When school resumes in January, there’ll be one more change in the front office of Riverbank High School. A long term staff member will be MIA. Not gone, totally, just moved up to the district office.

Suzy Andalon, secretary to RHS Principal Greg Diaz, packed up her desk at the end of the school day on Friday, Dec. 18, ending a 26-year run working on the high school campus. And that doesn’t include the four years she attended RHS herself, graduating in 1991. She grew up here in Riverbank.

She said there were just 60 students in her graduating class, and that Riverbank High was still part of the Oakdale School District then.

When school resumes on Jan. 11, 2021, she begins work as Executive Secretary to RUSD Superintendent Christine Facella. She’s been splitting days this semester, between the district office and RHS, learning the ropes so she’ll be prepared in January.

Andalon started as a classroom aide, she said, in 1994. After a while, she advanced to Secretary II, in the Vice Principal’s office. In 2007 she was promoted to Attendance Secretary, and has been working as Principal’s Secretary since 2016.

In January, current Attendance Secretary Donna Young-Bigelow takes over as Principal’s Secretary at RHS.

As she prepared to pack up her desk on Dec. 18, Andalon was smiling behind her COVID mask. You could tell by looking at her eyes. But she said she was also feeling a twinge of nostalgia, amidst all the helium-filled balloons in her office, from teachers and other staff members congratulating her on the promotion.

Moving onwards and upwards, she said, would be a big change from the 26 years she has spent on the RHS campus. But, she noted, in reality, she was going to be just a few blocks away, in the district office.