By Molly Voit and Elisabeth Seiple
As the second trimester of the 2019-2020 school year comes to a close, LREI seniors are preparing to move on from their LREI extracurriculars to other opportunities. The Knightly News speaks with their editors (Layne Friedman ‘20, Cameron Krakowiak ‘20, and Bay Dotson ‘20) about the changes to the newspaper implemented under their leadership and their goals for future editors.
What was the newspaper like when you first joined?
CK: When I first joined, I think it was at the same time as Layne, and there were like five or six kids and some… kids that just wouldn’t come to meetings.
BD: We were freshmen. Jessica Acee was the faculty mentor. We met in Tom’s room, which is a totally different vibe from Ann’s room.
CK: It’s funny, because I remember I was thinking the middle school newspaper was just as good, or even better than the high school newspaper, especially in terms of the website. I felt like it wasn’t substantial enough for a school newspaper.
LF: When we printed, we printed on 8.5 by 11 paper, aka we didn’t really print. And it was a Tumblr site, which is hilarious.
BD: People wrote their niche.
LF: They wrote their thing and that was really it.
BD: [A lot of] things you would see in Seventeen Magazine. I wrote about New York City politics.
LF: I did school happenings. I don’t know if any of our [pieces] were on the Tumblr.
BD: It was unclear where things went. There wasn’t a structure. [The editors would] just be like “Oh, turn in articles in a month or something.”
What made you stay involved with Knightly News? How has the newspaper changed since you started?
CK: I want to be a journalist. And I was made editor freshman year.
LF: Well, I was the editor by third trimester [freshman year]. We just started changing things. First we changed the website, we all agreed the Tumblr was not our thing, so we ended up using the school blog system.
BD: Then Daniel and Charlene came.
CK: And I have to say, even generally in the school, there’s been a new wave of students and that’s changed the culture of the school. I think everyone was complacent with us being a small high school, and that’s kind of changed.
LF: And the club grew by a lot when the now 10th graders came. The editing work got to be a lot, so Bay came on as an editor then. We restructured the editing cycle, we spent last year trying to make sure things were turned in successfully. We wanted to start putting out more print issues, but it was still 8.5 by 11 paper.
BD: Last year I brought in a bunch of print newspapers I’d gathered on college tours, I’d kind of been amassing them to bring in to inspire the new members. [Friends of ours at other schools] were doing print, we wanted to start doing print.
LF: It was right as Allison and Margaret had just become principals and they were really excited about it.
BD: They were uniquely positioned to be really in favor of that.
LF: Part of what they said with that was that, because printing cost money, we would need to work on our schedule and more rigid guidelines.
BD: We had the first [issue] on field day last year, I think it was well-received. In the fall we started with the Google Classroom, which was Layne’s idea, and that’s been super helpful.
LF: [We still have] a lot of goals.
BD: Mainly, making it last. We just picked the new editors, who we have high hopes for.
CK: I don’t think we really have school spirit, and that goes to say in the newspaper too. We have a lot of articles of current events, and while I think that’s great too, the SBG article was the first article in a while that had to do with the school.
BD: The thing is when I was writing for the editors I thought that they had less work, but when I started doing editing it was like oh wow this is a lot of work. Our group chat is really fun though.
What advice do you have for the current students writing and editing for the Knightly News?
CK: Reach really far. Even though kids might just glace [at the print copies], that’s a lot better than freshman year. Looking at it now, I wish I’d spent even more time with it, we could have made it even better. We made a new blog, we got an email. But this was over the span of three years. I would have done the weekly sport reports every week. There are so many ideas like talk shows and fun stuff…but I only did three of them, and the third one wasn’t even published.
LF: Just, you have to do it, no one else is going to write the newspaper.
BD: I mean, in the nicest way. And don’t be afraid to try a new thing.
What advice do you have for other x-block leaders and members who want to enact change in their club?
BD: Communicate with Alison and Maragaet. They were really excited about our ideas. We wouldn’t have taken that extra step to do that if they weren’t so excited when we first brought it up.
LF: And beg Daniel and Charlene to be your leaders.
BD: They are qualified to run the New York Times, but they chose us. And it’s not work if you’re enjoying it.
As the current Knightly News editors move on to exciting Senior Projects and experiences beyond high-school, the effort put into the newspaper to improve and expand the publication should be recognized. With new x-blocks and students taking on leadership every year, the care that Layne, Cameron, and Bay have for the Knightly News models how LREI students can actively engage in the school and achieve their goals.