MERIDIAN TWP. — Okemos High School junior Miki Perdikakis was training under the current editor of the high school’s student newspaper, the OHS Press, getting ready to carry the torch for her last year in high school.
Now, she might not get to, after administrators announced that the school’s journalism course will not be offered for the 2026-27 school year.
This year, a staff of eight students put out five broadsheet newspaper editions to be distributed in the school and mailed to subscribers.
Twelve students were signed up to take the class next year, but after scheduling was completed, the students learned the class will not run as planned.
Okemos High School requires 15 students to enroll in a class to run it as planned, said Superintendent Matt Olson, who started his role on May 1.
“Okemos, I think like most schools, we want to provide as wide a range of learning opportunities and elective experiences as we can, so we want to respond to student interest and need for what’s out there in the world,” he said. “A lot of what drives that is the enrollment process.”
There are limited exceptions to the 15-student rule, he said, like if the class is a graduation requirement, if it’s in a sequence and is necessary to take before enrolling in another class, for example.
The students told the State Journal they knew the class had run without meeting the 15-student minimum, though they felt administrators hadn’t communicated properly how crucial it would be to hit the enrollment numbers. Perdikakis said had they known, they would have worked to find additional solutions to boost enrollment further for the next school years.
He said that just because the class isn’t running this year, it will remain in the course catalog for students to enroll in, and once the enrollment threshold is hit again, they will run the class again.
“At the end of the day, we do have to be responsible and set some procedures so we can be fiscally responsible and serve the needs of all,” he said. “It really is just trying about doing that the best we can.”
Beth Brauer, an Okemos parent and professor in Michigan State University’s public relations program, said that she’s disappointed the school is taking away a course that encourages writing, especially in a time when artificial-intelligence is so prevalent.
“If Okemos is supposed to be one of the best high school’s in the state. The thought of not offering journalism just seems crazy to me. It just kind of blows my mind,” Brauer said. “I think there are certain classes that ought to be protected. I could understand if we were talking about an enrollment of five or six students then their hands are tied … we’re talking about a difference of three students. That to me just doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to cancel it.”
Journalism Club ‘wouldn’t compare’
In the meantime, the paper can still publish as a club. Olson said in the district’s teacher contract, the newspaper is protected so the adviser position would be paid.
“We want to make sure we are being responsive to the kids we’re serving,” he said. “The students are speaking with their choices, and that’s the part we’re trying to be responsive to. It may not run this year … We still want journalism to be alive and well. We just want to make sure that we have students that also want that.”
Perdikakis said the class is a lot of work, but it’s worth it to her. She said that trying to put out an issue with a weekly meeting wouldn’t provide enough time to put out a publication of the same quality as often.
With the class structure, the students work on their newspaper during the last 57-minute block at the end of the school day.
“We’re there every day for an hour, and we write, and we edit, and we format, and we pitch ideas and we brainstorm,” Perdikakis said. “Having a once-a-week club meeting, we’d put out an issue once a semester. It wouldn’t compare.”
Canceling class sends a ‘dangerous message’
Sydney Demshur, a rising senior at Okemos, said she feels like her life has changed after one year in the newspaper class. She quickly developed a love for journalism and was accepted into a weekend-long sports journalism camp hosted by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
“It’s just a shame that it will not be around next year,” Demshur said. “It’s really changed my life. If you told me the impact it’s had on my life this year, I would have never believed (it.)”
Brauer said she wishes more proactive measures were taken to try to increase enrollment, and that she thinks it sends a “dangerous message” to remove the course.
The class was previously opened only to juniors and seniors, though this year, the school opened it to sophomores as well. The class can be taken for back-to-back years as an elective credit.
Perdikakis said they were not told until after scheduling was completed that the class would not run as planned next year. Students worked on their schedules in February and March, and the course offerings were decided and finalized on April 8, according to a letter shared with the State Journal from Okemos High School administrators Allison Cironi and Joseph Schmidt.
By mid-May, neither student knew what class would replace the newspaper class in their schedule.
“I think there’s so much potential. This is such a short-term decision for a long-term class,” Demshur said.
She added that she’s concerned without the class officially running, it would leave newspaper adviser Erik Potere starting over from scratch.
Potere declined an interview request from the State Journal.
Demshur said she thinks if the class would run again, it would likely face a slow start, and that losing the knowledge that comes from having second-year students in the course could be detrimental, from restarting teaching the layout software to the specifics of AP Style.
“Our work is very consistent and it’s hard and tedious, but as we work together and as we learn new things from each other, that’s what’s important,” Demshur said. “It shows our devotion to the paper. We want to be here.”
Financing the course
Cironi and Schmidt wrote in their letter to the community that the 15-student “threshold ensures we are responsible stewards of district resources and that teacher staffing (FTE) is allocated where student interest is highest.”
Demshur said there were new ideas the class had brainstormed to try to bring in additional revenue or see if they can convince the district’s decision makers to change the plan. She said she’d be interested in starting up a website for the paper, for example, or hosting additional fundraisers.
Through ad sales and fundraisers, the students have been able to cover printing costs for the paper. What student fundraising doesn’t cover, the letter said, is “the significant costs associated with teacher salary, benefits, technology, and classroom facilities.”
“It’s such a bummer that something as cool as this needs to be the thing that’s sacrificed,” Perdikakis said. “It’s such an awesome program and it impacts so many more people that just the people who are on staff.”
Contact Karly Graham at kgraham@lsj.com. Follow her on X at @KarlyGrahamJrn.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Okemos cuts journalism class, leaving student newspaper in limbo
Reporting by Karly Graham, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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