Newspaper Extends High School Partnership Grant The Project Is Intended To Help High Schools Publish Papers

The Spokesman-Review is joining with Post Falls and Lakeland high schools in an effort to support their struggling school newspapers.

Spokesman-Review representatives announced a Newspaper Association of America Foundation grant at the two districts’ school board meetings Monday.

The partnership grant between the two high schools, The Spokesman-Review and North Idaho College was one of 20 proposals nationwide to receive acceptance. The $2,000 NAA Foundation seed money will be coupled with $2,364 matching funds from The Spokesman-Review to help train students, pay printing costs and establish a $1,000 journalism scholarship to North Idaho College.

“We have a number of these kinds of partnership programs going on and we really encourage that,” said Dick Harris, Post Falls School District superintendent. “It’s a good connection for the businesses to get to know our schools better, and it’s good for our students, too.”

The project is intended to aid high schools struggling to publish papers with little funding for training, equipment, supplies and printing.

Last year, the Post Falls High School Trojan Times was printed on the school’s copier. At Lakeland, journalism students held fund-raisers and sold advertising to fund the Hawkeye, which was printed on paper donated by a parent.

The grant can be used for computers, newsprint costs or other supplies.

Students will receive training in writing, editing, photography, advertising and circulation and have the opportunity to contribute to The Spokesman-Review’s Handle section. At the end of the school year, one student will receive a $1,000 scholarship to study journalism at NIC.

Newspapers are pairing up with high schools nationwide to develop stronger community ties while assuring a future pool of journalism talent. More than half of journalism professionals today trace their start to school papers, where they first were exposed to the First Amendment and the power of the press.

“The experience of working on a high school newspaper shapes many future attitudes toward a free and open society and the value of the written word,” said Chris Peck, editor of The SpokesmanReview. “What we are trying to do is keep alive a very colorful and vigorous history of student newspapering in the region and in order to keep that tradition alive you have to have student newspapers. We are putting money there to make sure students in North Idaho have that opportunity.”

, DataTimes