Chief Juvenile Officer Shonda Hill is retiring after over 30 years of serving Butler County. Specifically, 32 years and seven months.
“I never thought that when I started there at 18, I would still be here years later,” she recalled. “But I’ve basically worked every position here at the juvenile office over the years.”
“She’s provided exemplary service to the 36th Judicial Circuit Court Juvenile Division. She will be deeply missed and the wealth of experience she’s gained will be hard to replace,” said Butler County Associate Circuit Judge Wade Pierce.
Pierce and his counterpart from Ripley County, Devin Kirby, both spoke at a celebration for Hill on Friday.
Incoming Chief Juvenile Officer Sierra Elliott has spent 14 years working alongside Hill.
“She’s great at directing and giving good advice, and being supportive with the community and all of our staff… We’re a good family, and we all support each other,” Elliott said.
Hill’s career began in 1989, while she was enrolled at Three Rivers College. Besides taking a couple of years off to care for her eldest child’s special needs, she has remained at the office and worked her way up from clerical (a secretary position) and juvenile tracker (a program supervisor) to deputy juvenile officer, juvenile officer and finally chief juvenile officer.
As her career progressed, it became a challenge to balance home life and work.
“Clerical, or secretary, that’s pretty much an 8 to 4 job and you go home, but once you become a deputy juvenile officer you do sacrifice time with your family because you can be called out all hours of the night. There may be something special that the kids have at school that you miss because you may have something in court. You do sacrifice a lot,” she said.
Her two younger children, ages 14 and 16, are “kind of excited about me retiring,” she added.
Juvenile officers have many duties, including working with delinquent and status offender youth, representing juveniles in custody, coordinating youth programs and giving approval for the Children’s Division to remove children from unsafe situations.
“The reward is when you see juveniles or families succeeding through our programs, or if there’s reunification with parents after the children have been removed. That’s all rewarding,” said Hill.
Changes within the legal system created the most challenges within Hill’s job. For example, Missouri raising the age of majority from 17 to 18 in 2021 meant caring for a new population of teens, and though Hill agreed with the decision, it was difficult with the Juvenile Office’s limited detention space.
In her retirement, Hill plans to spend more time with her family and enjoy some travel.
“I just think it’s time,” she said. “I’ve heard that you’ll know when you know. At the end of last year, I noticed I was running my retirement estimate every week. So I felt like it’s time to spend more time with my family and to do some things for me.”
She intends to rejoin the workforce in another capacity at some point and to keep the relationships she’s built with colleagues alive.
“I’ll miss my work family, and all the friendships I’ve made here at work and with the other agencies that we collaborate with,” she said.
After a career spanning two marriages and three children, “I grew up with the juvenile office.”
Hill lives in Poplar Bluff with her husband and three children.