Faculty & Staff

You’ve heard of getting a job by being in the right place at the right time. Kim Schmidt and Steph Demos got their jobs at St. John partly because they were here practically all the time.

Each of them had three sons in the school. Each had been an active volunteer for several years. And when positions opened up, each was ready to step in.

“We’d spent so much time in the building for so long,” says Mrs. Schmidt. “Everybody knew us. The only question was when we actually got paid to be here!”

“I was in this office enrolling my youngest son when I heard Kim and [then-acting principal] Faith Block talking about an open position,” Mrs. Demos adds. “I thought, ‘My kids are all in school now; working is actually manageable again.”

Mrs. Schmidt has been the office manager since 2012, after previously working at the school in other positions (as an assistant teacher in the preschool and in kindergarten). Mrs. Demos has been the office assistant since 2018, also following other positions at the school (aftercare and preschool assistant teacher).

Although they’re not in the classrooms, they’ve got a unique perspective on events throughout the school.

“Teachers come to us for their classroom needs, and they also talk to us about what’s going on,” Mrs. Schmidt says. “Parents talk to us too. We’ve got an overview of everything that’s happening. So we can promote communication and help make sure things don’t fall between the cracks.”

For Mrs. Demos, the job also means time with the kids.

“I’m also the lunch lady,” she says. “I migrate from table to table. The kids share stories about what’s happening in their lives. I get to know them on a personal level. That’s the best part of my job.”

And for both of them, their work as staffers still feels like an extension of the investment they made in St. John as parents.

“Even though my boys have graduated, it’s still my school,” Mrs. Schmidt says. “I’m here to support school and the teachers, to help everyone keep this the same great place it was when my kids went through it.”