Meet Three Outstanding CPS Clerks and Administrative Professionals

Today is Clerk Appreciation Day and National Administrative Professionals Day! Our district’s clerks and administrative professionals are some of the most important individuals in our schools and district offices. They are always willing to provide a helping hand to those around them, and their support has been especially important as we navigated the challenges of the past year. 

Below, meet three fantastic clerks and administrative professionals from across the city, and make sure to watch this special video from CPS leadership thanking our clerks and administrative professionals for all they do!

Ms. Luz Guerrero has been a clerk at Spry Community School for the past 19 years and has no plans to leave anytime soon. She loves the family-like camaraderie that staff members have at her school. It allows her to maximize her contributions on a daily basis because of the high level of trust she has with the entire school community. 

“I think our school is like a body. The principal and the assistant principals are the two arms and I’m one of the legs,” she said. “If they’re not available, I can jump in because I know what they expect of me and I know how they want things done.” 

Two skills that Ms. Guerrero has built upon over the past two decades are communication and patience. Communication because you have to learn how to talk to many different types of people, and patience because part of the job is remembering that just because someone is upset doesn’t mean that they are upset at you. Here’s her message to her fellow clerks: 

“I think we’re doing an awesome job even though it’s been a very hard year for all of us,” she said. “There’s been ups and downs, but we’ve been doing great and next year will be even better.”

After starting her career with CPS in 1996, Ms. Martissa Berry has bounced around between a number of different roles before joining the King College Prep team as their finance clerk. Beyond her day-to-day roles of processing payroll and paying bills, she sees herself as having two overarching goals: keeping the school on track and making King a great place to be.

“Everyone knows that I love bling and have a very upbeat personality, so I’m always the one coming in and saying good morning,” she said. “I want to make sure that when I’m coming to work, everyone around me is comfortable.” 

Building relationships is something Ms. Berry says she does every single day while at King. Providing “service with a smile” and meeting her community members at their level are how she creates positive interactions with everyone who comes to the school. Want to know her advice for new clerks? 

“Always be your authentic self,” she said. “You have to be true to yourself and follow what you think is right even if someone else is telling you differently.”

Ms. Elizabeth Moreno graduated from Kelly High School with the desire to give other students the great high school experience that she had. So, she joined the Kelly team as a special education classroom assistant as well as a soccer and debate coach. Now, she’s the executive assistant for Networks 14 and 16 and gets to support the Kelly community—along with a few dozen other high schools—in a new way. 

“This role is very humbling because it’s about acknowledging the needs of our school communities,” she said. “I like to think of my job description as doing whatever serves our families. Right now, one of those ways is by providing postsecondary opportunities for students, the same opportunities that helped me get to where I am now.” 

When she’s not supporting her two networks, Ms. Moreno is growing in her role as part of a professional learning community that was started by and for CPS administrative professionals. She also has a goal of becoming a school social worker with a focus on providing mental health supports for students. Here’s her message for National Administrative Professionals Day: 

“I hope that our clerks and other administrative professionals can continue to put in hard work and dedication to their roles,” she said. “We are the faces of our schools, networks, and even the entire district. We’re the bridge for everyone.”