Last spring, I visited a class at North Salem High School. I was there to interview a few students and teachers about a program to help teens file their taxes.

One student’s reaction to my introduction surprised me.

“Salem Reporter? I love you guys!” he said. He pulled up our website on his school computer and said he appreciated learning about what was happening in schools and the community through our reporting.

I’ve been covering local schools for Salem Reporter since our newsroom was founded in 2018. Much of my reporting necessarily focuses on big issues: district budgets, state and federal policy impacts.

But my favorite stories are always those where I get to go inside classrooms and speak with the educators and students who actually spend their days at school. Through my time in

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