A new school year is about to begin, with the ACHS Journalism Club at another point of decision. The Managing Editor, John Shollenberger, has announced that he wants to lead the Club in a return to priint! We published online only last school year, since we had struggled to raise the funds to print the paper the previous year. Our program is young; our staff is small; our time is limited; there are no funding sources to rely upon. John has his work cut out for him.
Looking back, I can be happy and proud because of what we've accomplished or I can be sad as I look at the small number of articles written to cover an absolutely spectacular year in ACHS history: all varsity teams in post-season, the first graduation, award-winning performing arts. I choose to be proud. The staff designed and managed their online news source. The school's supporting Foundation supported our desire to send six members of the staff to the JEA Annual Convention in San Francisco The Associated Student Body showed their support by forgiving our previous loans. The club ended the year without debt.
Everybody warned me that it is difficult to start a newspaper program, and it was clear that a Club format would limit our accomplishments. As we enter this 4th year of operation, with the intend to publish more print editions than ever before while keeping our toe in the online water, I am curious to see how the energy and enthusiasm, and very significant talent, of our small staff will pull it off!
