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CHASE SQUIRESA class has done its research on how newspapers work and launched its own publication, the Helm.
DADE CITY - Start the presses.
With an idea and a 55-minute block of time at 7:40 a.m. each day, a class of Pasco High School students has started spreading the news, creating a new school newspaper, dubbed the Helm.
From the headlines:
Principal Pat Reedy performed in a water ski show when he was younger. See photo, page 1.
A tradition ends. Graduates this year will not be wearing alternating red and black gowns at graduation. All gowns will be black.
Pasco High - "Love stinks!" Happy Valentine's Day.
Adviser and teacher Kelly Picone said she and her husband, Michael, were completing their first year of teaching at Pasco High last spring and wanted to help improve students' reading and writing skills.
"We just saw this great lack of literacy in school," Picone said. "There was just no way of connecting the student body to the medium of print."
A journalism class was born.
The school has had other newspapers, but they faded out years before the current crop of students came along.
Picone, 31, a Pasco High graduate who came home after a tour in the Peace Corps, learned journalism along with the students by reading, by talking with advisers at other school newspapers, and by doing.
Along the way, students grappled with the challenges facing other news organizations. Printing isn't cheap. Desktop publishing software isn't free. Digital cameras cost money.
A technology grant covered some needs; donations covered others; the weekly Pasco News helped with printing; and students sold advertisements and secured sponsors.
A business-card advertisement is $25. A full page ad, and full sponsorship of the issue, is $250. It costs about $300 to print one issue, Picone said.
Picone drafted senior Alicia Balderson from a desktop publishing class to design the pages, and the first effort came out in December. It featured senior Amber Tedder's front page story about Reedy's water ski exploits. Reedy, sporting striped shorts, is pictured skiing in a pyramid formation.
"Mr. Reedy also performed the clown act, dressing up like a clown, skiing around the lake and performing crazy stunts," Tedder reported.
At first, Tedder said she was nervous interviewing her principal. But the story was well-read and got a nod of approval from Reedy.
"I still get nervous talking to him," Tedder confessed.
Junior Harold "H.P." Pryor tackled the controversial flow of money tied to Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results.
"FCAT Funds, Where did the money go?" the headline asks.
His story chronicles efforts to spread state money to areas of need. It's a touchy subject and an issue dealt with in commercial newspapers across the state. Interviewing administrators and teachers wasn't easy, Pryor said.
"At first, when I told them I was going to write about FCAT, they were scared that I wasn't going to write the truth, that they would be misquoted," he said. "They've got jobs, too."
But he said after the story came out, teachers agreed his report was accurate and fair.
Pryor pulled a red notebook from his backpack.
"I take it everywhere," he said. "I always have it."
Other features have included an overview of Mars exploration, a report on downtown Christmas activities, music and video game reviews, horoscopes, sports reports, opinion columns and a two-page study on hate that incorporates poetry, essays and photographs.
Picone said one of the biggest achievements the class has made is that members have affected other students. Students are reading the paper, they talk about it, they read letters, and some want in, hoping to join next year's class.
Editor-in-Chief Kyle Foust's mailbox at the newspaper's office is packed with letters.
"I am impressed by the latest issue of the Helm," one writer noted. "I hope the next issues are as good."
"We need more controversy," another writer added.
Some writers were complimentary; some wanted more features, such as comics, or more coverage or more commentary.
A letters page puts the writers' names in print, creating another bond to the student body.
Reedy, the focus of the first issue's interview, said teachers, administrators and students have been receptive, and he credited Picone for driving the idea.
"The main success she's had, in addition to her leadership, is that she's gotten all the kids involved, broken it out into different sections," Reedy said. "Everyone's doing the work, not just a few kids trying to do it all by themselves."
Working in journalism is also creating interest in the field as a career. Kristen Benoit, a junior, is already looking ahead to college study in communications and broadcasting. Fashion editor Logan Moats, a freshman, has already reached out to editors at a teen fashion magazine to learn more about a career in writing.
The charter crew of the Helm has taken on a level of ownership in their project. Picone said students from this year's class will be the leaders of next year's newspaper team, teaching newcomers about interviewing, writing and editing.
Sports Editor Alicia Badger said it will be hard to pass the torch, but she'll be looking for someone with experience, such as an underclassman already in the program.
For next year's staff, she said, she wants to see students who are committed to working hard.
"At times it can be fun in here," she said. "But once you get down to deadline, you have to grind it out."