Resident urges better local press coverage; district and newspaper discuss submission process and publishing constraints

A Murrysville resident told the board on Feb. 10 that Franklin Regional content appears less frequently in the local PEN Franklin paper than she expected, and asked administrators to improve outreach to ensure more consistent community coverage.

Helen Elliott said the ad and posters for an upcoming musical lacked event times and that she could not find the information easily on the district website. She also raised a recent letter questioning activity at the former Heritage School site and asked why the district does not receive more consistent coverage.

The superintendent replied with submission statistics he said came from the district’s public‑relations tracking: for the 2022 cycle the district submitted 70 items and 25 were unpublished (35 percent); in 2023 the district submitted 81 and 11 were unpublished (13 percent); through Oct. 15 of the current year, 16 submissions were made and 3 unpublished (18 percent). The superintendent said some emails and submission workflows had been disrupted when staff left and that social media has been used frequently to post immediate updates.

Georgia, a representative from the PEN Franklin, said her staff prints what is submitted and emphasized two practical constraints: pictures must be high quality and include full names to run as school pictures; deadlines matter because the printed paper goes to press before the Monday cover date. She said many small photo‑and‑caption submissions take only a few minutes to prepare and that parent/booster submissions also feed coverage.

District staff and the newspaper representative agreed to meet and clarify expectations and submission procedures so that the paper can receive more usable material in the preferred format; the superintendent said he would follow up to coordinate improved communication between the district and the local paper.