My first project

My first project about excelling school districts wrapped up a week ago. For this project, I traveled to the Idaho border, the Montana border, the Big Horn Mountains and south to Laramie. I ended up writing one introduction-type story and four district profiles and compiling a chart with teacher salary, spending per student, test scores, etc for every district in the state. It ran in the paper last Sunday through Wednesday. The editor and editorial board wrote about it on the opinion page.

It ran huge. On the front page. I was nervous about that kind of visibility, but the designers did a good job and the stories got quite a bit of attention. Every time I ran into a principal, school board member or other source, they commented on the series. I got a few e-mails and phone calls. I knew my stories were read, but it felt good to have a conversation about them and beyond them. There are a lot of people in Casper and around the state who are passionate about education.

I felt a little lost last week without the project or pages of stats on my mind. Once I get through end of year and new year stories, I can start another one.

[The stories, chart and related editorials can be found here.]