Students develop newspaper

Published 2:55 pm Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Central High School students recently developed a weekly publication to keep their classmates informed on activities and school news.

The staff consists of 10 students who focus on sports, academic information, club activities and photography. The staff also has a comic illustrator.

Rieley Phillips is the sports editor, Kayla Chaffin is the academic information editor, Cassidy Crouse is the club activities editor, Sierra Edmonds and Courtney Brostek are announcements and student life activities editors, Holly Gonzales is the comic illustrator, Kiana Hurt is the reporter, Briana Elder is the photographer, Virginia Richmond is the advertiser, and Helen Strigel is the editor-in-chief.

Central High School Principal Dr. Sharon Stanislas said she was approached by a student who was concerned that students were missing needed information or announcements related to them at the school.

“Announcements are being made twice a day; but, for some reason not all students are tuning in,” Stanislas said. About the newspaper, she said, “Therefore, this would be another form of communication to the students.”

Stanislas said the student publication is kept in pouches that line the walls of the school. Students have an easy way to pick the papers up and read the latest edition.

“I am so proud of our students for their contributions to the school,” Stanislas said.

Strigel said the newspaper is published every Wednesday. She said the only times the newspaper hasn’t been released was during weather-related school closures.

The student staff meets once a week for an hour, Strigel said.

“Each staff member takes a significant amount of time out of their day to gather information, and it takes me two to three hours to put everything together and make sure the formatting and wording is correct,” Strigel said.

Strigel, like most of the staff, is a senior at Central. She said she is interested in pursuing journalism after high school.

She said she’s proud of the publication’s impact. “It helps students be more aware of the events taking place in school that they might otherwise overlook such as sporting events, volunteer opportunities and club events,” Strigel said.

She said a challenge the paper experiences is competition in the form of social media announcements.

“My goal remains to keep all the information compiled in one place for the student body,” Strigel said.