EVERETT — Like a news reporter bumping against a final deadline, the editors of the nearly defunct Kodak student newspaper at Everett High School finally got the quote they needed.
The words came from Jim McNally, a top administrator in the Everett School District.
"He said he was going to … keep Kodak the way it is," said Mary Horton, co-editor in chief.
Monday’s news reversed the mood in the third-floor classroom, where students left for the weekend thinking their student newspaper was headed for the recycling bin — permanently.
School principal Pat Sullivan had told the 20-plus-member staff that the Kodak, which has published nonstop since September 1899, would be gone for the rest of the school year. He said it would return in September in an online format.
The upcoming Feb. 6 edition was expected to be the last hard copy.
The changes coincided with the retirement of Shirley Ferguson, who was the newspaper’s adviser for 15 years. Ferguson’s retirement took effect Friday.
She was scheduled to meet with Everett Superintendent Carol Whitehead Monday, but that meeting was canceled.
Instead, McNally visited the school and talked with editors of the newspaper and to Sullivan about saving the Kodak.
McNally couldn’t be reached Monday, but Sullivan confirmed the meetings and said he would be working today to put the Kodak back onto the spring semester schedule.
"I have to change some of the master schedule (today) and meet with five or six people and have a meeting with the students again," Sullivan said. "We’ve been really committed to having this newspaper from the very beginning, regardless of what some people have said."
Sullivan said he is open to continuing to print copies of the Kodak in the future, along with an online version.
Many said Monday that communication about what was and wasn’t going to happen with the student newspaper wasn’t very clear.
Sullivan said some of his statements about the newspaper’s future were misunderstood. District officials said there never was talk of dumping the newspaper altogether. And the paper’s editors and advisers said they never felt as if they were being heard.
"It was nice to have him sit down and listen to the story, because that hadn’t been a whole lot of what we were getting before," Horton said of the meeting with McNally.
Gay Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Everett School District, said district officials received many calls Monday from concerned alumni and people throughout the community offering to help save the newspaper.
"The Kodak is a long tradition at Everett High, and certainly we intend to continue that tradition," she said.
Many alumni also sent e-mails to The Herald, talking about their experiences at the Kodak.
"We all knew we were part of a proud tradition at EHS and it felt good," Steve Little wrote. "We had a chance to experience our shot at fame early in life by informing and entertaining our classmates. Nothing like seeing your name on a byline in print."
"My class recently held its 66th reunion. As always, issues of the Kodak from our days was a point of attraction and the basis of many discussions," James Heg wrote. "We were in the midst of the worst depression our country has ever known, yet we published every week of the school year."
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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