Our employee number is used for an immense amount of record keeping. The most telling is when we use it during employee meetings for staff development. When I give mine I am usually met with: “No honey, the 5 or 6 digit number you use for payroll.” After I assure them that I am not senile, I tell them again. The next thing they say trying to not make me feel bad: “Not your school number but the one for you as a teacher.” After another try at pointing out that I am not senile, I tell them that our school number is 376 but that my employee number is 397! I usually have to pull out my ID and prove it to them. So this 6 digit kid stands mouth agape when they see a 3 digit ID. They look at it in awe and like they have seen something so rare that it should be in a museum. They say, in a hushed voice, that they have never seen a 3 digit number before. In our district, I am told that there are less than 50 people left with this low of a number.
The story behind my low number reinforces the old adage: Location, Location, Location! When the new system was put into place I was still at Montview, less than a mile from the Administration Building. HR sent an email out at about 10:30 AM telling people to come by the Ad. Building and get an ID and that was when they will assign your number. I went to lunch at about 11 AM so I hot-footed it over to the office and got mine. I was one of the first in the district so I got a very low number. We do have one person at Rangeview that has a lower number. Monique was at Arora Central at the time and just had to walk across the parking lot to get her ID. She has a number about 30 below mine. My number does speak to my age but also my location at the time. No secret, but a fun detail and I am keeping my ID when I retire to prove my point.