By Ed Pierce
It’s been a long professional journey for Marleen Bicknell, but RSU 14 is certainly happy to have her as part of its team.
 |
| Marleen Bicknell has worked for RSU 14 for the past 25 years and is currently serving as Athletics & Facilities Coordinator for Windham High School and Windham Middle School. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
“Really, there are just too many tasks to list that fall under our department that I either work on alone or assist the Athletic Director with,” Bicknell said. “We are always working on the upcoming season during the current sports season, so there really isn’t downtime.”
For parents, Bicknell is recognizable by name as she sends out emails for student sports signups, or for her Parent Square posts about sports clinics or camps.
“The students are checked for eligibility based on state and district requirements and policies,” Bicknell said. “I determine busing for every away event, including departure and return times, and submit the bus requests. With the growth of facility use and the athletic department now exceeding one-third of the total facility use, excluding outside field use, I now manage the facility use for the athletic department solely.”
She has been working for the school district for 25 years but didn’t start at Windham High School.
“I had always wanted to be a teacher from an early age growing up in New Hampshire. But with my children enrolled in the Windham school system, I had the yearning to be one of them.” Bicknell said. “I had such respect and idolized my children's teachers. I have always wanted to pay-it-forward, make a difference in someone's life, and feel good about the job I was doing. So, after all my children were in school, I began that quest.”
Her career with RSU 14 began when she was hired as a noon aide and recess monitor at Windham Primary School. That led to serving as a long-term substitute for a third-grade teacher.
“There was a need for someone to fill science kits for K-5, and gladly, I accepted, doing all three jobs,” Bicknell said. “I took over an empty room and turned it into the Science Resource Room, where I not only filled the science kits, but also acquired a large donation of rocks and minerals for the kids to come and learn. I got so excited that my dream of working with students was coming true. I took it up a notch and did all the work to organize lessons, where the teachers brought their classes to me for their Science block, and we learned about silk worms with live caterpillars going through their stages, we had lessons on rocks and minerals, we learned about weather, and I held open house along with the rest of the school.”
“I gradually increased my hours to full-time because now we also had an auditorium that needed managing. I took on facilities reservations for our building and then it grew to reservations for the district. The next addition to my tasks was being involved with security measures that were implemented in our schools. I was instrumental in the rollout of our badges and other security measures.”
According to Bicknell, coordinating athletics can be daunting.
“To change one game due to weather, first requires coordinating with our opponent, can we get officials, do we have a conflict of facility use, including moving teams that were scheduled to practice, can we get a bus, do we have event coverage, meeting MPA deadlines for varsity sports, so sometimes we have to cancel a sub varsity game to get in our varsity games that count for playoffs,” she said. “Many times, we have multiple events on one day that all need to be rescheduled.”
Despite these challenges, Bicknell is proud of the work she performs.
“Whether I’m on the frontline like a teacher or a coach, I’m the support that those folks on the frontline can’t live without,” she said. “And that holds for all our support staff in the district, whether they are a custodian, technology, kitchen, student services, office staff, special education, grounds, or maintenance. We are all one team working together for the same reason.” <
No comments:
Post a Comment