RAPID CITY, SD— While students and teachers are often the faces of education, one Rapid City Area Schools employee quietly helps keep classrooms running behind the scenes, producing everything from spelling tests and report cards to yearbooks and graduation programs.

Angela Buskerud, supervisor of the Rapid City Area Schools print shop, has become known throughout the district for her dedication to meeting deadlines, solving last-minute challenges and helping staff members succeed. Her work supports all 22 schools, district departments and administrative offices, producing an estimated 2 million printed pages each month.

Buskerud joined the district in 2011 as a bus monitor before taking a part-time job in the print shop between bus routes. When a full-time position became available, she made the move and has spent more than a decade helping teachers bring classroom materials to life. Today, she operates seven production printers that produce everything from daily assignments and semester workbooks to report cards, newsletters, certificates and concert programs.

One of the print shop’s largest responsibilities is producing yearbooks. What began with a single request has grown into printing nearly every elementary and middle school yearbook in the district. Buskerud also prints thousands of graduation programs each spring, helping commemorate one of the biggest milestones in students’ lives.

No two days look the same. Buskerud begins each morning by starting up the printers, reviewing incoming orders and organizing projects by priority. While she works through jobs in the order they arrive, there is almost always an urgent request that requires her to stop what she’s doing and shift gears. She said years of experience have taught her how to keep multiple machines running while balancing routine work with last-minute needs.

Her willingness to help has earned her multiple Above and Beyond nominations from coworkers across the district. Buskerud said the recognition is humbling because she simply considers it part of her job, but she also knows that delivering materials quickly allows teachers to spend less time worrying about paperwork and more time with students.

For Buskerud, the most rewarding moments come when she sees the impact of her work on children. She recalled a classroom project in which students wrote and illustrated their own books. After she assembled them into professionally bound copies, the teacher shared that the students excitedly declared they were “really authors” after seeing their finished books. Buskerud said experiences like that remind her why her work matters.

The print shop has evolved over the years with newer equipment and digital ordering systems that have made production faster and more accurate. Last school year alone, Buskerud produced about 54,000 spiral-bound books, a task that once required punching every page by hand before upgraded equipment automated the process.

Although much school communication now happens digitally, Buskerud believes printed materials still have an important place. Report cards, certificates, classroom projects and school programs provide families with something tangible to celebrate and remember.

“I think it’s just my one small piece in this big puzzle of helping kids thrive and learn,” Buskerud said.