Reporter staffer wins award for schools coverage – By Reporter Staff
For the second time in as many years, Reporter Staff Writer Richard Bammer has been named a winner of a writing competition sponsored by the California Teachers Association.
A panel of professional journalists cited his six stories as examples of continuous coverage of educational news for a John Swett Award for Media Excellence. He competed in the category of Community Daily Newspaper, publications with up to 100,000 subscribers.
Bammer submitted articles that gave a wide-ranging snapshot of where his beat takes him, from a financial literacy program and Vacaville Unified School District’s hostile act drill to VUSD’s Early College High School program and the shocking rise in the number of Solano County students technically classified as homeless.
Additionally, he submitted stories about Vacaville High’s physics students putting their applied science and mathematics skills to work by building trebuchets, or medieval siege machines, and the struggles of Fairfield parents Debbie and Sydney Salazar, whose son, Joshua, faces a lifelong challenge with dyslexia and the couple’s hope to form a Solano County chapter of the Decoding Dyslexia support group.
“To be honest, I am never certain, day in and out, what kind of impact my education beat reporting has on the local community,” said Bammer, a Reporter staff writer for nearly 20 years. “Of course, it’s nice to be honored, and I am grateful to the CTA for the recognition and especially grateful for careful editing on deadline.”
He will receive his latest Swett Award, the highest honor the CTA can bestow for excellence in educational reporting, during a ceremony and reception May 30 in Los Angeles.
Last year, Bammer won a Swett Award for a series of columns on educational issues.
