Registrar Michelle Peterson has been working at LHS for 15 years, yet she remains behind the scenes. Peterson is one of the many staff members here at LHS whose work often goes unnoticed by students despite her immense daily contributions to the school.
“I do a job that a lot of people don’t know exists. It’s a very behind the scenes [job]. People don’t realize what I actually do until they graduate,” said Peterson.
There are many tasks that a registrar has to do, such as helping students through the enrollment process and making sure they have all of the credits they need to graduate. In addition, her work allows teachers to use Canvas, get emails and take attendance.
“I deal with enrolling new students and transferring students out. In terms of enrolling students, [I have to get] all of their records, birth certificates, immunizations [and] transcripts, [as well as] transcribing transcripts [and] getting grades to teachers,” said Peterson. “I put together graduation, I work on stuff for [the] Presidential Ed Scholar [and the] Regent Scholar, I do a lot of data and a lot of reporting and I work with the principals on cohort tracking, which [involves knowing] our graduation rates and which kids are behind.”
With so many tasks to handle, Peterson is always busy running up and down the hall to student services or scrambling around her office. In her office alone she walks around 6,000 steps a day.
“My least favorite part of the job is the beginning of semester time, more so summer semester, because it is wild. I am working 12 hour days every day. It is stressful to have to get everybody enrolled in a specific time frame and then get all of their stuff done and the people just keep coming and going. I don’t get a break until October,” said Peterson.
Even though her job is busy, Peterson still appreciates the people she works with and the LHS community as a whole.“I work with the counselors and the administrators and the special ed department and the EL department and then people outside of this building. My favorite part of the job is probably dealing with new families that are coming in and helping them get settled in with the counselor and school. My favorite part of [LHS], since I’ve been here so long, is the staff, the comradery [and] the vibe that you get in the building,” said Peterson.
Every day is different for Peterson and she never has a set routine, so she never knows what to expect.
“I may come in and I want to work on something and it will just not happen because I am always putting fires out. No day is the same,” said Peterson.
With the little free time she does have, outside of work Peterson enjoys binge-watching movies, spending time outside, catching up with her kids and hanging out at Cattitude Café.
“[The Cattitude Café] is one of my favorite places to be because I love the people down there and the animals,” said Peterson.
Kimberly Bowman, the counseling secretary here at LHS, cannot stress enough how much she appreciates Peterson and her importance to the smooth running of this school.
“You give Michelle something to investigate and she uses her vast knowledge and skills to find the answer, and she does this enthusiastically digging in with a positive attitude and loving the challenge. Often our administrators, counselors and teachers require the use of her talents for Infinite Campus data. For me, she is my go-to for questions that pop up. She just knows the answer, or she digs in and finds the answer. I like to call her a ‘detective,’” said Bowman.
