East High Principal Honored By Journalism Group

DES MOINES, IA — East High School's principal played hooky yesterday to go to Iowa City, but for a good cause. She received an award from the Iowa High School Press Association after being named Administrator of the Year.

East's Quill and Scroll publications' student writers nominated Morris for the honor, along with East journalism teacher Natalie Niemeyer. They credited her with helping save the student newspaper, the Scroll, and expand it online at a time when funding was in doubt. The nomination letter said she also secured funding that allowed the staff to attend a student journalism conference, continue the school's participation in the Iowa Summer Journalism Workshops, and take a field trip to Kansas City where the yearbook staff was able to watch its publication get printed.

Niemeyer, who received national recognition as a Journalism Education Association Rising Star in 2014, co-authored Morris' nomination letter with her students.

They wrote that although Morris has only been East's principal for two years, "her impact has been immense, especially for East's student journalists," a story on the Des Moines school district blog said. Students said she visits the classroom daily; knows the students, their roles with the publications and what they like to write about; and "her visits are never to assess the class, but to show support."

2017 graduate and Quill Editor-in-Chief Keagan Dolphin said Morris made it possible for him to remain as editor of the yearbook when a scheduling conflict arose. She set an independent study time for his college-level Calculus class, which only met at the same time the yearbook class did. Dolphin said she visited the class regularly to support students.

"She’s always excited to see what work we have done and she takes pride in seeing all of her students creating cool pages," he said. "She interacts with all of her students and makes sure we have the proper utensils to make our yearbook the best it can be."

Marc Havnen, the school's yearbook representative for Herff Jones, said Morris is a cheerleader who "understands that showing off your successes makes the whole school look good."

The nomination letter also said Morris "has an open door policy and makes student journalists feel comfortable when they come to her office for an interview. They know that they can ask her about anything without being shut down or treated unfairly. Ms. Morris knows that her students have First Amendment rights and she supports them exercising them freely and responsibly."

Photo via Des Moines Public Schools blog