Over the next several weeks, Lapeer Community Schools will pay tribute to many of the Unsung Heroes of the Pandemic. These are the employees who have been singled out by their colleagues for going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure we could keep our schools open for face-to-face instruction. Each Unsung Hero will receive a gift certificate courtesy of our friends at Meijer in Lapeer.

It’s time to sing about our first Unsung Hero, Mrs. Linda Thompson. Linda is one of the District’s most important employees even in the best of times. In the worst of times, she’s indispeneable to the District and, even more so, to the women and men who work alongside her at the Bus Garage.

Linda has been the District’s Director of Transportation for nearly a decade, and in that time she has cemented herself as one the most highly-respected members of our team.

“She’s first on the list,” one employee noted. “She should be first on everyone’s list.”

“That woman deserves a parade.”

Fortunately for us, and all the families that depend on our transportation department inside our 225 square miles, Linda’s parade begins every school day at 5:15 a.m.

Linda has been leading a skeleton crew through the Pandemic, dealing with staff shortages nearly every day and, regularly, filling in on bus runs herself — along with her staff.

“They have spent countless hours rerouting, covering runs, plus working from before dawn and after dusk to ensure our students received a ride to and from school,” another employee noted. “I could go on about how admire them on a professional and personal level.”

True to form, when we asked employees to provide us with insight for our Unsung Heroes series, Linda sent in 700 words, dozens of names of employees backed by examples of their hard work. In it, she said “I could not run this department without them.”

Truth be told, we could not run this District without you, LT.

On behalf of the entire district, we thank you for your service. And just to make sure you’re getting the message, we’ll just ask: “Do you copy?”