Staff from The Alamance News were honored with a total of six awards, four of them for first place, in various writing and graphics categories in the North Carolina Press Association’s annual contest.
The newspaper was judged among community (i.e., non-daily) newspapers with circulations between 3,500 and 10,000. This year’s judges were from the Colorado Press Association.
Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr. accepted the newspaper’s awards during the press association’s annual convention last Thursday night in Raleigh.
Most notably, staff writer Kristy Bailey swept both first and second place in investigative reporting for her coverage of the toxic mold outbreak in ABSS schools.
Bailey provided extensive coverage of what became an emerging crisis last summer and fall, as ABSS discovered just weeks before the 2023-24 school year was set to begin that two elementary schools had been discovered to have significant mold contamination.
By the end of August 2023, school officials revealed that toxic mold had been discovered in 33 (of 37 schools), including parts of the school system’s central office. As a result, the start of the school year was postponed – first by one week, then by two.
The judges were effusive in their praise of the two weeks of Bailey’s stories that constituted the two entries.
The first, in the August 24, 2023 edition, focused on the history of the school system having been repeatedly cited by the county’s environmental health division for water-damaged ceiling tiles, ongoing roof leaks, leaks in air conditioning pipes, inadequate ventilation, and surface mold – dozens of moisture-and sanitation-related violations that had been left uncorrected for years.
At the same time, the package of stories also recounted how school board members had voted to siphon a $10.5 million portion of federal stimulus relief money for Covid-19 that had been designated for HVAC repairs in ABSS schools and instead used that money to award all staff a one-time Christmas bonus at the end of 2021.
“Good digging on the paper’s part turned up information the public needed and school administrators wanted to avoid disclosing,” the contest judge noted. “Well organized, thorough, revelatory and compelling. Top notch.”
The second story was in the September 21, 2023 edition. The newspaper kept getting “tips” that the school system had turned off the air conditioning as a “cost-saving” measure. The newspaper discovered that computer-generated alerts about building humidity levels that could have served as an early warning about the potential for mold growth, had also been turned off.
JUDGE’S COMMENTS ON NEWSPAPER’S AWARD-WINNING INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING ENTRIES
“Good digging on the paper’s part turned up information the public needed and school administrators wanted to avoid disclosing. Well organized, thorough, revelatory and compelling. Top notch.”
“Isn’t the reporting life grand when a story like this keeps giving and giving? Great follow-up to the 1st-place investigation.”
To gain access to the information, the newspaper filed a public records request under North Carolina’s Public Records Law. The results provided a trove of information that confirmed that most of the email alerts that could’ve served as an early warning about problems with HVAC systems and indoor building humidity (i.e., building “dew points”) – and potential mold growth – had been deactivated from June through August 2023.
The contest judge’s comment: “Isn’t the reporting life grand when a story like this keeps giving and giving? Great follow-up to the 1st-place investigation.”
Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr. also praised Bailey’s ongoing and stellar work in covering the mold crisis. “While school officials publicly insisted that no one was to blame, the newspaper set out to learn about the potential origins of the toxic mold contamination in nearly every ABSS facility. Bailey did an excellent job week in and week out to cover, and uncover, the details.
“School officials repeatedly said they wanted to ‘move on,’ rather than wallowing in who was responsible, or what might have caused, or contributed to, mold contamination in 33 school buildings,” Boney noted, “but the newspaper and Bailey, its lead reporter for ABSS coverage, was persistent in staying on top of the story for months.
“We are grateful for the judges’ recognition of the work demonstrated in these two weeks, but our readers were the beneficiary each week as Bailey covered the mold situation – and every week as she provides comprehensive coverage of the ABSS school board and school system,” Boney added.
1st Place for City, County Government Reporting
Also recognized with a writing award of distinction was staff writer Tomas Murawski, whose beats regularly including Burlington’s city council and planning board, Elon’s town council, and Alamance County board of commissioners.
It was straightforward reporting of a county commissioners’ discussion that netted Murawski a first place award for city/county government reporting in the state contest.
The story, from September 7, 2023, involved the issue of whether county leaders were willing to “go to war” with top big box retailers after the county’s tax office revealed that it had unwittingly undervalued 10 retail locations.
The stores – owned by Lowe’s Home Improvement, Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Belk, J.C. Penney, and Dillard’s – had already been given their tax revaluations when the county discovered its error in calculations.
The commissioners faced the likelihood of a legal battle royale if they attempted to change the tax values for the stores.
“This is the kind of story,” the contest judge said, “that proves why local news coverage is important. If this reporter hadn’t been covering this meeting, this issue might’ve gone completely unreported.”
Boney noted, “Tomas’ coverage of local governments is exceptional, and no one does a more competent or thorough job than he does. For more than two decades, he has led our local county government coverage and that of the county’s largest local municipal government. He has a tremendous ‘institutional memory’ about what each local government did – not only at each one’s last meeting, but also last month, last year, and five and 10 years ago.”
Newspaper’s First Annual High School Football Preview Special Section
The Alamance News undertook its first special section featuring an overview of the upcoming season for the county’s seven high school football teams on August 17, 2023.
The newspaper’s sports reporter, Bob Sutton, did interviews with players and coaches on each of the seven teams, assembled the rosters and schedules, which the newspaper included in its special section. Also included were a listing of former players then in the college ranks across the country.
The newspaper’s 12-page special section was lauded by the contest judge.
The newspaper produced its second special section previewing the high school football season last month.
Sutton was also recognized for third place in sports news reporting for his story explaining an obscure rule in high school baseball. When an animated assistant coach from visiting Eastern Randolph was ejected from a game at Southern Alamance, the umpire invoked the rule that the head coach is ousted, as well.
Adding to the interest in the story is that the ejected Eastern Randolph head coach, Brent Haynes, was a former player and assistant coach at Southern, and he was facing off against his former coach, Jason Smith.
The contest judge’s comment: “The author attempts to focus on an unusual angle to tell the story of a high scoring game.”
“Our gain is our competition’s loss,” added publisher Tom Boney, Jr. “Unfortunately, the typical corporate philosophy didn’t adequately appreciate Bob’s 25-year career in local sports writing when the nearby then-daily newspaper released him several years ago. He has an enormous breadth of contacts, and a tremendous memory for details and sports history – of individual athletes, coaches, and events – that he brings to bear each week.”
Graphic design: John Adams
The newspaper’s graphic artist, John Adams, was also recognized by the state association.
Adams won recognition for a full page color ad for Grill 584, which sponsored an ad in the newspaper’s 2023 high school football preview special section. “Very pleasant to the eye ad,” the judge said of Adams’ ad for Grill 584 – which was entitled, “A great place to celebrate victories and other special occasions.” The ad won first place for best use of color (in advertising).
Adams also designed the cover of the high school football special section that won the first place award.
“John’s graphic talents are unsurpassed,” Alamance News publisher Boney added. “The judge’s ‘Pleasant to the eye’ comment captures so well so many of his graphics abilities.”
Boney underscored the weekly contributions each of the staff make to the newspaper. “It’s great to win press awards, and we are very grateful to be recognized by our peers for good writing, good reporting, good content, and good graphics, but of course the greatest source of pride is the recognition we get from our readers each week. And we thank them, as well.”
