School is out for summer,  but the work goes on in buildings across the state.

"It's just a different kind of busy," said Mandi Avery, school secretary at the Walberta Park Elementary School, which educates K-2 students in the Westhill district near Syracuse.

Tell Sue Demski about busy. On a hot, muggy day in mid-July, Demski is juggling the tasks of answering phones at the grade 3-4 Cherry Road Elementary School, updating records for the incoming third-graders and making sure the records of outgoing fourth-graders records go to Onondaga Hill Middle School, going through the orders that arrive each day and preparing for the 2007-08 staff manual.

Kori Smith, president of the Westhill Employees Union, checks over the 2007-08 calendar with Sue Demski, a secretarial rep with the union.

 Besides moving student records, desks and chairs need to be moved. A custodian for more than 20 years, T.J. McGrory was moving and cleaning furniture at Cherry Road. "Now's when we can move everything out to clean the carpets, do the painting, and then move it all back in, of course," McGrory said.

Then it's back to a work list that includes cleaning and polishing the gym floors and maintenance for a school of 305 students. Washing windows is on the list. But with the spate of summer thunderstorms, it was moved to the bottom.

Avery, Demski and McGrory are among the thousands of School-Related Professionals who work throughout the summer in buildings across the state to make sure school starts smoothly.

"There's so much work that happens behind the scenes, then you realize it just could not happen if school was in session," said Kori Smith, president of the almost 110 members of the Westhill Employees Union.

Avery agreed. "While I miss the kids, I'm also thankful they aren't around because there are fewer interruptions and it's a lot of work to be ready by September."