Some of you may know her as Janice Smith, but most of you know her as just another woman behind the counter. So who is she?

Our cafeteria manager contributes so much more to our daily lives than you could possibly think. Here is the behind the scenes look into the life of the one Mrs. Janice Smith.

Before Mrs. Smith moved into the Fayette county school system in 1993, she was living in College Park, GA, where she ran a home day care. It is already obvious that she loves to work with kids. She even states that her favorite part of working at McIntosh is the students.

After moving, she took a job at J.C. Booth and stayed their for five years until she started at McIntosh in 1998. Everyday, Mrs. Smith goes to work at a building full of kids, and every day, when she gets home, she finds the time to be with even more of them. Being married to the same man for 42 years now, Mrs. Smith has two sons and one daughter.  They have grown up and given her nine grandchildren. Add two very large dogs to the mix, and that’s what I call a family. Apparently, so does Mrs. Smith. She said, “My granddaughter is my sunshine.”

Out of any problems you might think Mrs. Smith has at school, respect from students is definitely not one of them. She said, “If I give you respect, you will give it back to me.” This has always been her motto when working with kids.

Sadly, Mrs. Smith has recently been through a deeper issue than respect. Last September, she was diagnosed with Cancer and had to go through chemo. She said, “The hardest part was losing all of my hair.” Even through all of that Mrs. Smith had a positive attitude, thanks to all the support she got from friends, family, faculty, and students. She tried never to miss a day of work, all through the school year, but no one could help those few bad days we couldn’t enjoy her wonderful smile, and positive attitude.

Using the summer to recoup her energy, Mrs. Smith started back this school year healthy and ready to be with her students.