Kearney Middle School restarts student media program, produces daily 'Bulldog Bulletin'

Kearney Middle School has restarted a student media program after losing it last year to staffing and budget constraints, Principal Dan Miller told the Kearney R-I School District Board of Education.

"Historically, we had had a media program at Kearney Middle School, and, unfortunately, due to some, staffing challenges and budget constraints, we absorbed that last year," Miller said. "We brought it back in a limited capacity this year. She and the kids have just done an outstanding job."

Molly Kubler, who teaches the junior-high level class that incoming middle school students feed into, worked with Miller to set up editing software and a studio so students can produce a daily broadcast aligned with classroom goals. Students use Canva for editing and rotate through roles such as anchors, producers and editors.

Students demonstrated the program to the board by showing a segment of the Bulldog Bulletin and by anchoring the sample broadcast. Student anchors identified themselves on-air: "Welcome to your bulletin for Thursday, October 2. I'm Katie," and "And I'm Lydia." The broadcast included announcements, athletics results and school event promotions.

Miller said the program currently serves a single class of about 22 students that he has divided into teams; he plans to trial a three-group rotation to give students more time to focus on editing. He emphasized the program’s practical learning goals: technical troubleshooting, collaboration, meeting deadlines and writing for an audience.

Students who spoke to the board said the class improved their comfort with technology and gave them experience in filming, producing and editing work they had not done before. A student presenter said the class had “definitely improved how I interact with technology.”

Board members asked how many students are enrolled and how the class is structured. Miller said there are 22 students in the current class and that roles rotate so each student gains experience in multiple positions.

The board received the spotlight presentation as an information item; no formal action was taken.