Elementary Welcomes Secretary

DAYTON – Jeannie Lyonnais has joined the team in the Dayton Elementary School office this month as full-time secretary. Her smiling face is new to the front desk but not to the district. She has worked at the school for the last 28 years on and off.

Jeannie and her husband, Kim Lyonnais, moved to Dayton in 1986. They were both born and raised in Spokane. Kim is now the Columbia County Planning Director, a department he has managed in the past but took a short break from to work in planning in Walla Walla.

Jeannie Lyonnais started working for the Dayton School District in 1987 as a para-educator. She continued in that role until 2000, when she left to care for her mother with Alzheimer's disease. She returned to the district as a special education para-educator in 2005 and has maintained that job since.

On April 13, she started in her new position as elementary secretary along with Zarabeth Griffen following the resignation of former secretary Jennifer Finney. "When this position came open, I thought it would be a nice change and a challenge," Jeannie said. "And I have been enjoying it quite a bit."

She said she has worked in the office on and off over the years helping out; she even worked full-time in the school's copy center when it had one, and was the librarian for a time. She is thrilled with her new title.

"I have always known a small population of the kids in the special ed classroom," she said. "Now I'm getting to know all the kids in all the grades, and all the teachers. I've really been enjoying it. And Zara is such a fun person to work with, while Pam Lindsley is a delightful principal. The days go by quickly, busy as it is in here."