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After 20 years, Juli Olson is finally graduating from middle school.

The La Conner middle and high school administrative assistant retires at the end of June after working under six principals and through a school remodel and a pandemic.

Besides keeping attendance and other critical records, she has helped plan the 8th grade promotion and filled in as school nurse, lunch lady and field trip chaperone. Driving the school bus is the only job she hasn’t tackled.

Not all of her records have been official. During the years when middle school classes took place in the school district offices, she took notes on how many times the bathroom plumbing was broken and how Mr. Novak kept his students’ attention while a bulldozer worked outside his window.

All that upheaval led to a big plus: an office at the heart of the middle and high school, where she has been able to watch kids grow and mature. “That’s the best part of my job,” she says. “That growth is exciting to watch and I’m going to miss it,” she says.

As the self-proclaimed “school mom,” Olson “wants to make sure kids are taken care of in the way you take care of your own kids.”

Sometimes that means connecting them to resources. “Being here so long, you know where to go when a kid has a problem and who can help that child the most.”

She has also heard plenty of secrets. They are safe with her. “I call myself the vault,” she says, “because you can’t share their business with anyone.”

Three semesters of online pandemic learning meant mastering several new computer systems and finding ways to help kids at a distance. While she says all those challenges “kept the synapses firing,” it was wonderful to return to face-to-face instruction and seeing staff and students in person again.

Throughout all the changes in school buildings, leadership and instruction methods, says Olson, La Conner Schools staff has “really been here for the kids. We are a family and we have our ups and downs, but we pull together. I will miss them.”

She will miss the funny gifts kids and families have given her, like her red clown nose and the postcards they bring back from trips. Even the dead flying squirrel she was once asked to store in the office freezer.

She’ll miss encouraging candidates for the Kiwanis student of the month to say more about themselves. “I tell them, I know your parents tell you not to brag about yourself, but this is the one time I want you to say every single thing you do.”

She’ll miss feeling proud as kids who have struggled turn into confident high school graduates.

She knows her replacement will bring new ideas and fresh approaches to her position. And being on the substitute list means she can still be at school now and then – just not full time.

“I never thought I would stay so long, but I just loved it,” she says. “It’s been a fun career.”