“That’s not approved,” Judy Courchine, Wayland High School’s attendance secretary, receptionist and the secretary to the dean of students, said.

“My dog needs to be groomed.”

“No. That doesn’t work either,” Courchine replied.

“Sorry I’m late, Mrs. Courchine, my clothes were in the dryer.” In return, Courchine suggested that the student pick up clothes off the floor and wear them like they normally do.

“I’m going to Fiji for the weekend.”

From the start of her day at 8:00 a.m., Courchine hears all sorts of excuses for why WHS students need excused absences from school.

“They think that any excuse is an acceptable excuse, and it’s not,” Courchine said.

Regardless of the extreme excuses Courchine has heard, she still loves getting to know WHS students and has worked in the Wayland school systems for 20 years.

Growing up and working in Wayland

Courchine and her husband both attended Wayland Public Schools, and their parents still live in Wayland. Courchine attended Happy Hollow Elementary School for three years, from kindergarten through second grade. Then, once Loker Elementary School was built, she attended Loker for third, fourth and fifth grade.

Courchine was part of the first sixth grade class in Wayland that attended middle school instead of elementary school. At that time, the Wayland Town Building functioned as the town’s middle school. Then, Courchine started her four years at WHS.

After high school, Courchine attended Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School for two years.

“I’ve never been sorry because I’ve always been able to get a job that I’ve enjoyed,” Courchine said.

After working in a law firm in Boston, Courchine took a break from working to take care of her children. When her daughter and son started school, Courchine started working part-time as a receptionist in the superintendent’s office.

Courchine loved the job because she was always home by the time her children came home from school. Her knowledge from living in Wayland helped her with the job as well.

“People would call and say, ‘Who do I talk to about this or that?’” Courchine said. “Because I had lived here my whole life, I knew all the answers to the questions.”

After working as the superintendent’s receptionist for 10 years, the position was eliminated.

“I loved that job,” Courchine said. “I was really devastated when it was eliminated, but I wanted to stay in the school system because my husband was a teacher, so I wanted the same schedule he had.”

Searching for another job, Courchine spent one year working as a special education secretary at Claypit Hill Elementary School.

Courchine spent her days at Claypit Hill in a windowless tiny back room by the library, typing all day long.

“I did not like it,” Courchine said. “So when I heard that there might be an opening here at the high school, I applied for it, and I was very happy to get it.”

Now, Courchine is finishing up her ninth year of working as a secretary at WHS, and each of her work days is busy.

“My day goes by very quickly because there’s always someone new walking in the office, whether it’s a student coming in tardy, a parent with a question or a teacher,” Courchine said. “I get to speak to many people in a day, and I really like that because I’m very social.”

Making attendance reports

One of Courchine’s major responsibilities is to create an attendance report every day and call the parents of students with unexcused absences. Up until this year, Courchine’s day started at 7:15 a.m., and she would work until 2:15 p.m.

Because homeroom was exchanged for advisory this year, Courchine cannot make her full attendance report until the end of the school day. Therefore, Courchine now works from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m, and she usually prints her attendance report between 2:15 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. depending on whether or not teachers have filled out every period’s attendance.

Courchine stays optimistic about the change in her work schedule.

“It’s actually a good thing because now I don’t have to drive behind all the buses,” Courchine said.

Courchine also gets a 30-minute lunch break.

“There are often days when it’s even hard to go away and get lunch,” Courchine said. “I get to see about 1000 people a day. I see the students, I see the teachers, I see the parents, so it’s busy, and I like it.”

When Courchine is not at her desk, the secretary to Principal Patrick Tutwiler, Anne Gray, covers Courchine’s position. From time to time, Dean of Students Scott Parseghian or Vice Principal Allyson Mizoguchi will also cover the desk in Courchine’s absence.

While there is a constant flow of students, teachers and parents in and out of Courchine’s office, the busiest part of Courchine’s day is towards the end of the day when Courchine completes her attendance report.

Every day, Courchine checks to see which students have unexcused absences.

Until last year, Courchine had to call the parents of unexcused students individually to let them know their child had missed school. Now, using the iAutoAlert program within iPass, Courchine can send automated calls recorded by Tutwiler to parents with a click of a button.

“This beautiful whole new program is wonderful,” Courchine said.

A busy schedule

The annual Senior Skip Day marks one of Courchine’s busiest days of the year as she receives around 150 phone calls to excuse seniors from school.

“I have to then individually put in, one by one, [each of the the absent seniors]. So it can be a pretty bad day,” Courchine said. “Every time I answer 30 calls, another 20 calls come in.”

Another major part of Courchine’s job is managing students’ demerits. Courchine has to put the demerits in to students’ files as they earn them, and she takes the demerits out as students work them off.

“I feel like a squirrel on a wheel,” Courchine said.

Last year, Courchine was working until 6 p.m. every night before the prom as students with demerits started to work them all off at once, so they could attend prom.

“They’ve seen the demerits, and they’ve known about the demerits all year, and they do not work them off until there is an immediate consequence, which is either sophomore semi-formal, junior prom or graduation,” Courchine said. “They just all start working all over the place, and I get all of these individual notes that kids are working with custodians and teachers, and they’re going to restricted study. All of that has to be put in, one by one, so that when a report is printed, it says they owe zero demerits. So that gets very frustrating except it’s just a responsibility.”

Along with managing students’ demerits, Courchine’s least favorite part of her job is when students or parents lie to her.

“I would like students to learn a life lesson now, rather than later in life. If they make a mistake in high school, I think it’s less painful than when they do it in college and beyond in the work force,” Courchine said. “Just be honest. I would rather deal with a student, but when a parent supports a student’s lie, it’s painful because they’re setting such a bad example.”

Excuses, excuses

The most common excuse Courchine hears is that a student isn’t feeling well. Previously, the excuse of having a doctor appointment was common as well, but because it was so overused, administrators decided to change the student handbook so that students needed proof of their doctor or dentist appointments.

“I do laugh because I get some of the same excuses over and over again, and they think it’s the first time,” Courchine said.

Courchine also teaches 18-year-olds how to write their own notes. Courchine stressed that even if a student is 18, she can still call the student’s parents to confirm an excuse.

According to Courchine, her most important qualities that help her succeed at her job are that she is trusting, patient, outgoing and good at multitasking.

“I tend to trust everyone until they lose that trust,” Courchine said. “If someone comes and tells me something, I want to believe them.”

With all the hustle and bustle around Courchine’s job, she noted that it is easy to become overwhelmed, but practice has made it easier for Courchine to juggle many things at once.

Courchine also tries to remember students’ names to the best of her ability.

“When students come back, I’ll recognize them, but when I have to learn 200 freshmen’s names, I have to let something go. I just can’t hold on to all the names, I really can’t,” Courchine said.

While Courchine grew up in Wayland and has spent the last 20 years working in the Wayland School system, her favorite memory at WHS happened last May.

As part of the class of 2012’s senior prank, seniors had planned to switch places with Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School seniors for a day.

“The first block was just nuts. I mean, teachers were calling and saying, ‘What’s going on? Kids I don’t know are on campus. They shouldn’t be here. They’re supposed to have visitor’s passes,’” Courchine said.

During second block, numerous Wayland seniors returned to campus, having been sent back from Lincoln-Sudbury. The seniors who were 18 years old had notes claiming that they were sick or that they were at the doctor’s office.

Slamming their notes down, Courchine told the seniors, “No. I knew you were at LS. I’m not excusing any of you.”

Little did the seniors know that it was Courchine’s birthday.

“Just go away, and don’t bother me. Don’t ruin any more of my day,” Courchine told them.

At the beginning of third block, as Courchine calmed down, the Honors Concert Choir walked into the main office and surrounded Courchine, led by chorus teacher Rachel Caroll.

Before knowing what a crazy day Courchine’s birthday was going to be, Parseghian had asked Carroll to bring the concert choir to sing to Courchine.

The choir sang “Happy Birthday” to Courchine in four-part harmony.

“It was not a special birthday. It wasn’t like a decade or anything, but Coach P. was just being appreciative. He had cake in the back room and the kids sang ‘Happy Birthday,’ and my heart was full,” Courchine said.

But the choir wasn’t finished. The students then sang, “Here Comes the Sun” for Courchine.

What Carroll, Parseghian and the students did not know was that “Here Comes the Sun” was the song engraved on Courchine’s wedding ring.

“‘Here Comes the Sun’ says everything is ahead of us, we have the future,” Courchine said. “Before I was married, I had a dream, and I woke up, and I said, ‘That’s what we’re going to put in our rings.’”

Crying, Courchine told everyone, “You do not know, how very special that was to me.”

“One of the craziest frustrating days turned into one of the best memories and one of the best days,” Courchine said. “It was because Coach P. had asked Rachel, and Rachel had the kids. The kids came in and did it very well, and it was a wonderful memory.”

This year, Courchine was also asked to be a class marshall but is unable to come to graduation due to prior commitments.

“I’ve always been honored to be asked to be marshall and invited to the prom. It’s an honor to be invited, it really is,” Courchine said.

Courchine’s husband retired from working as a teacher last year, but Courchine has no plans of retiring.

“Everyone says, ‘When are you going to retire?’ and I say, ‘I really like my job,'” Courchine said. “Anyone who walks in here, I want to meet them more than 100 percent.”