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By Mike Barnhardt
Enterprise Record

Mom knows best.
Just ask Jeremy and Mike Whitaker.
Joyce Whitaker had a job with Davie County Schools. She encouraged her husband Mike to do the same. They encouraged their son Jeremy to do the same.
While Joyce and Mike are retired from the school system, Jeremy is on the job as the director of maintenance for all of the system’s buildings.
Joyce was 19 when she was hired as the receptionist for the school’s central office, then located on Cherry Street. It wasn’t long before she moved to the personnel office, which she retired from after 31 years.
“I talked to every employee to come into the school system,” she said. When they were hired, she did the paper work. If they got hurt, she did the paper work. When they retired, she did the paper work.
“When I started working, it was like a family,” she said. While everyone had a specific task, all pitched in when there was too much for one person,” she said.
Joyce says she’s talked to many teachers who left school systems that paid more money, just to work in Davie.
“We’re just a better place to work. It’s family oriented and people care about you. Our kids are better and our faculty is better.
“It’s not all about the money,” she said, recalling one employee who commuted from another county for 34 years to teach in Davie.
“In Raleigh, they called us the best kept secret in North Carolina.”
Joyce didn’t retire because she could, she retired after Jeremy was married and grandchildren arrived.
While Mike was making a good living as a plumber, the job lacked benefits. Joyce hadn’t been working for the schools that long when the superintendent came by after the birth of their son.
“He said, ‘Are you a plumber?’ I said yes, and him and Joyce discussed it…” and the rest is history.
“I always loved this work,” Mike said. “You have something interesting to do every day. (Ask him about the invention of “flushable” wipes.)”
Jeremy grew up helping his dad on plumbing projects, but wasn’t found of the mess that job sometimes entailed. So they encouraged him to become an electrician. He worked for another company before joining the school system.
“I grew up with my parents working here. They encouraged me to get a job with benefits … and this was closer to home.”
His wife, Jill, is a second grade teacher at Cooleemee Elementary, and his oldest daughter wants to become a teacher. “I have three daughters, so I work a lot.”
Jeremy has been with the schools for 20 years, and “worked his way up” to becoming the director. The department has 13 employees.
“It’s a good place to work,” Jeremy said.