Principal’s Decision to Cut Journalism Program Under Review

By Kristina Houck

In an effort to save their journalism class, La Costa Canyon High School students urged San Dieguito Union High School District board members on May 2 to reconsider their principal’s decision to eliminate the program next year.

La Costa Canyon Principal Kyle Ruggles decided the program, which produces the monthly MavLife student newspaper, will instead be an after-school extracurricular activity. Students were notified of the class being canceled on April 26.  

Editor-in-Chief Megan Mineiro said she and other students believe the decision to cancel the school’s journalism class might be in response to an article in the March issue of MavLife that covered the school’s decision to replace the athletic director with the assistant principal. An editorial in the same issue criticized the personnel change.  

“Our administrators have always been incredibly supportive and have always voiced how important they think the paper is; but as time went on, it began to look more like a possibility because other possibilities were being eliminated,” said Mineiro, who is a junior at La Costa Canyon. “If it is about censorship and it is about the content of our paper, I would say that that story was what sparked that.”  

Ruggles said there is “no truth at all” in the content of the newspaper being a factor in his decision to cut the course. He said the course was canceled because only 26 students registered for it next semester, and most classes in the district have at least 38 students.  

“Like I told the students, I’m in full support of their articles,” Ruggles said. “If you read that article that they’re talking about, it’s a fabulous article. It’s very well written, very well designed, very factual. It has all of the points. I was very proud.”  

Noting that students awarded him the first ever Dr. Ruggles Press Freedom Award last year, Ruggles said he has always been supportive of the newspaper and conducts monthly press conferences for the class. He added that several other courses had to be canceled due to lack of student interest, including AP Physics C, Spanish 4 and LCC-TV, a broadcast journalism course.  

Mineiro has reservations about her principal’s explanation. She said more students typically register for the course as the new school year approaches, and the class has grown in recent years. This year’s class has 43 students compared to 33 students the previous year. Since the course has been canceled, she said another 11 students have been recruited, which increases next year’s enrollment to 37 students.  

Funding also isn’t an issue, Mineiro said. Journalism students sell advertisements and subscriptions to raise roughly $20,000 each year to publish MavLife, which was launched in 1996, according to newspaper archives. The school will also continue to provide a stipend to the journalism program adviser, Ruggles said.

AP English teacher Suzi Van Steenbergen is the current adviser for the course, which she has taught for three years.  

“I really am supportive and proud of the work that the students are doing on the paper,” said Van Steenbergen, who noted MavLife won fourth place Best in Show in the Newspaper Broadsheet 13-16 Pages category during the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention in April.

“I think scholastic journalism is a really important part of a high school campus. I do think that their work really speaks for itself.”  

Five students addressed the board and more than a dozen students and parents attended the May 2 school board meeting to appeal the school’s decision. No parents attended the information session for journalism parents at La Costa Canyon, which the school’s administration scheduled on the same evening, Ruggles said.  

The student speakers told board members they wouldn’t have enough time after school to publish the newspaper. 

 “There’s just no physically possible way to squeeze that much work into an after-school program,” Mineiro said. “To ask students to make a commitment after school when many of us have jobs, homework, tutoring and family commitments, is an incredible sacrifice they’re asking us to make and it’s physically not possible to fit all that work in.  

“I fear that if that’s the solution they’re trying to implement, it would most definitely kill the paper. It would just be a horrible mistake on our administration’s part.”  

Following the board meeting, Mineiro and her mother emailed board members to request their help with saving the program. Trustee John Salazar replied to express his support.  

Salazar said the board has received several emails from other students who reiterated that the course will not work as an after-school activity.  

“It just seems to me like the school district has lots of money. We spend it on many, many things,” said Salazar, who wrote for his high school and college newspapers. “If we have a class that’s not completely full and it is journalism, we should do it. Journalism is such an important subject matter. It’s almost anti-American not to be teaching high school kids about journalism.”  

Salazar said he thinks the course should be offered again next year or combined with another course like the yearbook class or an English class. Although he doesn’t know how his colleagues feel about the course, Salazar said the district’s Deputy Superintendent Rick Schmitt said he was “not alone among the board in thinking this.”  

Superintendent Ken Noah declined to comment. 

“My gut tells me that [La Costa Canyon Administration] will figure out something because I think that they’re getting a lot of interest in this from parents and students,” Salazar said. “It just doesn’t make sense. 

“I believe this country was founded on the fact that we have a free and open press. We have to be training people if we want to continue to have that. I think it’s too important to make it an after-school club.”  

Ruggles said he and his staff have considered a combination class, but they couldn’t find a course they could “link it up with.”

He added that the class will be reinstated for the 2014-15 school year if enough students are interested.  

“My decision is final for our school, of course, but [the students] appealed this to the superintendent,” Ruggles said. “Once we get an answer from our superintendent about what our next steps are going to be, I definitely want to pull our parents and students together to provide the program that’s the best fit for our students under these circumstances.”