Only slightly breathless, an intent little girl explains to Tina Longwell in great detail how she scraped her knees at recess, and exactly why she needs not one, but two bandages. As the child zips around the corner to the nurse’s office, Longwell lets out the smile she had to suppress during the retelling.

It’s a skill she’s had to learn during her four-plus years as the Secretary/Registrar at Opstad Elementary School, not letting on how cute – and funny –  kids are when they’re being so serious.

Her devotion is one of the attributes that earned Longwell the title of 2012 Classified Staff Member of the Year from the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation, and she will be formally recognized at the foundation luncheon Thursday, March 22.Longwell joins  teachers Jenny Foster, Elizabeth Cronin, Dave Bettine, and others by the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation, a Valley non-profit that supports classroom learning. Nominated by the public, the foundation’s Educators of the Year are chosen for their passion and influence in the classroom.

Miss Tina

“There are kids who say things, and sometimes, you just have to look away,” Longwell admitted, and her colleagues in the school office nodded agreement.

Miss Tina, as the students call her, was not expecting that particular challenge when she joined the Opstad school staff four and a half years ago. She had been managing a dental office for 19 years, but her hours got longer, and she wanted to spend more time at home with her youngest son, then in fourth grade at Opstad. She applied for a spot in the office, thinking it would be a simple desk job, managing attendance and enrollment, calling parents when children have unexplained absences, registering Kindergarteners, and other paperwork.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be as much hands-on working with the kids, as it was,” she said, but that’s not a complaint. “I love it. I don’t think of it as a job. I get to come to work every day.”

Although she wasn’t entirely sure she’d have the patience for the job when she started, Longwell now sees her 540-some charges as the best part of her day. “I really love working with the kids,” she said.

As much as they teach her, (Longwell says she learns something new every day) the kids also learn from her.

“I just treat everybody like family, treat everybody with respect,” she said. “If you want kids to show respect, you’ve got to show respect, too.”

Mostly, though, she says, “I try to let kids know that they can talk to me, that I want to help. If I can just make a difference in one child’s life…” She sighs, then adds that all the staff at Opstad does a great job of looking out for the students, which is why she said she’s “humbled by this award.”

Informally, she’s already been crowned the “Queen of All Things,” with a construction paper crown ornamented with all of the things a school secretary has handy, courtesy of a Kindergarten teacher. She won’t wear it, but she proudly displays it on her desk.

“There’s my band-aids, and rubber band, and staples, and a cotton swab,” she points out.

Bandages and other medical supplies are a surprisingly large part of Longwell’s job, since she’s also the backup staffer when her friend Carol Ganning, the school nurse, is unavailable. “The blood and guts,” don’t bother her she said, but she makes it very clear “I don’t do well with critters, anything dead.”

She shudders as Ganning reminds her of the time someone left a container of crawdads on her desk. Then they both recall another work story, “the shark bite!”

Longwell said it happened several years ago. For show-and-tell, someone had brought a complete shark’s jaw to class, and as it was being passed around, it fell. One student grabbed for it, and cut open his hand on the still-sharp teeth, “so we had to fill out an accident report for a shark bite.”

As the little girl with the skinned knees was getting cleaned up, Longwell fielded requests for computer support, tracked down the IT person, took a couple of calls and answered some e-mail. Then the child was ready to go back out for recess. Longwell looked up from her desk to make sure she knew the way. She did.

“I know it, I know the way,” she said. “Just think, if I can get here right from recess, then I can sure find my way back!”

After sending her off with a thank-you, Longwell looked back at her stack of Kindergarten registration forms, smiling.

“And you have to be able to multi-task,” she said.