PORT ANGELES — The student film crew of Stevens News Network hosted Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday for a live school-wide presentation.
The interview at Stevens Middle School was seen in real time by the student body over a closed-circuit television system.
“I came to Stevens because I wanted to see some of the secrets of success,” Inslee told Steven News Network anchors Alex Hertzog and Morgan Mitchell, both 13 and in the eighth grade.
“You guys are having great success in your test scores and with your community spirit,” he said.
“I have only been here for about 10 minutes, but I have already seen some of the things that make this a great school,” the governor continued.
“One of that is we have such an active student leadership here. You guys are leading assemblies, you are leading this broadcasting. It is really kind of neat to see,” Inslee said.
During the brief interview, which lasted about five minutes, the student anchors inquired about challenges facing public schools.
“My biggest challenge right now is working . . to come up with a statewide solution” to generate funding for public schools, “some of which can come to Stevens,” Inslee said, referring to an order from the state Supreme Court that the state pay for basic education in public schools.
Inslee also talked of “success in public education in the last several years.
“In the last session of the Legislature, we did some great things. We are going to have one of the biggest advances in early childhood education so that students that are three and four years of age . . . are ready for kindergarten.”
And “we are also going to provide all-day kindergarten for students,” he said.
“We have reduced our class sizes in K-3 down to 17 so that teachers will have more one-on-one contact with their pupils, and we have decreased our college tuition.”
Eighth-grade student Nacia Bohman, 13, director of Stevens News Network, was pleased with her staff following the successful conclusion of the brief broadcast.
“We have never met the governor, let alone anyone in government, so we were nervous. But all in all, we worked great as a team,” she said.
And while the crew of about eight students is experienced with daily broadcasts, those are “just in front of [the] student body – our friends,” she said.
With the governor, “it’s like, oh man. He is on TV all the time and gives political speeches.”
Bohman said the crew made diligent preparations for the interview, but still had to make some last-minute adjustments.
“That is just a thing with the live broadcasts. What’s live is live and you can’t take it back.”
Rob Edwards, the media technology teacher who oversees the student broadcasts, said he was proud of his students.
“They come in at 7:30 a.m. every day, putting in extra time before the other students get here and make sure that the broadcast is ready. And then they go live everyday at 8:20 a.m.”
“I bet they remember the first time the interviewed the governor” for the rest of their lives, he added.
Inslee gave the student journalists high praise.
“These kids just blow you away,” he said. “We saw them doing that broadcast, which is [as] professional as any broadcaster in the state.”
Both Bohman and Liang said they maintain an open invitation to U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor — who represents the 6th Congressional District which includes the North Olympic Peninsula — and President Barack Obama to participate in similar interviews at their school.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
