The Daily Agenda: Let's hear from the next generation
The Tucson Agenda is bringing in some new perspectives ... They'll be keeping an eye on some local decision-makers ... PEEPs is growing fast
We’ve been teasing our plans to integrate younger and more diverse voices into our work, and we’re finally ready to tell you more.
For the past three years, Caitlin has been teaching a public affairs reporting class at the University of Arizona, training the next generation of journalists on the ins-and-outs of government reporting.
The class covers a lot of topics and moves fast, meaning that while students come away with plenty of knowledge, they don’t get to experience what it’s like building a beat and following a government entity for an extended period of time.
That changes this semester, with each student spending the next three months covering a municipality, school district or volunteer-based board, committee or commission.
They’ll submit biweekly memos detailing what their sources are talking about, the decisions they’re making and the public reaction, and we’re excited to read all about it.
But we think our subscribers are also curious as to what these entities are up to, so we’re going to share the wealth while also showcasing student talent and providing some insight into what young voters think is important.
We asked them to pick an entity that interests them, and with more than a dozen school districts and a hundred-plus volunteer committees, commissions and boards between the city, county and various municipalities, they had plenty of topics from which to choose.
The students have finalized their beat selections, so we’re ready to tell you about some of the areas they’ll be covering and why these drew their interest.
The most popular choices were the Catalina Foothills School District Governing Board and the county’s Animal Care Advisory Committee, with several students signing on to cover each.
"There are a lot of hot-button issues in education, both in Arizona and nationally. Additionally, issues in education directly affect a majority of Tucson residents but don’t seem to be covered in the news as frequently,” student Sam Parker wrote about her choice to cover Catalina Foothills for the semester. “I think it is important to call attention to topics like attacks on gender identity and protected classes, which are currently subjects of dispute within this school board specifically.”
Another popular selection was the city’s Public Art and Community Design Committee. Taylor Dykstra decided to lean into her creativity, saying she’s eager to “learn more about how artistic decisions are made” when it comes to public art installations.
Just like the rest of us, students are also concerned about affordable housing in Tucson. Madison Carney will be following both the county’s Regional Affordable Housing Commission and the city’s Commission on Equitable Housing and Development this semester, and is eager to compare and contrast the two groups.
“I’m very interested in how they are dealing with the affordable housing crisis in Tucson and Pima specifically,” Carney wrote. “Although it is of issue and importance in Arizona as a whole, I am looking to learn more about how it affects our local communities and what steps are being taken as a result.”
We’ll also have students checking in on the county’s Board of Health, Transportation Advisory Committee and Planning and Zoning Commission.
On the city side, students have signed on to follow the Police Advisory Review Board and Parks and Recreation Commission.
Student Eric Trujillo is taking a personal approach to the assignment in his choice to cover the Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee.
“Tucson has a lot of bicyclists and I bike to class every day,” Trujillo wrote. “Tucson also has many bicyclist accidents and one of the highest deaths per capita in the nation. I hope to cover their plans to improve safety for cyclists in the city.”
And hoping to gain some perspective on the different issues being addressed by local governments, Riley Brown will be following both the Oro Valley Town Council and Oro Valley Planning and Zoning Commission, saying she thinks it’s interesting to look at how different the problems in Oro Valley are compared to Tucson.
Our hope is that while these students learn how to grow and develop a beat, they’ll also keep you updated on some of these groups and the decisions being made on various issues.
Every time one of our free subscribers upgrades to a paid subscription, it brings us one step closer to being able to hire one of these promising young reporters.
Look for their items in our “other news” section starting soon. We are looking forward to growing our relationship with the UA’s School of Journalism while also giving students an outlet to showcase their work.
Hopefully, we’ll all learn something from these students and gain a better understanding about the issues that matter to the folks who will be running the show soon.
Setting the record straight: Some information got cut from yesterday’s story about job openings with Pima County that should have been included in the final draft. We’ve corrected the online version, but we want to make sure our subscribers have the complete picture.
Of the 89 unfilled positions in the Pima County Attorney’s Office referenced by Supervisor Steve Christy during Tuesday’s meeting, 37 have not been funded by the county and nine are in some phase of the hiring process, according to Pima County Attorney Laura Conover. This leaves just 43 funded positions, representing a vacancy rate of about 10%.
Preparing for the worst: The University of Arizona announced Thursday that all employees will be required to participate annually in its Active Shooter Preparedness training, with a December 15 deadline for this year, according to an email from Interim Chief Safety Officer Steve Patterson. The 12-minute online training was created with a trauma-informed approach and doesn’t contain any visuals of guns or attackers.
Helping out the kiddos: The Pima Early Education Program served nearly 1,400 children in the program’s second year, according to the annual report submitted to the Pima County Board of Supervisors. That was a 63 percent jump from the first year. County officials are now asking other local governments to commit to multi-year funding agreements to help the program grow.
We’re glad to see PEEPs is growing, and we’re a little jealous of how fast they’re doing it! Give us a hand and subscribe today so we can try to catch up.
Taking the next step: The Tucson City Council said the city attorney can start legal action against properties where violent crime frequently occurs, AZPM’s Paola Rodriguez reports. The decision came after a pilot program called Place Network Investigations led to an 80 percent drop in crime at three locations over the past year-and-a-half. The targeted areas are Grant and Alvernon; Campbell and Bilby; and 22nd and Prudence.
Getting more time: The Regional Transportation Authority board pushed back the deadline for the Citizens Advisory Committee to finalize the recommended draft plan for RTA Next, which sets the course for spending $2.34 billion on transportation projects over the next 20 years. They now have until Dec. 6, instead of the initial deadline in July, to review updated costs estimates and deliver the draft plan.
Where’d they go?: Animal advocates in Arizona are offering $1,500 for information about 300 small animals that were sent to an anonymous animal rescue organization, AZPM’s Danyelle Khmara reports. Steve Farley, CEO of the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, said the rescue found homes for 250 of the animals in a matter of weeks. Advocates say that is way too fast to find homes for so many small animals.
The casita train is rolling: The Phoenix City Council followed in the footsteps of Tucson on Wednesday and allowed residents to build casitas, or accessory dwelling units, in their backyards, KJZZ’s Christina Estes reports. We wrote about the slow progress Tucson has made with casitas and Hank Stephenson at our sister newsletter the Arizona Agenda lays out what’s next for Phoenix’s policy.
72: The number of days that reached 100-plus degrees in Tucson. A normal year has 68, according to the National Weather Service in Tucson.
Student Interns - fabulous move - please continue.
Through high school, kids have very few opportunities for their true voice and true thoughts to be heard. School newspapers are so heavily "monitored/edited/redacted/andorshutdown" that they become a farce almost as soon as they're published.