A top award has been bestowed upon a local high school newspaper.

Superintendent Matthew J. Link congratulated members of the high school newspaper, The Slate, at last Monday’s school board meeting.

“They’ve done something that they’ve really been striving to do for the last probably three years now, and this is the year that they did it,” Link said. “The past few years they’ve been second place, runner-up, which is a magnificent accomplishment in and of itself.”

Link said it was announced a little over a week ago that the school newspaper had won the award.

“This year, it was announced that the American Scholastic Press Association awarded our high school newspaper, The Slate, the first-place award from the American Scholastic Press Association 2021 Newspaper Contest for small high schools in the country,” he said. “This is basically like winning the national championship for journalism for small schools.”

Link noted that Christopher Barnes was the faculty adviser, and Breanna Hoppes was the student editor-in-chief.

He said other members were Brittney Diehl, Owen Levan-Uhler, Lily Groover, Maddy Mack, Susan Gilsbach, Molly Williams, Delaney Szwast, Haven Moore, Chase Jones, Abby Peartree, Alexis Traugher, Avery Diaz, Camryn Torres, Callum Zimmerman and Giana Rosario.

“To all of those student members and to Mr. Barnes, congratulations,” he said. “That is an amazing accomplishment, and I always look forward to every edition when it’s released.”