vacations and things like that,” she said.
“I have grandkids. They want to come to grandma’s house on their vacations, and It’s easier if I’m on vacation too.”