The student-run Patriot Paper is bringing news to the halls of SES

The Owen News and the Spencer Evening World have a new competitor in the newspaper game. The Patriot Paper, created and published by Spencer Elementary School (SES) sixth graders, is now here to supplement the news landscape of Spencer. The Patriot Paper’s inaugural 2026 edition features profiles of teachers and students, Owen Valley sports reports, advice and environmental columns, animal facts, and comics.

The Patriot Paper is published by students in an enrichment period for selected sixth graders at SES. These students pick their own topics to pursue, such as sports, teacher interviews, or animal fact reports based on a framework created by SES teacher Shelby Sego. The framework is meant to give students ideas about what they should write about, mainly profile stories and sports coverage, but students are also free to pursue topics that they find interest in. Sego noted that, this year some students have branched out from the typical topics seen in the Patriot Papers of the past.

“This year we actually had some [students] that wanted to do research on pollution and how that affects local ecosystems. So it was kind of neat to see that,” she said. “As long as [they] can show me that [they] can back this up then they can write about it. They even had an advice column about how to handle stress.”

The Patriot Paper has existed in some form for the last several years but is back this year after a 2025 school year hiatus. Sego has been overseeing it for the last four years.

“Over the years, I will say they've gotten better and a little bit more creative,” she said. “They’ve gotten a lot more polished.”

Sego says that even though the paper is “by students, for students,” some of their biggest fans are the other teachers at SES.

“We'll double check, make sure everything looks good, and then share it to the whole faculty so they can take a look,” she said. “A lot of these students [faculty] had in previous years, so they get to see their stuff, they get to see their writings and see how they've grown. And it's also kind of fun just to look back and say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember [that] student.’”

The Owen News staff looks forward to hearing more from the Patriot Paper and wish the students luck covering the halls of SES and beyond!