Los Banos school board coverage wins top journalism honor
Vikaas Shanker of the Los Banos Enterprise, the sister publication of the Merced Sun-Star, received the highest honor at the 29th annual George F. Gruner Awards for his public service coverage of the Los Banos school board.
The awards for work produced in 2016 were announced Thursday night at a reception at the Fresno Art Museum.
The competition also recognizes best news story, best sports story, best feature, best photo, and best column or editorial, attracting a total of 100 entries from 21 San Joaquin Valley newspapers. Categories are divided for daily newspapers with circulations of more than 50,000, those of less than 50,000 and non-dailies.
Merced Sun-Star and Enterprise staff members also won honors for news, sports and feature coverage as well as editorials and photography.
The prizes honor George F. Gruner, whose 46-year career included 33 years at The Fresno Bee. He retired in 1988 as executive editor.
Speaking to the journalists gathered for the awards presentation, Gruner said their mission matters more than ever.
“In this time of assaults on the media, cries of bias, allegations of fake news and alternate facts, and even charges the press is an enemy of the American people,” he said, “your job is the same now as it was then: the pursuit of truth.”
Shanker, who joined the Enterprise in March 2016, won first place for meritorious public service by a weekly for his coverage of a tumultuous period for the school board that included federal charges being filed against board member Tommy Jones on suspicion of bribing another member to win a construction deal for Merced contractor Greg Opinski, a trustee with the Merced Union High School District who also faces criminal charges. Jones was among three Los Banos board members who were unseated in November’s elections.
In honoring Shanker, the judges said: “At some point in their careers, most reporters will find themselves reporting on a school board or city council that is riven by politics and personalities. This reporter did a noteworthy job of giving readers a clear back story and getting down to the issues, the missteps and the consequences to the schools and the community they serve. Yes, it’s a mess – and the newspaper helped us understand why.”
Other winners of Gruner Awards for Public Service were Barbara Anderson, BoNhia Lee and Andrea Castillo for their coverage of Fresno’s substandard rental housing; and Jim Houck, Juan Villa, Luis Hernandez and Calley Cederlof of the Tulare Advance-Register for their investigation of construction projects at Tulare Regional Medical Center.
Honorable mention in the public service category went to the Selma Enterprise-Kingsburg Recorder and the Mariposa Gazette.
Other honors won by the Sun-Star and the Enterprise:
News – Honorable mention: Rob Parsons, Michelle Morgante, Brianna Calix and Monica Velez of the Merced Sun-Star for their coverage of an August bus crash that killed four people.
Sports – Honorable mention: Shawn Jensen of the Merced Sun-Star for his story “Warren overcomes nerves in Merced’s football win over Gregori,” and Sean Lynch for his story “Longtime friends Caropreso and Stubbs face off for the first time” for the Los Banos Enterprise.
Features – First place: Michelle Morgante of the Merced Sun-Star for her story “Family of student who led UC Merced attack unable to find answers.”
Editorials – First place: Mike Dunbar of the Merced Sun-Star for his opinion piece “Opinski, Jones must quit board positions without delay.”
News photo – First place: Gene Lieb of the Los Banos Enterprise. Honorable mention: Andrew Kuhn of the Merced Sun-Star.
Sports photo – First place: Kuhn and Lieb.
The Gruner Awards are sponsored by The Bee and the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Fresno State.
The judging is done by a group of professional journalists outside the Valley.
The Gruner Awards are funded by the Central Valley Foundation and the Central Valley Community Foundation.
This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Los Banos school board coverage wins top journalism honor."