District's secretary retires after 28 years
Reni Mey's career spanned 10 superintendents
BY MARIANNE KLIGMAN Correspondent

Renata Mey, longtime Middletown School District secretary to the superintendent, with one of her first bosses, Thompson Middle School principal Pat Houston.

MIDDLETOWN - Renata Mey, the longtime confidential secretary to the superintendent, retires in January after more than 28 years of service in the Middletown School District. Reni, as she is affectionately known, was honored for her enduring career recently by a gathering of friends, colleagues, administrators, board members and parents whom she has worked with over the past three decades.

Mey and her husband, Adrien, moved to Middletown with their two sons in 1979. That same year, she joined the Middletown School District to work at the Board of Education's central office as secretary to the public relations officer. When that administrative position was eliminated several years later, she transferred to Thompson Middle School, where she worked as the secretary to several principals, the last being the current and long-standing principal, Pat Houston.

In 1988, Superintendent Guy Sconzo selected her to return to central office as his confidential secretary. (Confidential secretaries, unlike other secretaries who work for the school district, are employed by personal contract and are not members of the union.)

Mey poses with her current boss and her 10th superintendent, Karen Bilbao.

Over the next two decades, Reni worked for 10 superintendents or acting superintendents. Double counted among those was her old boss, Pat Houston, who served as acting superintendent for the district on two different occasions.

At Mey's retirement celebration, Houston described Mey as operating with true "grace under fire" in a district that has known controversy and much administrative turnover. He added, "She was always dedicated to her job, her boss, and truly wanted to see people succeed. She was always a solid team player."

The current acting Superintendent, Karen Bilbao, honored her by stating, "Reni, who I have come to love as my friend as well as my secretary, was truly the glue that held this district together during all those transitions."

Bilbao added, "Reni, one of our most valuable employees, was a constant for the school district. She always performed her job with a laugh and a smile and never had an unkind word for anyone."

Mey now joins her husband in retirement. The couple look forward to enjoying more of their favorite activities, including traveling and cruising. At her retirement party, she was visibly tearful and a bit melancholy to leave her co-workers and her latest boss, who, she stated, she quickly came to appreciate and admire over the past two years.

On her career in Middletown, she commented, "I had the best people to work with, and I enjoyed going to work every day. I loved it."