Welcome, reader, to the first PCH Corral newspaper issue of the 2019-2020 school year. I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Wesley Henshaw, Editor-in-Chief here at the Corral. I’m extraordinarily excited to see what this new year holds in store and what our new writers and editors can do. We have a largely new staff of talented writers and storytellers.

I don’t typically like being in the limelight, even in the written form like this, but I feel for such a special year there are some changes we need to address. The main one is that we want to change how we think of ourselves as a paper. We aren’t simply kids writing stories for a grade, but for our school, and we want to reflect that in our paper. What this means is that, as we undergo various design changes and content changes, I cordially invite anyone, anyone at all, to contact us and send us your thoughts. Not about the paper, though that is allowed, about anything.

One of the most amazing things I have found in my four years in journalism classes is the ability to share my voice in a public forum. I want this ability to be extended to everyone, finally make this conversation two-sided.

So, if you’re interested in sharing your voice, whether it’s a frustration about something at school, a concern about something in our community, or solutions and suggestions you have about issues in your world, you can send us a “letter to the editor” at [email protected] by Oct. 25. Simply send us an email including a Google document with your letter and you might find it here on this page in the next issue. I and the staff will screen letters and choose the ones we will run in the paper.

Although we will edit for grammar and mechanics, I assure you that we will never change the content of your letter, and you will be made aware of any developments in the publishing of your letter. Whether I or the staff agrees with what you say or not doesn’t affect your chance of being published, in fact, we heavily encourage intellectual diversity within our staff. We do not allow anonymous letters, you have to be willing to attach your name to the letter.

If you don’t make it into the newspaper, we still might post your letter onto our site pchcorral.com. Speaking of which, I want to encourage everyone to let their voices be heard on the site as well in the comment sections of stories. Let’s make the newspaper more interactive.

With that, I’ve said most of what I’ve wanted to say. I want to thank those who read the paper, it means a lot to myself and our writers knowing people are listening. As we make several changes to the paper and adapt to our new staff, I thank you for your enduring support.

I hope we get to hear your stories.

Sincerely,

Wesley Henshaw

Editor-in-Chief of the PCH Corral