Laura Shattuck has come to be known fondly as “Grandma” by some students at Grant Middle School in Newaygo County where she’s worked as a custodian for 28 years. The name has stuck ever since she befriended a troubled boy who first tossed it as an insult.

Ignoring his intent, Shattuck began paying the boy attention at school. On his birthday she gave him a card and small gift. In response he stopped skipping school and raised his grades.

At a school event, the boy brought his parents to meet her. “He said, ‘I want you to meet my grandma!’ And he introduced me to his sister. I said, ‘Wouldn’t I be her grandma too?’ And everybody laughed.”

At eighth-grade graduation, the boy invited Shattuck into family photos. Now a junior in high school, he still visits and calls her Grandma, she said. “I have no grandchildren, but I just love kids so I’ve always tried to help when I can.”

A longtime union president, Shattuck was awarded the 2024 Leon A. Brunner Award last spring, MEA’s highest award given annually to an Education Support Professional (ESP) for dedication to their union, advocating for ESP member issues, and promotion of ESP careers.

Shattuck picked up a solid work ethic and union values from her father, a machinist and union president who taught her to work hard and treat people fairly, she said. As a leader, she has fought for pay increases, holidays, and other paid time off for support staff.

“I believe that you give 100% to earn your money. I’m the lead custodian, and there’s not a job here that I’d ask somebody to do that I haven’t already done – and I don’t care if it’s cleaning toilets, cleaning out the drain, whatever. If something needs to be done, I do it.”

Shattuck started working at age 12, weeding muck fields, packing carrots, and chopping onions. After a divorce, raising a daughter, she worked at the grocery store and subbed in schools as a night custodian hoping to get a permanent union job—which she did at age 39 nearly three decades ago.

Rebecca Stark-Krueger, a health teacher at the middle school who wrote a nomination letter for the award, was a paraeducator in Shattuck’s ESP unit for 10 years before getting her teaching credential.

“It was Laura who encouraged me to join the union as well as getting my teaching certificate,” Stark-Krueger said. “She has always been an advocate for not only our support staff but all staff members.”

High school social studies teacher Devon Conley said Shattuck’s friendliness made him feel at home when he was new. “She offers a friendly smile, an ear to listen, and a calm presence on often hectic days, supporting us in ways we might not even realize!”

A decade ago, the district privatized transportation and phased in privatized custodial services with attrition. Shattuck fought for district officials to keep ownership of buses and cleaning equipment so those decisions could be reversed.

Now she’s hopeful a new superintendent will heed calls of staff and the community to return to unionized in-house custodial staff who stay in the job longer, do better work, and keep buildings cleaner and safer.

In addition to cleaning rooms and doing cafeteria duty, Shattuck goes above and beyond, nominators said. Every day she makes coffee for teachers, opens windows and starts fans in hot rooms, answers calls for help. After school she often attends student activities and performances.

“That’s the way it should be,” she said. “I love my job, and I like to think we’re a family, so I try to see to it everybody’s taken care of. It doesn’t hurt to put on a pot of coffee for people or say good morning, how are you doing? That’s just the way it should be, and it’s how I like to do it.”