The “Roar” staff missed its print deadline last week, causing an article about the District 5 School Board election to have to be removed from the upcoming issue.

“The article went over both of the school board candidates,” said Auston Gonzalez, the magazine’s editor in chief. “But since we missed the deadline and the election already, we have to take it out now obviously, because it’s irrelevant.”

The deadline in question was last Thursday, done so the “Roar” issues could be distributed on Monday, the day before the election. The staff wanted the article to inform students about the candidates and help them decide who to vote for.

“Two years ago, when school board candidates were running for election, our publication did a story when they brought in all the people running and interviewed them, and then they chose a candidate as a staff to endorse,” managing editor Valery Linkenhoker said. That was our plan for this year as well. This way the kids who read the paper not only got our perspective on who we wanted to win, but also got to make their own decisions based on the interviews.”

The two District 5 candidates — Katye Campbell and Kelly Damerow  — were interviewed by the Roar’s staff. Campbell came to the campus for an in-person interview, but Kelly Damerow wasn’t able to come to the school, so an interview was conducted over the phone. While Campbell ultimately won the election, Damerow left a good impression on Linkenhoker.

“[Damerow] understands that parent-student relationships are important and she understands that parents essentially have the right to declare what their students want or need to learn, but she also understands that students have a voice,” she said. “Whereas with Katye, when she came in, she was saying ‘Absolutely not, parents have everything.’ And that didn’t sit well with me. I’m not in favor of bringing guns onto campus, and Katye was talking about that.”

Linkenhoker called missing the deadline disappointing.

“It’s rough,” she said. “I was so excited for the election issue because – it’s the ‘Roar,’ it’s the voice of the students, and I was excited to have our voice be heard. Especially because so many more young people are voting. That’s what was most disappointing, that we didn’t get the chance to possibly change adults’ minds — because even adults aren’t fully informed.”

This isn’t the only consequence of the missed deadline though. A little tension between the staff  and their printing company was another result.

“We told the printing company that we were going to go to press on a certain day, and then obviously we didn’t, so they kind of got mad at us,” Gonzalez said.

The printing schedule has been affected by the missed deadline as well. Since they were unable get the issue out to the school this week, the staff is aiming to have its second issue out before Thanksgiving break.

“We’re going to try to go to press by sometime next week. I want to say…Thursday, so that means we wouldn’t get it until the day that we go to Thanksgiving break, I think,” Gonzalez said.

And now that the article isn’t getting printed in the issue, there’s extra space in the Roar for more content, which the staff is already speculating over how to use.

“We’re looking at swim stuff because the swim team went to districts and did really well,” Gonzalez said.

Although the article won’t be in the upcoming Roar issue, a part of it can still be found on this website. The interview with the candidates, titled “Get to know the district five school board representative candidates”, has been posted here. The staff’s editorial endorsement has not been.

By Surina Venkat