Public Affairs Reporting ( Division A,Division B)Back
Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: The Tosa Compass Entry Title: District to Replace Black Literature With Multicultural Course, Sparking Debate Among Students Entry Credit: Alana Williams Judge Comment: A really nice way to start with a student voice who is passionate about the class to draw in the reader, and then getting to the main peg of the story, that the class is ending and being merged in with other topics. That helps the reader get a sense of why this story is important.
Solid use of quotes throughout the story from both sides of the conversation.
Really good perspective on the role of the narratives of trauma and addressing that in a balanced approach. The final section on the broader debate is a good section to end with but would have liked to see one more local quote for context.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: The Tosa Compass Entry Title: Linking to Success: Tosa West Connections Program Seeks to Get Transfer Students Involved Entry Credit: Kennadi Ross Judge Comment: This story was a fun way to look at how the challenges of being a new student are being addressed. The top of the story had a nice transition from the personal connection to the solid "here's why you need to read this" paragraph with introduction of The Connections.
I really like the mix of people you have in the story, and making it relatable to the general audience. Explaining how the program works to welcome students and get staff involved is a good element to have. What would be beneficial for this story would have been a bit more editing to remove some repetitive lines and to clean up some grammatical things.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: The Tosa Compass Entry Title: Meet the Candidates: Tosa West Students Interview 2025 School Board Hopefuls Entry Credit: Evelyn Davis, Eleanor Scholtus, Devin Long, Emmersen Weber, Avi Zarnowski Judge Comment: This is a very clean presentation and guide for the school board, which typically doesn't see this kind of coverage. There were some consistency issues within the profiles, but overall very good questions to ask candidates, and ones that are helpful to the reader/voter.
A bit more balance on the length of the answers would be good. With candidate Q&A's sometimes it’s good to give them, or keep it to a word count, say 150 words for each answer. That way candidates have to be a bit more exact in their answers; or if you interview them then it's on the reporter/editor to find that spot so they are a bit more balanced. (Same with including links to candidate websites.)
The 'fun facts' question is a good one to end with. D&D, mountain bike races, video gamer. ... Those are the things that can make candidates relatable and get past the policy wonk. As well as the 'proud of' question. ... Good thoughts.
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: The Red 'n' Green Entry Title: Durtschi administers petition to shrink school board Entry Credit: Thomas McCarthy Judge Comment: None
