What’s up, Spartans. It’s Rohey Barrow here, the editor in chief for SNN this year, and I want to welcome you all to the second and last edition of our print newspaper.

U n f o r t u n a t e l y, when I say last, I don’t mean of this year, I mean forever.

The Tampa Bay Times, a business partner for the Center for Journalism and Multimedia, has been printing our newspaper for free since 2009, but they’ve decided to sell their printing plant and have their newspapers printed at a facility in Lakeland, which means they can no longer print SNN.

This decision has struck a nerve with everyone on our editors’ team because of the fun times we’ve had putting it together and the great feeling when it’s done and we get to pass them around the school. Seeing everyone flip through the news pages and check what’s popular on the Trends page while walking through the halls will forever warm our hearts and make the weeks of hard work worth it.

But, like way too many people say, when one thing comes to an end, something new begins.

Instead of struggling to scrap funds together for future print editions, we’re launching a brand new website that’ll be updated daily. This is the beginning of something great, because our readers can get a mini paper every day and of course all the photos can be shown in their full greatness and color. This year is coming to an end fast, and all of us, especially the seniors, are unsure about what events are and aren’t happening so the website will be a good place to check for updates. Look for an announcement after Spring Break on when this new site will launch.

Like always we have some interesting content for you all to catch up on including the fact that Lakewood is going to be under renovation again. We spent what feels like forever dodging tarps and taking different routes to go to class during the Hub’s reconstruction and now C-wing is getting an upgrade too. (To learn more about the renovation, see page 3.)

We welcomed a lot of new teachers at the beginning of this school year, but it’s impossible to forget the ones that left last year. SNN reporters checked on former assistant principal Susan Alvaro, history teacher Jessica Herring and English teacher Kate Drof. (To see where they are now, check page 6.)

There’s not much to be excited about these days due to the coronavirus, but when a new console comes out the world goes crazy. The PS5 came out in November and sold out in just a few minutes but luckily one of our reporters got a hold of it and wrote a review. (Check it out on page 4.)

Let me remind you all – yes, teachers, too – to send us your opinions on anything school related or not and you might see yourself featured on the opinion page on our new website. Just shoot us an email to [email protected], and it would be much appreciated.

We put this newspaper together so that you will know what’s going on in our Lakewood community, so please let us know what you think and share it with your friends.