A View from Main Street: Busy time of the year

Decades ago, school started in mid-September and ended in June. Nowadays, with Hesperia schools beginning while the August summer heat is still scorching, students can see the end of the school year, which is only a month away.

That's mostly good for a local weekly newspaper like the Hesperia Star, but it also creates work flow challenges. We'd certainly like to be at every school's events, but unfortunately we can't.

Last Thursday evening I attended the Clue Me In event at Sultana High School. I stopped for a few minutes in Sultan Hall to watch superintendent Mark McKinney perform as one moderator for one competition. In fact, I think Mr. McKinney could give Alex Trebek of "Jeopardy" fame a run for the money. We're hoping to get final results of the competition for next week's paper.

On Saturday I went to Ranchero Middle School for the annual Young Authors/Festival of the Arts event. Wow, we have many talented students in our school district.And a group of students performed Queen's anthemic "We Will Rock You" - on the recorder! But it sounded great.

Earlier this week, I attended a hair-shaving school reward event at Mission Crest Elementary. Reporter Beau Yarbrough is scheduled to attend a dedication ceremony at Mission Crest later this week. On Friday, the Hesperia High Parent Center will host their annual Felix Curi Memorial Talent Show at Sultan Hall. There are numerous other school events that are beginning to fill our calendars.

Speaking of school reading rewards, it was more than a little ironic that I misspelled Eucalyptus Elementary School in a recent headline about the school's Million Minutes of Reading event. Yes, students, even editors sometimes make mistakes. Perhaps I wouldn't have made the error if I had concentrated on reading comprehension when proof-reading the newspaper. Clearly my speed-reading approach wasn't successful.

But things aren't only happening at our schools. There's lots going on elsewhere. The 16th annual Pow Wow at Hesperia Lake Park will take place this Saturday and Sunday. And perhaps the biggest local event, the city's 20th anniversary extravaganza, is coming up in June.

Busy, busy, busy. Just how it should be.