If you want to know what's going on at St. Philip Neri School in Linthicum, don't depend on word of mouth; pick up the Flyer.
The three-page student newsletter started in October as an after-school project to let parents know what was going in the school community. It is run by a staff of seventh- and eighth-graders, with Cynthia Showalter, 44, as managing editor.
"There's a lot of neat things that go on at school, and we want parents to be more aware of it," said Mrs. Showalter, who teaches first grade and is the school's computer coordinator.
The Flyer is distributed through the mail and has a circulation of 450. It features stories on student government, teachers, short items on classroom and school activities and "Value of the Month," a regular column by Angela Bryl, the 12-year-old assistant editor from Linthicum.
In this month's issue, she writes about "love." Part of her column reads: "Love is stronger than caring and kindness and it goes deeper than loyalty and respect."
It wasn't easy getting a job on the newspaper. The students had to file applications and write a story on deadline. Those stories ranged from articles on Cuban refugees to articles on gun control. Katherine Pacheco, 14, of Severn wrote about snowball stands.
"It was sort of describing how eager kids are to go to the snowball stand and how inviting it can be in the hot weather," said the eighth-grader.
Edward Schultheis, 13, of Glen Burnie is editor of the Flyer. Though he sometimes writes stories, his main job is to make sure the office runs smoothly and that reporters work hard and meet deadlines.
Sometimes, the job's demands are enough to make him feel as if he is "everywhere at one time," he said.
Also on his seven-member staff are reporters Katie Basciano, 12, of Queenstown; Justin Cuffley, 13, of Baltimore; Holly McIntyre, 12, of Brooklyn Park; and Kelli Kulesz, 12, of Glen Burnie.
Once a week, the Flyer's staff meets to pitch ideas and to discuss the next issue and the progress of stories.
The students started publishing their newsletter in October. Stories are written on the school's computers at school or home computers.
The students use ready-made generic art for graphics, but not for long.
The Home School Association, the equivalent of a PTA, will soon give the students a camera designed for computers that doesn't use conventional film. The images can be sent directly to the computer, ready for layout, said Mrs. Showalter.
"I'm trying to get the students integrated with the computer and the newspapers so that when they go to high school, maybe they can join the yearbook staff," she said.
Mrs. Showalter, who teaches first-grade and is the school's computer coordinator, said that working on the Flyer has been a learning experience for her because she had not previously worked on a newspaper.
Some of the students said they wanted to be on the Flyer's staff because they like to write but that they weren't sure they wanted to be journalists.
Others said they had tried their hands at creating newspapers with which to entertain family and friends before joining the Flyer.
Angela Bryl said she and a cousin created a newspaper called Kid's Chronicles with which to entertain their families.
Her mother, Barbara Bryl, said working on the Flyer is teaching her daughter how to pace herself and meet deadlines.
The experience also has "given my daughter an opportunity to work more closely with computers and to see how newspapers operate," she said.