Members of the new Journalism Club at Blue Earth Area are pictured above. Front row, left to right, Lauren Bleess, Clara Ziegler, Lilah Farrow and Alandra Eisenmenger. Back row, left to right, Calli Ferguson, Nick Frundt, Camryn McNicol, McKenna Dutton and advisor Janelle Jacobsen.

zA group of Blue Earth Area High School students have been spending their lunch hour on Mondays pursuing an unusual activity.

Newspaper publishing.

And, now, they are completing work on the first edition of The Buccaneer, a new school newspaper, which went to press this past Friday and is being distributed today, Monday, May 10.

Admittedly, it could be the first – and last – edition of The Buccaneer, at least for this school year.

The project is the idea of BEA English/language arts teacher Janelle Jacobsen.

“It started when superintendent (Mandy) Fletcher asked the teaching staff to come up with some ideas for special projects as part of L.E.A.P. (Learning Educational Activities Program),” Jacobsen says. “I have always had an interest in journalism and newspapers, so I thought about getting some students together who would be interested in a school newspaper.”

She spread the word around the school and eight students signed on.

“It is not a class, it is an activity,” Jacobsen says. “So we called it the BEA Journalism Club.”

They started meeting just once a month, on a Monday during their lunch hour. The students grab their lunch and then gather in Jacobsen’s classroom to discuss what they want to do and how they can get that done.

McKenna Dutton and Alandra Eisenmenger, the only two seniors in the club, were elected to be co-editors of the potential new school newspaper.

They went to work, discussing what stories they should have in the paper, and assigned each member of the club a story or topic to pursue.

They also made the decision that they would produce both a digital version and a printed version to hand out.

Just a month ago they determined that meeting just once a month was not going to get the job done, if they wanted to actually complete the task of publishing and distributing a newspaper before the end of the school year. So they began meeting every Monday. And, they asked Faribault County Register editor Chuck Hunt to attend their meetings and offer some helpful ideas.

“Their deadline became getting it done by the School Board meeting on May 10, so they could present a copy at the meeting and show the board members what they had done,” Jacobsen says. “So they had to plan how this would all work.”

That meant figuring out how to paginate the newspaper, how to get it printed and one more important detail – a name for the new publication.

The students had not really discussed what to call this newspaper until just recently. They were aware that a former Blue Earth school paper, published starting in the 1930s through the 1970s, had been called the Mah-ko-Tah.

They discussed different options, but quickly settled on The Buccaneer. They all agreed that name sounded just right.

With eight students each writing a story, and a plan to have eight pages in the newspaper, co-editor Dutton assigned each student one page to lay out on the computer graphic design program Canva.

All of their stories are aimed at their target audience – the students at BEA High School. There is a sports feature, a story about how COVID has affected school life, one on music, another about current events and others on topics students would be interested in.

“It has worked out pretty well,” Jacobsen says. “These are all very involved kids, so they are very busy with all kinds of activities. That is why we have been meeting on noon hours.”

Will the newspaper continue next school year? Jacobsen hopes so.

“I think we will have the Journalism Club again next school year and we will try to have several issues of The Buccaneer,” Jacobsen says. “It was a good start this year, so I am hopeful for next year.”

The students are also enthused and are already talking about what they can do next school year. And, if there are costs involved in getting the newspaper produced, they are looking at getting some sponsorships to cover those expenses.

Hopefully, The Buccaneer will become a regular school project.