First day of June

On her first day back in her office and in charge of the state education department, Superintendent June Atkinson was immersed in the budget morass.

Atkinson returned from a conference in Colorado to a slate of meetings that included a web conference with district superintendents that focused on the legislature's budget negotiations, Lynn Bonner reports.

During the session, a participant pressed Atkinson on whether she would hold a press conference to publicly oppose some of the school cuts they see coming.

"I'd not considered that," said Atkinson, who said she'd talk to legislators and the head of the school administrators group, Bill McNeal.

Atkinson is in her second four-year term as state superintendent, but until a superior court judge's ruling Friday, she was never recognized as having the authority to run the state Department of Public Instruction.

"It feels good. It feels great," she said, of stepping into the leadership job.