By Sophie Gilbert ‘19, Zach Burd ‘19, and Spencer Wang ‘19, Editors-in-Chief

Welcome to the last issue of the 2017-2018 school year! This is the very first set by our excellent new crop of editors.

First and foremost, we would like to thank this past year’s editors in chief, Charles Pan, Sid Tumu, and Dean Tan, as well as the faculty advisors Dr. DeSanta and Dr. Lankin, for their excellent leadership and continued guidance, respectively. They put together a great end product time and time again with the help of great section editors and committed staff writers. We can never give them all enough commendation for their service to the paper and the Newark Academy community at large.

Since the Minuteman is a school newspaper with limited purview and resources, it can be difficult at times to stay on top of a constantly-evolving news cycle. However, our goal is to provide content that is as current, relevant, and engaging as possible. One way we plan to do this is through evolving the media in which the Minuteman is viewed. We plan to create additional video versions of exciting content from each set, making the paper more accessible and streamlined for the viewer. Additionally, we hope to modernize and develop the aging Minuteman website to adhere more to the convenience of the reader, expanding the newspaper’s relevancy beyond the monthly printed issues.

Starting in the fall, we also plan to implement a letter to the editor system, where students and faculty can briefly respond to articles in the previous issue. And in order to expand the paper’s consumption and mediums we hope to revive and establish a greater social media presence, so no set or article is ever missed. With the implementation of social media and letters to the editor, the Minuteman will no longer be a one-sided affair between the community and the paper; instead, dialogue and appreciation for one another will broaden the relationships our school has with one another.

As the next Editors-in-Chief, we hope to produce more cohesive issues by emphasizing common themes both within each section and throughout entire sets. Our goal, as always, is to write about what the community is interested in. Themed sets such as the Juuling issue this past year provoked many readers to start valuable community discussions. We hope to continue to stay relevant to the NA student body with these cohesive themed sets.

One of the Minuteman’s main goals is to explore the diverse views of our student body and faculty members by pushing the limits of controversy. It should be a paper that readers can turn to, to both broaden and challenge their views on current hot-button issues.

While the Minuteman should not serve as your primary news source, as we are unable to provide day-to-day coverage, our unique position as a school newspaper allows us to showcase the diverse opinions of our students. Because of this, we hope readers can come away from each issue having gained new perspectives and knowledge.

We believe this goal is above and beyond accomplished in the issue, which includes commentary on universal healthcare, discussion of music and athletics, an editorial about grade inflation, and many more exciting articles.

We hope you enjoy this final issue of the school year, and we’re looking forward to sharing many more sets with you next fall!