Central Kitsap High School broadcast students release a weekly bulletin every Thursday surrounding school and community experiences. Advised by English and CTE teacher David Tracewell and led by senior Katie McDonald, students plan, film and edit episodes throughout the week and manage the content independently.

Like many CKHS broadcast students, Tracewell’s background in broadcast media initiated during his high school career. In his junior year, his US history teacher and the school’s head basketball coach as well as newspaper adviser Mr. Mueller recruited him to join the school’s journalism class. 

“He could recognize that I was hurting, and he forced me to go to his journalism meeting and he made me his reporter,” Tracewell recalled. “It got me hooked. I thought, ‘when I grow up I’m going to be just like Mr. Mueller. I’m going to be a teacher and help kids that are hurting just like me.’”

The connections and healing opportunities that the journalistic assignments provided encouraged Tracewell’s love for media. So when Tracewell began teaching at his first job in a Hawaiian high school and a teaching position in the broadcast class opened, he “jumped at the chance.”

Following his transfer to Klahowya Secondary School in 1998, a broadcast position once again opened up following the retirement of a broadcast teacher who had a background directing local news at KIRO-7. Tracewell was able to “step in” and teach both Broadcast and English for his 22 years at Klahowya.

Despite the length of his tenure at Klahowya, Tracewell transferred to Central Kitsap High School to stay close and connected with his family. 

“Every school is unique in its own way, and the thing I love about CK is the diversity. There are so many different things to do here…And I love that the broadcast here is just once a week, so they can be more mindful of what they want to put on [their episodes],” Tracewell expressed about his experience so far at CKHS.

Although Tracewell’s past broadcasts were released daily, the CKHS broadcast schedules and films their episodes to be released weekly to be aired on Thursday. Due to the Wednesday to Wednesday schedule, students plan and brainstorm throughout Thursday and Friday and use the remaining weekdays, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, to film and edit the episode to be finalized Wednesday evening and aired Thursday morning.  

“The diversity of the ideas is where the beauty is,” Tracewell emphasized about the broadcast brainstorming sessions. “It just all comes together.”

The schedules, though not set in stone, are structured and led by senior Katie McDonald.

“I like running the class because I know without a sense of direction, we would just be running around making stupid random videos. It’s fun, but we still need a sort of structure,” McDonald said.

This leadership role has aided in McDonald feeling much more connected to her peers and class as a whole: “Once I was assigned this role in the class, I was able to get to know literally every single person in the class and what their strengths are and what their skills are, and what they can do best.”

McDonald has been able to bring the class more together as a team with the help of the broadcasting community. She feels that she would not have been able to do any of this if it were not for the help of everyone doing their part. Having everyone work as a team has made it a fun experience for everyone with the inclusion of ideas, different editing or filming methods, and learning about and connecting with each other and the creation of a community-based environment.

Broadcasting students express their enjoyment for the creation of episodes through their creativity within ideas and performance. Senior Jack Strickland even joined broadcast not only for sociality, but because he’s a “creative person” and wanted to embody this creativity as well as contribute to the broadcast production. 

Senior student Ailin Zhang agreed that the creativity aspect created an engaging environment for students to enjoy. “I think [the best part] is actually making the videos. Being there, acting it out, and also helping the camera crew is really fun.” 

Zhang loves the creativity that all the students put forth into all of the videos – for example, all the ideas for videos, all the editing, and all the dedication and commitment. She took a love for “learning how to edit the videos” in particular.

Learning how to complete new tasks such as filming, editing, and interviewing people help improve not only broadcast students’ social skills through confidence-building by reaching out to peers, but improves students’ outlook on their community and optimism for others.

As well as improved confidence and optimism, broadcast and the work that completes the episodes enhances student resilience. Tracewell credited this resilience for the success of the broadcast this year. 

“We’re extremely successful because they’ve shifted to whatever’s come up and they’ve adapted. That’s the beauty of young people is that they’re much more resilient than my generation or older,” Tracewell explained.

Especially returning to school from a pandemic that has taken a toll on student success and mental health, this resilience and the joy that broadcast brings becomes all the more important to students who produce and watch the episodes.

McDonald emphasized that broadcast “is the best, it’s probably the most fun class ever,” especially in regards to how creative and optimistic everybody has become over the past school year, and she “wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.” 

With Tracewell as the head leader and McDonald as the class president, there couldn’t be a better combination to run the class – with how outgoing and courageous McDonald is as well as how relaxed and calm-minded Tracewell is, students receive the best of both worlds. 

As McDonald reiterated, “From such a bleak time, [we] just remind people that it’s okay to laugh. It’s okay to breathe. It’s okay to smile…we want to give students that.”