A rural newspaper and community school district join forces to improve literacy outcomes and strengthen community ties

Middle schoolers walked purposefully through the halls of The Sampson Independent on an otherwise quiet afternoon. They found themselves sitting in a bright office lined with windows on one wall and newspaper clippings on the other. Anthony Goodman, editor of The Sampson Independent, stood patiently across from them as the students peppered him with questions.

“Who are you? Where were you born?” the students asked. 

“I’m from Sampson County. I’m the editor here at The Sampson Independent,” answered Goodman.

The students continued their line of questioning: “What do you do for the paper?

Goodman explained his role as editor of the paper. He was formerly a coach, then a reporter, then a sports editor. His career has taken a few turns, but the journey has taught him many lessons, which he hopes to share with the junior reporters.

“As an editor, I have to cultivate and watch over everything that’s being printed out of our publication, kind of like the last eyes on any type of article that is put out. I also write myself, and therefore I have to have our publisher look over me, but my main job is to look after my writers and make sure that everything they’ve printed is the best that it can be,” answered Goodman.

The students are middle schoolers from Roseboro-Salemburg Middle School, one of four schools in Sampson County Schools that are part of the Lakewood District Community Schools Initiative. This year, they are in a junior reporters class supported by the Lakewood Community Literacy Partnership.

The partnership

The Lakewood Community Literacy Partnership is a collaboration of the Simple Gifts Fund, North Carolina Community Schools Coalition, The Sampson Independent, and the Lakewood School District in Sampson County.

Thanks to the partnership, every student in grades pre-K through 12th in the Lakewood School District is receiving a free copy of The Sampson Independent weekly throughout the 2026-27 school year. The purpose of this initiative is to strengthen literacy while building meaningful connections among schools, families, and the broader local community. 

Throughout the 2026-27 school year, students and educators across the Lakewood district’s four schools will receive a newspaper every Wednesday. By reading the newspaper weekly, the partners hope students are learning about different types of writing, expanding their vocabularies, and engaging with current events before taking the newspaper home to share with their families. By building a bridge between schools and families through a shared reading experience, the initiative hopes to foster a stronger connection between home, school, and the community.

Every nine weeks, the partnership will also publish The Leopard Leader, an eight-page magazine insert featuring student work and reporting. The magazine will give families an opportunity to see their children’s accomplishments in print and learn more about the activities happening throughout the district.

Members of the junior reporters class at Roseboro-Salemburg Middle School will be the primary contributors to The Leopard Leader magazine, but all Lakewood students are encouraged to submit artwork, writing, and news about events in their communities.

Each week, the junior reporters will learn the fundamentals of journalism from Sherry Matthews, publisher of The Sampson Independent; Carla Sutton, educator liaison for the initiative; and art teacher Jemeikka Jasso-Steele. Students have already interviewed several community leaders, and their stories will be featured in issues of The Sampson Independent throughout the 2026-27 school year.

Connecting communities

Matthews remembers seeing copies of The Sampson Independent around her house starting as early as elementary school. Her mother read the newspaper. Her father read the newspaper. Their parents read the newspaper. The newspaper, according to Matthews, brought communities together. 

“I think it’s because the paper drew the communities together. Back in the day, even when I first came here in the ’90s, we still had what we call county correspondents, and they were from every corner of the community. They wrote little stories about who was sick, who had died, celebrations, family reunions, and people thrived on reading that,” said Matthews. “It baffled me to begin with, but when I started looking at it, I thought, ‘Well, this is how the newspaper connects these communities in ways that other things, before social media, could not.’ And I believe it still does today.”

She’s hoping the Lakewood Community Literacy Partnership can bring back a stronger sense of connection between schools, the newspaper, and the greater community. She’s spent the bulk of her career, more than 30 years, working for The Sampson Independent. Even as a veteran in the field, she still credits her success to a few teachers she had back when she was a student in Sampson County Schools.

“I loved to write, and in the eighth grade, I had a teacher who saw that love in me, and she just encouraged it,” Matthews said. “And then in 10th grade, I had another teacher who did the same thing. So they just instilled in me that my abilities were good enough to actually be a writer and that I could do something with writing. I credit them for everything about what I do because they gave me the belief that I could take what I love and make it into a career.” 

This community is important to Matthews and her partner on this project, Carla Sutton. Sutton recently retired from Hobbton High School after a 30-year career with Sampson County Schools. As the educator liaison leading the project, Sutton is responsible for coordinating efforts between the schools and the newspaper. Even though Sutton spent decades working in education, this role is her first time working in a community school.

The community school model

The Lakewood School District, made up of Salemburg Elementary School, Roseboro Elementary School, Roseboro-Salemburg Middle School, and Lakewood High School, is part of the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition.

The North Carolina Community Schools Coalition strives to help schools support the whole child through increased resources for academic, social, emotional, and physical well-being. The coalition does that through offering food and health resources, after-school and summer programs, parent workshops, community events, and academic and mentorship support.

The 2026-27 school year is the Lakewood School District’s first year as part of the North Carolina Community Schools Coalition. The district partners with 15 community organizations to support approximately 1,750 students across four schools, according to their website.

“They have so many programs that are offered and so many opportunities for those kids to see and to know what to dream for, and I think that’s a real plus for them,” said Sutton. “There are so many opportunities to do things outside of school to learn more about what’s going on in the real world.”

Matthews and Sutton hope the partnership will continue to be successful and serve as a potential model for other partnerships across their district and beyond. You can follow the journey of the junior reporters and The Lakewood Community Literacy Partnership on The Sampson Independent’s website.

“I love newspapers and I love kids, and I believe in this community,” said Matthews.

Editor’s note: The Anonymous Trust supports the work of EdNC.