In the public eye: WPS Noon Monitor sets tone for student success

Editor’s note: This is another in an ongoing series of Windham and Raymond two employee profiles.

By Ed Pierce

For the past 17 years, Liana Towle Fusco has been a key part of the team keeping students safe during lunchtime and on the playground at Windham Primary School and she’s grateful to play a small role in the lives of so many students.

Liana Towle Fusco has worked as the Lead
Noon Monitor at Windham Primary School
for the past 17 years and oversees lunch
and recess activities at the school, enforcing
rules and ensuring student safety.
SUBMITTED PHOTO 

Fusco is the Lead Noon Monitor for Windham Primary School, and her duties are always challenging in managing the activities of active young students.

“I get to make a difference in so many children's days and in turn so many make a difference in mine,” she said.

Her specific duties include overseeing lunch and recess and making sure that everyone has what they need. She is tasked with ensuring all students are safe, respectful, and responsible eating lunch in the school’s cafeteria and while playing outside during scheduled recess times.

In her job, Fusco is tasked with maintaining a harmonious atmosphere among all WPS students by fostering good habits and manners and helping maintain order in serving lines and at eating areas; assisting students in developing and observing acceptable rules of conduct and enforcing school rules and regulations;, helping students who are ill or injured to the school health office and preparing required reports as necessary; collecting playground equipment and personal items that students may leave on school grounds for the school’s lost and found bins; and immediately reporting unauthorized activities and unauthorized persons on school grounds to WPS administrators.

“And it is also very important that we always have fun,” Fusco said.

She said that of all her duties, student safety remains as the most challenging aspect of her work. That includes making sure that the students are using playground equipment properly and helping to teach them how to resolve conflicts properly. When they may arise.

“Some people may think that all we do is open ketchup packets and stand on the playground,” Fusco said. “It’s so much more than that.”

Choosing her most memorable moment of working at Windham Primary School through the years is tough for Fusco.

“I have so many it's hard to pick one. What comes to mind first is I started playing music once a week in the cafeteria,” she said. “The kids love it and nothing warms my heart more than a cafeteria filled with 180 students singing in unison the song ‘Beautiful Things’ by Benson Boon. It truly is a beautiful thing. Also, when I was nominated and won the commissioner's recognition award.”

She has lived in Maine for her entire life and grew up in Portland and graduated from Deering High School.

According to Fusco, the reason she wanted to work as a noon monitor at the school is simple.

“I wanted to be a part of my children's school and a part of the community,” she said. “My family loves what I do because they know I love it. I made it sound so great that my daughter now works here.”

She said that while her job as Lead Noon Monitor is not always easy, it’s something that she takes great pride in and looks forward to each day.

“We are all here because we love making a positive difference in your children's days at school,” Fusco said.

She says that the most important thing she has learned while working for Windham Primary School is that a successful school involves a team of dedicated professionals all working to improve the lives of students.

“Windham Primary School is a great place because of our hard-working staff and bright and talented students, and I am lucky to be a part of it,” Fusco said. <