The News-Review Awarded for “Best Continuing Coverage”

DES MOINES – The Iowa Newspaper Association’s yearly convention was held on Feb. 6, featuring the announcement of the winners of the 2025 Better Newspaper Contest. The News-Review competed against other Class II newspapers, weekly papers that have 756-1,260 weekly readers. The News-Review placed first in the Best Continuous Coverage category, for a series of stories written by Casey Jarmes in 2024 about the abrupt resignation of Pekin Superintendent Derek Philips and the ensuing fallout. Our coverage began on April 3, with the story “Pekin Superintendent Resigns, Parents and Teachers Accuse District of Racism and Toxic Work Environment,” which described the resignation of Philips, interviews with teachers about alleged mistreatment at the hands of the school board, and claims by a parent that the resignation stemmed from discontent over an incident where a school board member’s son was suspended.

Two weeks later, the News-Review featured three different front-page stories covering the ongoing story from different angles. One story, “Parents and Staff Tear Into Pekin School Board,” covered the next school board meeting, where parents and teachers spoke up about negative experiences they had had at Pekin. Another story, “Wife of Pekin Board Member Speaks Out About Overturned Suspension,” was an interview with the mother of the suspended student, who provided a different perspective on what had happened. Finally, the story “Pekin Teachers Bring Up Board Micro-Management and Fear of Retaliation in Anonymous Survey” featured excerpts from a survey sent to staff members by parents, in which staff members spoke extensively about problems with Pekin’s work culture.

The final story sent to the INA was the May 8 story “Interim Superintendent Plans to Continue at Pekin,” which covered the subsequent board meeting and the discussion between the school board and interim superintendent on restoring stability to Pekin.

“A very in-depth look at ongoing problems with a school district, something that impacts the community on multiple levels as taxpayers, families with students, and one of the largest employers in a community,” stated the INA judge. “This seems like a difficult story to cover because of the unwillingness of many parties to talk, yet you provided a good look into the situation over several months.”