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School's (Almost) Out
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Being the education reporter, the final month of the school year is a frenzy of activity that fills my calendar and challenges my ability to get my work done. So now that the countdown to school graduation has begun, I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

There is a lot of school district news and so many school events that require me to be out of the office, that I always feel like I don't have enough time to get all the photos submitted and the stories typed up because I'm rarely actually in the office. Wouldn't you know, my column is also due during this most busy time.

To give you an idea of how busy things have been, I recently got this new work camera that came with its own batteries which died within about two weeks. So I put new lithium batteries in it a little over a week ago and I've already had to replace them again. That's a lot of pictures. Many of them will dominate the Oakdale paper for the next couple of weeks.

Aside from numerous school activities each day during the week, there are also events nearly every night - sometimes even two on the same evening. Unfortunately, I can't be all places all the time. I feel bad when someone calls to let me know about something that's going on and I'm not able to attend. Or, they call me after deadline to ask me to put a blurb in to promote something that's upcoming. I know that people are disappointed, but usually they understand.

There have been retirements, the science fair, a huge anti-drug event, scholarship night, an attendance improvement ceremony, teacher awards, a student art show, a student auto dealership project, a drama production, and science lesson with water and air powered projectiles. That's just school stuff from the past seven days, not including other parts of my beat.