The ability of students to attend clubs, go on field trips, and take extracurriculars can be boiled down to the work of one very important bookkeeper who is now retiring.

“Managing students’ and clubs’ funds is a part of the constant litany of things that she has to do,” ASB advisor Michelle Munson said. Bookkeeper Cheri Pepka has spent the past thirteen years here managing thousands of these student accounts, but as of 2018, she is retiring. This does not spell the end of her career, however, as she will continue many of her duties or delegate them to her peers.

“I am on the board of Invested, a foundation that supports all of the schools in the state of Washington and gives the school money so that we can help students that can’t help themselves,” Pepka siad.

Our school may be publicly funded through taxpayer dollars, but extra-curricular and elective fees can rack up a hefty set of fines that students’ families just can’t afford. It has been Pepka’s generous work with Invested that ensures that students spend their high school not having to choose between art club fees and lunch.

“She has institutionalized knowledge that I think we don’t yet realize that we’re going to miss,” Munson said.

Her office may just appear to be another window in the row to many students passing by her during passing periods, but they are her world.

“I’m going to miss the first couple of days of school, when I have my window open and I hear all you guys going down the hall, and you’re all excited to be here, and you are seeing your friends … and the squeals and the hugs. I feel so sad when I see somebody walking alone down the hall. You should be happy to be here, and proud to be a Patriot .”