Southwest Open School plans to launch a student newspaper, “The Bottom Line,” at the end of February, an idea conceived by a group of students who are interested in becoming journalists, said humanities teacher Chris Kelley.
“There are a couple of students who are interested in being journalists in the future, so while discussing ideas about school climate and culture earlier this year, the idea of a newspaper was discussed,” Kelley told The Journal.
Kelley then gathered opinions from around campus and found support for a paper.
Initially, seven students from the SWOS student government will write for “The Bottom Line,” but they have “extended an invitation” to other students, Kelley said.
The edition in late February would be followed with a monthly edition for the rest of the school year. Kelley said they hope to publish two per month in the 2025-26 year. The paper would focus on SWOS and community events, world news and music, movie and fashion reviews.
Kelley said he hopes students will realize how “powerful” their writing can be, and that they will be advocates for change through their work.
“I hope that the students involved will be most impacted by the levels of collaboration, accountability and commitment required to put a newspaper together,” Kelley said.
And after overcoming the challenge of producing a newspaper, Kelley hopes the students will become a bigger part of the community.
“Hopefully, they will find streamlined success, and continue to grow as student advocates for positive school culture and agents of change in our community,” he said.
“The Bottom Line” will launch digitally, but Kelley and the students plan to raise funds to print hard copies.
“We are in need of money and resources to hopefully continue being able to publish this newspaper,” Kelly said. “We were going to have our paper available online and try to raise money to print physical copies, but there seems to be quite a demand on campus for print copies sooner than later, so we are going to begin fundraising soon.”
