Beat Setup Guide

---
name: beat-setup-guide
description: "Generate a beat setup guide for a journalist starting a new coverage area: source map, document inventory, recurring calendar, key contacts, institutional landscape, and a 30-day ramp-up plan."
status: stable
category: magazine-journalism
subcategory: ideation
version: 1.0
eval_score: 4.5
tags: [journalism, beat-reporting, sources, contacts, planning, onboarding]
---
# Beat Setup Guide

## What This Skill Does
Generates a structured setup guide for a journalist taking over or launching a new beat — covering the source map, document inventory, recurring calendar, key contacts, institutional landscape, story seeds, and a 30-day ramp-up plan.

## When To Use This Skill
- You are taking over a beat from a departing reporter and received no handover notes
- You are launching a new beat that your newsroom has never staffed before
- You are moving from one publication to another and need to rebuild your source network from scratch in a new geography or subject area
- An editor has asked you to scope a beat before the newsroom commits to staffing it
- You are a freelancer developing a specialty area and need a systematic approach to building coverage infrastructure

## What You Need To Provide
**Required:** The beat description (subject area and scope); geographic scope (city, region, state, national); publication type and audience (daily newspaper, alt-weekly, trade publication, digital-first, magazine); any known major institutions, agencies, or organizations the beat covers
**Optional:** How many institutions or jurisdictions fall within the beat; whether a predecessor held the beat and what (if anything) was handed over; your existing familiarity with the subject area; known upcoming events or deadlines in the first 90 days; any specific editorial priorities your editor has flagged; the size of the newsroom (affects how much you can delegate)

## How the Assistant Approaches This
1. Maps the institutional landscape first: who holds power, who holds information, and where the two overlap. Identifies the formal decision-making structure (elected officials, boards, appointed administrators) and the informal power structure (lobbyists, major donors, union leaders, community organizers, longtime staff who outlast their bosses). For each institution on the beat, traces the governance chain — who appoints whom, who controls the budget, who sets the agenda — and notes where formal authority diverges from actual influence.

2. Builds a tiered source map from that landscape — daily contacts (the people you will call every week as a matter of routine), weekly check-ins (sources you touch base with regularly but not constantly), and occasional sources (experts, advocates, or officials you reach when a specific story requires them). Each tier includes the role, why they matter, and a suggested approach strategy drawn from the Source Approach Reference below.

3. Creates a document inventory: the public records, reports, budgets, audits, meeting minutes, filings, and datasets a beat reporter should collect in the first month and monitor on a recurring basis. Specifies where to find each document and how frequently it is updated. Prioritizes documents by what they unlock — some records open doors to other records.

4. Builds a calendar of recurring events: board meetings, budget cycles, election dates, report release schedules, legislative sessions, conference dates, and seasonal patterns that generate news on this beat. Notes which events are predictable story generators and which require advance preparation to cover well.

5. Identifies key contacts by role — not by name, since names change — with a note on what each role controls and how to approach the person in that role for the first time. Groups contacts by institution and marks which roles overlap in influence across institutions.

6. Generates 5–10 starter story ideas seeded from the beat structure itself: stories that arise naturally from the documents, power dynamics, and information gaps identified in the guide. Each seed includes a clear question the story would answer and a specific document or source to start with.

7. Produces a 30-day ramp-up plan organized by week, with specific daily or multi-day tasks that build on each other — reading before calling, calling before writing, writing before pitching. The plan accounts for the publication type and newsroom size: a solo reporter at a daily paper has a different first month than a reporter at a weekly magazine with a research staff.

## Source Approach Strategy Reference

Every source in the guide includes an approach strategy. Those strategies draw from the patterns below — tailored to the specific role, institution, and beat dynamics.

**Government and institutional officials (superintendents, agency heads, elected officials, university presidents)**
- Request a background meeting, not an interview. Phrase it as orientation: "I've just started covering this beat and I want to understand the institution before I write about it." This lowers the official's guard and produces better information than an adversarial first meeting.
- Read the official's last public speech, annual report, or budget presentation before the meeting. Reference something specific. Officials respond to reporters who have done the reading.
- Do not promise favorable coverage. Do not ask for it. The goal of the first meeting is to establish that you are serious, informed, and fair.
- Time the first meeting within days of starting the beat. Waiting signals either disinterest or that you are building a story behind their back. Neither serves the relationship.
- Bring no notebook to the first meeting unless the official is comfortable with it. Ask at the start: "Do you mind if I take notes?" If they hesitate, put the notebook away. You will remember the important things.

**Communications directors and public information officers**
- This is a service relationship, not a source relationship. The PIO exists to manage your access. Treat them with professional courtesy and they will return your calls faster. Treat them as an obstacle and they will route you to voicemail.
- Introduce yourself in person when possible — a face makes you a person, not a byline. Ask for the distribution list for public notices, board packets, and press releases.
- Understand the PIO's constraints: they answer to their boss, not to you. When the PIO says "I need to check on that," they are usually telling the truth. Give them reasonable deadlines and follow up when those deadlines pass.
- Never go around the PIO to their boss without informing them first — unless the story requires it. If you go around them, expect the relationship to cool.

**Union leaders and labor representatives**
- Union leaders are political operators. They have an agenda, they have grievances, and they will try to use you as a channel. This is fine — every source has motives. Your job is to understand the motive and weigh the information accordingly.
- Meet off-campus or off-site. Union leaders who are seen meeting with reporters face internal pressure from both their membership and management.
- Lead with working conditions, not with management's framing of the issues. If you ask "What do you think of the superintendent's plan?" you get the union's press release. If you ask "What are your members dealing with right now?" you get stories.
- Union leaders know more than they tell you on first contact. Build the relationship over months. The best information comes after they trust your judgment and your track record.

**Frontline workers (teachers, nurses, social workers, patrol officers, adjunct faculty)**
- These sources take the most time to develop and produce the most valuable information. They see what administrators do not. They have no PR filter.
- Approach through the union rep, through a trusted intermediary (another reporter, a community member), or by showing up at a public event where they are present. Cold calls to a school teacher's desk rarely work.
- Protect these sources aggressively. A teacher who talks to a reporter about staffing problems may face retaliation from a principal. Never quote a frontline worker without discussing what they are comfortable with on the record.
- The first conversation is not for quotes. It is for orientation. Ask what their day looks like. Ask what has changed in the last year. Ask what nobody from outside the building understands about their work.

**Community members and activists**
- Show up before you call. Attend the board meeting, the town hall, the community forum. The parent who speaks during public comment does not know you yet. If you introduce yourself after a meeting where you were visibly present, you have already demonstrated interest.
- Do not use the phrase "I want to get your perspective." It signals that you are collecting quotes for a story you have already framed. Instead: "I'm trying to understand what's happening here. Can you help me?"
- Community sources test you. They will tell you something and wait to see how you use it. If you handle the first story fairly, the second conversation will be more open.
- Respect the power imbalance. A community activist's time is not compensated. A government official gets paid to talk to you. Adjust your expectations and your gratitude accordingly.

**Researchers, academics, and policy analysts**
- Read their work before you call. This is the single most effective approach strategy for any academic source. A cold call from a reporter who has read their paper gets a callback. A cold call from a reporter who says "I'm doing a story about X, can you comment?" gets ignored.
- Ask about their findings, not about "the issue." Researchers respond to specificity. "Your study found X — I'm curious about the methodology behind that finding" produces a better conversation than "What do you think about Y?"
- Researchers have different incentives than officials or activists. Many want their work to reach a broader audience and will spend time explaining it if they believe you will get the science right. The risk is oversimplification — ask them to flag where you are in danger of getting it wrong.
- University researchers may need to route press inquiries through their institution's communications office. Ask upfront. Some will talk to you directly; some will not.

**Attorneys and legal professionals**
- Attorneys in private practice may talk if the subject is not about an active client. Attorneys in government practice (prosecutors, public defenders, city attorneys) are usually routed through their agency's PIO.
- Former government attorneys — retired prosecutors, former agency counsel — are among the most valuable sources on any beat. They understand the system and are no longer constrained by it. Find them through the state bar directory or LinkedIn; many are now in private practice.
- Frame your question as a system question, not a case question. "How does the procurement process work?" gets an answer. "Did this contract violate procurement rules?" gets "no comment" until you have earned the relationship.
- Qui tam (whistleblower) attorneys maintain networks of former employees and insiders. In certain beats — healthcare, government contracting, financial regulation — these attorneys are the most efficient path to frontline sources.

**Elected officials and board members**
- Elected officials operate on two timelines: the policy calendar and the election calendar. What they tell you depends on where they are in both cycles. An official facing re-election in six months says different things than one with three years left in their term.
- Board members (school boards, planning commissions, housing authority boards) are often part-time volunteers with day jobs. Reach them by phone or email outside of meetings. Their availability is limited and their patience for long conversations is shorter than a full-time official's.
- Split votes on any board are story leads. When a board votes 4–3 on something, call the dissenting members and ask why they voted no. The minority opinion is often more candid than the majority.
- Approach the newest board member within your first two weeks. First-term officials are still learning the institution and are often more willing to share observations than longtime members who have developed institutional loyalty.

**Data and records custodians (clerks, FOIA officers, institutional research staff)**
- These are not sources in the traditional sense — they do not give you opinions or insider information. They give you documents, data, and institutional knowledge about how the institution's records are organized. That knowledge is worth its own relationship.
- Introduce yourself early and learn the records system. Ask: "What records do you maintain? How are they organized? What is the fastest way to get routine requests fulfilled?" A FOIA officer who knows you by name processes your requests faster than a FOIA officer who does not.
- When a records request is denied or delayed, ask for the specific statutory exemption being cited. Do not argue the exemption on the phone — respond in writing with a polite but specific appeal citing the applicable public records statute. Records custodians often deny requests because they were told to, not because they believe the exemption applies.
- Institutional research staff at colleges and universities are data custodians who also understand what the data means. They prepare the enrollment reports, the accreditation data, and the institutional dashboards. They rarely get press calls and often welcome the chance to explain what the numbers show.

## Beat Adaptation Notes

The seven output sections (Institutional Landscape, Source Map, Document Inventory, Calendar, Key Contacts, Story Seeds, 30-Day Plan) adapt to the specific beat. Below are notes on how the structure shifts for common beat types — not full guides, but signposts for what changes.

**City government / municipal beat**
- Institutional landscape centers on the city council, mayor's office, and city manager (if applicable). The budget is the spine of the beat. Zoning, land use, and development decisions generate the most reader-facing stories. The informal power structure includes developers, law firms with city contracts, and neighborhood associations. Pay attention to who donates to council campaigns and who appears before the planning commission — the overlap reveals where private money shapes public decisions.
- Source map: city clerk, council aides (often more accessible than council members and closer to the policy details), department heads (public works, planning, police chief, fire chief), city auditor or inspector general, neighborhood association leaders, local government attorneys in private practice (former city attorneys are valuable background sources).
- Key documents: city budget, council agendas and minutes, zoning applications and variances, city audit reports, labor contracts for public employee unions, lobbying disclosures, campaign finance reports for council members, capital improvement plans.
- Calendar: council meetings (typically weekly or biweekly), budget hearings (spring), election cycles, planning commission meetings, zoning board of appeals meetings, quarterly financial reports.
- Story starter: compare the capital improvement plan from three years ago to what was actually built. The gap is a story about priorities, cost overruns, and broken promises.

**Criminal justice beat**
- Institutional landscape spans law enforcement, prosecution, courts, defense, and corrections — five institutions with conflicting incentives. The courthouse is the center of gravity. The jail is the story nobody else is covering. Understand who appoints the police chief (mayor or city manager), who elects or appoints the district attorney, and who controls the jail (county sheriff, usually elected). Each of these governance structures creates different accountability dynamics.
- Source map: court clerk, prosecutors' PIO, public defender's office, bail bondsmen, victim advocates, defense attorneys in private practice, probation and parole officers. Defense attorneys who work the courthouse daily are the single best source on the criminal justice beat — they see the system from the inside, and many will talk on background. Retired judges are another underused source — they understand sentencing patterns and court culture and are no longer constrained by judicial ethics rules on press contact.
- Key documents: court dockets and case filings, jail population reports, use-of-force logs, officer disciplinary records (where public records law allows), sentencing data by charge and demographic, grand jury presentments, inspector general or oversight board reports, police department annual reports, jail inspection reports (state and federal).
- Calendar: grand jury terms, judicial election cycles, police oversight board meetings, jail inspection schedules, major trial dates, police academy graduation dates (new officer cohorts), union contract negotiations for police and corrections officers.
- Story starter: pull sentencing data for the same charge across different judges. Sentencing disparities between judges for identical charges in the same jurisdiction are common and rarely reported.

**Healthcare beat**
- Institutional landscape includes hospitals (nonprofit and for-profit), insurance companies, public health agencies, medical schools, and professional associations. Revenue flows are complex — follow the money from insurer to provider to patient. Nonprofit hospitals receive tax exemptions in exchange for community benefit spending; whether that spending matches the tax break is a story in every market.
- Source map: hospital PIOs, county health department director, state medical board staff, patient advocacy organizations, malpractice attorneys, nursing union leaders, hospital chaplains (often aware of systemic problems nobody else will discuss), EMS paramedics (they see the system's failures at the point of contact — ambulance diversion, ER wait times, patient dumping).
- Key documents: hospital financial disclosures (nonprofit 990 forms show executive compensation and community benefit spending; for-profit SEC filings show profit margins), state health department inspection reports, CMS quality scores (Hospital Compare), certificate-of-need applications, malpractice settlement records, community health needs assessments (required every three years for nonprofit hospitals).
- Calendar: flu season and annual public health campaigns, open enrollment periods, state legislative session (healthcare bills), hospital board meetings, accreditation site visits (Joint Commission), community health needs assessment publication cycle (every three years).
- Story starter: compare a nonprofit hospital's tax exemption value to its community benefit spending. The IRS Form 990 Schedule H reports both. In many markets, the tax break exceeds the charity care.

**Environment and energy beat**
- Institutional landscape spans regulatory agencies (EPA, state DEQ), energy companies, environmental advocacy groups, and affected communities. Permit applications and enforcement actions are the document backbone. The revolving door between industry and regulatory agencies is a structural feature of this beat — former regulators now working for the companies they once regulated, and vice versa.
- Source map: state environmental agency PIOs and inspectors, industry lobbyists, environmental attorneys (both plaintiff-side and defense), community groups near industrial sites, academic researchers in environmental science and public health, retired EPA or state agency staff (who understand the enforcement process and are no longer constrained by agency communication policies).
- Key documents: air and water quality monitoring data (EPA databases), permit applications and renewals, enforcement actions and consent decrees, environmental impact statements, Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data, state energy commission filings, utility rate cases, Superfund site status reports, brownfield redevelopment records.
- Calendar: permit renewal cycles, utility rate case hearings, EPA rulemaking comment periods, state environmental commission meetings, legislative session, Superfund site five-year review cycles.
- Story starter: map every facility in your coverage area that reports to the Toxic Release Inventory. Plot them against census tract demographics. The correlation between pollution exposure and income is a story in nearly every geography.

**Business and economy beat**
- Institutional landscape includes local employers, chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, workforce boards, and state regulators. The beat is often defined by what the largest employers do — hiring, layoffs, expansions, closures. But the more original stories come from small and mid-size businesses, where closures and expansions affect neighborhoods directly and where data is harder to come by.
- Source map: chamber of commerce staff, economic development agency directors, commercial real estate brokers (who know what companies are leasing, expanding, or shrinking before announcements), workforce development board staff, state labor department economist, bankruptcy attorneys, small business development center (SBDC) counselors, restaurant and retail association directors.
- Key documents: commercial real estate reports (from major brokerages — typically published quarterly), state employment data (Bureau of Labor Statistics), SEC filings for publicly traded local companies, bankruptcy filings, small business loan data (SBA), tax increment financing (TIF) district reports, incentive agreements between government and companies, state unemployment insurance data, wage and hour complaint records.
- Calendar: monthly jobs reports (BLS), quarterly earnings calls for local public companies, annual chamber of commerce economic forecasts, budget hearings for economic development incentives, state unemployment trust fund reports (quarterly).
- Story starter: pull every economic incentive deal the city or state has signed in the past five years. Compare the job-creation promises in each deal to the actual employment at each company today. The gap is a common story, and the data is public.

**Housing and real estate beat**
- Institutional landscape includes housing authorities, zoning boards, planning commissions, developers, real estate associations, tenant advocacy groups, and state housing finance agencies. Affordable housing policy is where government, private capital, and community need collide — and where the most consequential local decisions are made.
- Source map: planning commission staff, housing authority directors, tenant organizers, landlord association representatives, affordable housing developers (separate from market-rate developers — different incentive structures), housing court judges, fair housing attorneys, homeless services providers.
- Key documents: zoning maps and proposed changes, affordable housing inventory reports, housing authority waiting lists (aggregate data), eviction filings (court records), building code violation records, housing trust fund annual reports, HUD inspection scores for public housing, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) allocations.
- Calendar: planning commission meetings (monthly), housing authority board meetings, zoning amendment hearings, HUD inspection cycles, LIHTC application deadlines, point-in-time homeless count (annual, typically late January).
- Story starter: pull eviction filing data for the past three years. Map the filings by address to identify which landlords file the most evictions. The top filers are often a small number of property owners — and that concentration is a story about power, housing stability, and court resources.

**Immigration and demographics beat**
- Institutional landscape varies by geography: federal immigration courts and enforcement agencies (ICE, CBP, USCIS), state and local law enforcement, school districts (which serve undocumented students under federal law), hospitals (which provide emergency care regardless of status), and community-based organizations that provide legal aid, language services, and resettlement support.
- Source map: immigration attorneys (both private practice and nonprofit legal aid), community-based organization directors, school district ESL coordinators, hospital interpreters and patient navigators, local law enforcement PIOs (for policy on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement), faith leaders in immigrant communities, refugee resettlement agency staff.
- Key documents: immigration court case volumes and backlog data (TRAC at Syracuse University publishes this), school district enrollment data by home language, hospital uncompensated care reports, city or county policies on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement (sanctuary policies or otherwise), refugee resettlement data by nationality and destination city.
- Calendar: immigration court terms, USCIS fee schedule changes, federal immigration enforcement priority memos (released irregularly), school enrollment periods (immigrant enrollment spikes are visible), annual refugee admissions ceiling announcements.
- Story starter: pull the immigration court backlog data from TRAC for your local court. Calculate the average wait time from filing to hearing. That wait time — measured in years — is the lived experience of every case on the docket.

## First Records Requests by Beat Type

Regardless of beat, file your first records requests in the first three days. The goal is twofold: collect the documents you need, and signal to the institutions that the beat is staffed by someone who reads records.

| Beat | First Three Records Requests | Why These First |
|---|---|---|
| Education | Adopted budget; bond spending plan; teacher vacancy data by school | Budget is the spine; bond is the active story; vacancies show what the public is not being told |
| City government | City budget (current and prior year); all contracts awarded over $50K in the last 12 months; city audit reports from the last three years | Budget frames all coverage; contracts reveal spending patterns; audits flag problems the city already knows about |
| Criminal justice | Jail daily population report (last 12 months); use-of-force incident logs; sentencing data by charge and demographic | Jail population is the vital sign; use-of-force is the accountability story; sentencing data reveals disparities |
| Healthcare | Hospital community health needs assessment; state health department inspection reports (last two years); hospital financial statements (most recent fiscal year) | Needs assessment is the hospital's own diagnosis; inspections are the regulator's; financials show where the money goes |
| Environment | Active permit applications; enforcement actions in the last three years; air and water quality monitoring data for the geographic area | Permits show what is being proposed; enforcement shows what has gone wrong; monitoring data is the baseline |
| Business/economy | Tax increment financing (TIF) district annual reports; incentive agreements between city/state and private companies; commercial real estate vacancy data | TIF reports show whether economic development promises were kept; incentive agreements are taxpayer commitments; vacancy data tracks the real economy |
| Housing | Eviction filing data (last 12 months); building code violation records; housing authority waiting list aggregate data | Evictions show displacement patterns; code violations flag neglected properties; waiting lists show unmet demand |
| Immigration | Immigration court backlog data (from TRAC); school district enrollment by home language; city/county immigration enforcement cooperation policies | Court backlog is the system story; school enrollment reveals demographic change; cooperation policies define local enforcement posture |

## Building Your Beat File

The guide produces a reporting infrastructure. That infrastructure needs a home — a beat file you maintain throughout your time on the beat. The assistant's output is the seed; the beat file is the living version.

**What the beat file contains:**

*Contact sheet.* Every source you have spoken with: name, role, institution, phone, email, date of first contact, and a one-line note on what they know that matters. Update after every conversation. When you leave the beat, this sheet is the handover your successor needs — the one you did not get.

*Document archive.* Every public record you have collected, organized by institution and document type. Date-stamp each document. When a new version is released (a new budget, a new enrollment report), keep the old version — comparisons between years produce stories.

*Calendar.* The recurring calendar from the guide, plus every date you learn about as you report: contract deadlines, bond project milestones, board member term expirations, union contract renewal dates, accreditation visit schedules. A well-maintained beat calendar generates story ideas without effort — you see what is coming before it arrives.

*Story pipeline.* A running list of story ideas at different stages: seeds (ideas you have not yet reported), developing (ideas with some reporting behind them), and ready (ideas with enough reporting to pitch). Aim to have at least three developing stories at any time. When you finish one enterprise piece, move a seed into the developing column.

*Institutional org charts.* For each institution on the beat, a simple chart showing who reports to whom. Update when personnel changes happen. Org charts reveal where power concentrates and where it is diffused — both patterns generate stories.

*Meeting log.* A running summary of every board meeting, oversight committee meeting, and public hearing you attend. Not full minutes — just the decisions, the votes, the contentious moments, and the names of people who spoke. Over months, patterns emerge that are invisible in any single meeting.

**Format:** Use whatever system you maintain. A shared folder with subfolders by institution works. A spreadsheet for contacts. A calendar app with reminders. The format matters less than the discipline of updating it after every reporting day.

## First-Month Pitfalls

Common mistakes reporters make when starting a new beat. The guide is designed to prevent these, but they are worth naming.

**Writing before reading.** The single most common mistake. You arrive on the beat, an editor points you at a story, and you start calling sources before you have read the budget, the board minutes, or the accreditation report. Every source you call before reading the documents will give you the version of the story they want you to write. Read first. You will ask better questions, and sources will take you more seriously.

**Building only official sources.** The communications director, the superintendent, the PIO — these are the sources who return your calls fastest because talking to media is their job. They are not your best sources. If your source list after 30 days consists entirely of institutional spokespeople, your coverage will sound like institutional press releases. Build unofficial sources — union reps, parent activists, frontline workers, former employees — from week two onward.

**Covering meetings as events instead of processes.** A school board meeting is not a story. The decision the board made — and the months of lobbying, budgeting, and politicking that led to it — is the story. Meetings are checkpoints. The coverage lives between meetings, in the documents and conversations that precede and follow them.

**Ignoring the documents that arrive.** You file records requests in week one. Documents arrive in weeks two and three. If you do not read them immediately, they stack up and lose their value. Block time on your calendar to read records the day they arrive. If a document is large (a full budget, an accreditation self-study), schedule a two-hour block and read it as you would an assignment. Take notes. The stories are in the footnotes, the appendices, and the management letters.

**Trying to cover everything simultaneously.** You have three institutions on this beat. You cannot develop all three equally in the first month. Pick one to focus on first — usually the one with the most active story (in this example, the school district bond). Build your infrastructure there, publish your first enterprise piece, and then rotate attention to the second institution. Parallel coverage of all three institutions comes after the first 90 days, not in the first 30.

**Attending meetings without preparing.** Every board meeting has a packet published 48–72 hours before the meeting. If you show up without reading the packet, you will not understand what the board is voting on, you will not know which agenda items matter, and you will not be able to ask intelligent questions of board members afterward. Read the packet. Highlight the items that involve money, personnel, or controversy. Prepare two or three questions for after the meeting.

**Waiting too long to file records requests.** Public records requests take time — days to weeks, sometimes months. File them on day one. You cannot control how fast the institution responds, but you can control when the clock starts. The requests you file in week one may not produce documents until week three. The requests you delay until week three will not produce documents until week five or later.

## Output Format
Seven major sections: Institutional Landscape, Source Map (three tiers), Document Inventory, Recurring Calendar, Key Contacts, Story Seeds, and 30-Day Ramp-Up Plan. Total length: 1,500–2,500 words. Written for a working reporter — practical, specific, no hedging. Tone is that of a senior editor briefing a new hire: direct, experienced, occasionally blunt about what matters and what doesn't. Output ends with a "Next Step" note: the single first action to take on day one, and whether to run research-brief-creator or expert-finder-brief to develop the first story idea further.

## Quality Criteria
- [ ] Institutional landscape identifies both the formal decision-making structure and at least one informal power dynamic
- [ ] Source map includes at least three sources per tier (daily, weekly, occasional) with specific roles and approach strategies
- [ ] Document inventory names specific document types with where to find them and how often they are updated
- [ ] Calendar includes at least six recurring events with approximate dates or cycles
- [ ] Key contacts are described by role, not by name, with what each role controls
- [ ] Story seeds are specific enough to pitch — each has a clear question and a reporting starting point
- [ ] 30-day plan has week-by-week structure with tasks that build sequentially (reading before calling, calling before writing)
- [ ] No source type is described as simply "experts" or "stakeholders" — every source has a specific professional role
- [ ] Guide accounts for the specific geography and publication type provided — not a generic template
- [ ] Output is free of generic AI-template phrasing — no "delve into," "navigate the complexities of," Latinate filler verbs, restate-the-question intros, summary-of-the-summary closes, or em-dash overuse
- [ ] Output includes at least one concrete next action the user can take immediately

## Example

### Input
**Beat:** Education. Covers one school district (45 schools, 32,000 students), one community college, and one state university campus.
**Geography:** Mid-size city (population ~250,000) in a politically moderate state.
**Publication:** Daily newspaper, general audience, circulation ~80,000 print and digital combined.
**Handover:** Previous reporter left six weeks ago. No handover notes. Editor says the beat has been "quiet" since — meaning nobody has been covering it.
**Editor priorities:** The school district just passed a $180M bond measure. The community college is losing enrollment. The university's athletics budget is under scrutiny from the state legislature.
**Newsroom size:** 35-person newsroom. You are the only education reporter.

### Output

**Beat Setup Guide — Education Beat**
Mid-size city daily newspaper | One school district (45 schools, 32K students) · one community college · one state university campus

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**Institutional Landscape**

Three institutions, three governance structures, three budget processes. They rarely coordinate, but they share students, taxpayers, and political attention.

*School district.* Governed by an elected board (typically 5–7 members). The superintendent runs daily operations. A $180M bond just passed, which means construction contracts, vendor selection, and project timelines will dominate board agendas for 18–24 months. Watch who sits on the bond oversight committee — state law usually requires one, and its membership reveals whose interests are being represented.

The real power in a school district is split between three groups: the superintendent's cabinet (assistant superintendents for curriculum, finance, and operations), the teachers' union leadership, and the parent organizations at the wealthiest schools. The union contract renewal cycle is the single most predictable source of conflict; find out when the current contract expires.

*Community college.* Governed by its own elected or appointed board (varies by state). Enrollment decline is a budget crisis — community colleges are funded largely per student. The president answers to the board, but the deans control what programs survive and which get cut. When enrollment drops, the first casualties are adjunct faculty and vocational programs. The second casualties are student services. Stories live in the gap between what the college promises prospective students and what it can still deliver.

*State university campus.* Governed by a system-wide board of regents or trustees, not a local board. The campus chancellor or president has less autonomy than it appears. Budget decisions often happen at the system level, which means the local campus administration may be implementing cuts they did not choose. The athletics budget scrutiny from the legislature is a story about subsidies: how much general-fund or student-fee money flows to athletics, and whether that number is growing while academic programs are being cut. Public universities are required to report this — find the annual athletics revenue and expense report filed with the NCAA.

*The overlap.* All three institutions compete for the same local tax base. The school district's $180M bond affects property taxes, which affects how community college and university boosters approach future ballot measures. All three institutions are also pipelines — the school district feeds the community college and university. Enrollment data flowing between them tells a story about whether the pipeline is working.

---

**Source Map**

**Tier 1 — Daily contacts** (call or check in with weekly as routine, more often during active stories)

1. *School district communications director.* This person controls media access to the superintendent and board members. Build this relationship first. They will not be your best source, but they will be your most frequent point of contact. Approach: introduce yourself in person during the first week. Ask for a 20-minute orientation meeting, not an interview. Bring no notebook. Frame it as your effort to understand the institution before you write about it.

2. *School board clerk or secretary.* Controls the meeting calendar, agenda packets, and public records. Knows which board members talk to the press and which avoid it. Approach: call to introduce yourself and ask how to get on the agenda-packet distribution list. Ask for back copies of the last six months of board packets. This is a service relationship — treat it accordingly.

3. *Teachers' union president or communications chair.* The union has institutional memory that outlasts any superintendent. They know where the bodies are buried — which schools have chronic staffing problems, which administrators are controversial, which budget line items are fiction. Approach: this source expects adversarial coverage of management. Lead with your interest in working conditions, not with "I want the union's side of things." Meet off-campus. The best information will come after months of demonstrating fair coverage.

4. *Community college public information officer.* Same role as the district PIO but often a smaller operation — sometimes one person handling both PR and marketing. Enrollment numbers are the vital sign here. Ask for the enrollment dashboard immediately. Approach: request the most recent accreditation self-study report. It will tell you everything the college thinks is wrong with itself. Read it before your second meeting with the PIO.

5. *University media relations contact for athletics.* The athletics budget story is active. You need a named contact who will return calls and provide records. Approach: file your first public records request in week one — the latest NCAA financial report. This establishes you as someone who reads documents, not just takes quotes. When the request is fulfilled, call to discuss it.

**Tier 2 — Weekly check-ins** (regular but less frequent; these sources have deeper knowledge but are not your daily pipeline)

1. *Two or three school principals — one elementary, one middle, one high school.* Principals see what the central office does not. They know which policies work in practice and which are theater. Pick schools with different demographics: one high-poverty, one middle-income, one with a notable program (magnet, dual-language, career-tech). Approach: visit the school. Principals respond to reporters who show up, not reporters who call. Tour the building. Ask about the physical plant, not just test scores.

2. *Community college faculty senate president.* Faculty senates debate program cuts and academic standards before the board votes. The senate president knows which programs are on the chopping block before the public announcement. Approach: attend one faculty senate meeting before making contact. Being seen there first earns credibility. Read the senate's meeting minutes from the past semester — the debates they are having will tell you what stories are developing.

3. *University student newspaper editor.* Student journalists are already on campus every day. They know what stories are circulating among students and staff. They often have sources you cannot access — student government officials, residence hall staff, and faculty who are more comfortable talking to students than to professional reporters. Approach: read their last semester of coverage before reaching out. Reference a specific story they published. Offer to be a resource, not a competitor.

4. *One state legislator who sits on the education committee.* For the university athletics story and any state-level policy affecting the district or community college. Approach: call the legislative aide first. Ask what education issues the legislator has been most vocal about this session. The aide is often more useful than the legislator — they handle constituent complaints, draft legislation, and track committee hearings.

5. *One parent activist — not a PTA president but someone outside the official structure.* PTA presidents are often aligned with the administration. The parent who shows up at board meetings during public comment and says uncomfortable things is a better source. They have no institutional filter and no obligation to be diplomatic. Approach: attend two board meetings and watch who speaks during public comment. Introduce yourself afterward. Do not approach during the meeting itself.

6. *District-level special education coordinator or parent advocate.* Special education is the most document-intensive, legally contentious, and underreported area of any school district. The coordinator sees systemic problems — staffing gaps, compliance failures, parent complaints — that are invisible from the board level. Approach: this is a week-three or week-four contact, after you have read the district's annual special education performance report. Lead with a question about data, not about individual student cases.

**Tier 3 — Occasional sources** (reach when a specific story requires their knowledge)

1. *School district CFO or budget director.* Essential for the bond story. Knows the financial structure, the debt service schedule, and where the money is actually going. Approach: file a records request for the bond spending plan and the debt service schedule before requesting an interview — come with specific questions based on what you found in the documents.

2. *State education department spokesperson.* For state test scores, accountability ratings, and compliance issues. Approach: establish the relationship before you need it. One introductory call now saves days when scores are released in the summer. Ask how the department distributes test results to the media and get on the embargo list.

3. *Education policy researchers at the state university or a regional think tank.* For context on trends — enrollment decline, bond spending, athletics subsidies. Approach: read one of their recent reports and ask about it specifically. Researchers respond to people who have read their work. University-based researchers in the education school are often the most accessible.

4. *Construction and bond attorneys.* The $180M bond will generate contracts. An attorney who works in school construction or municipal bonds can explain the procurement process and flag where things tend to go wrong — change orders, cost overruns, prevailing wage disputes, conflicts of interest in vendor selection. Approach: find one through the state bar's construction law or public finance section. These attorneys rarely get press calls and are often willing to explain the system.

5. *Real estate agents and property tax consultants.* The bond measure's property tax impact is a story in itself. A local real estate agent can explain what it means for a homeowner with a $300,000 house. Approach: any experienced agent in the market will talk — this is their professional territory. They track tax rates as a matter of daily business.

6. *School food service director.* An overlooked source. The food service operation serves 32,000 students daily. It has its own budget, its own vendors, and its own workforce. Stories surface here that the central office does not anticipate — vendor contracts, nutritional standards, labor conditions, participation rates that correlate with family income. Approach: a straightforward call. Food service directors almost never hear from reporters and are usually willing to talk.

7. *Former board members or former administrators.* People who have left the institution are freer to speak. A former superintendent, a former board member who lost re-election, a retired principal — each has a perspective shaped by experience and unconstrained by current employment. Approach: find through public meeting minutes (past board rosters), LinkedIn, or community connections. Frame the conversation as historical context, not as a request to criticize current leadership.

---

**Document Inventory**

Collect these in the first two weeks. Set calendar reminders for recurring releases. Documents are listed in priority order — the first five are the most important.

| Document | Source | Frequency | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| School board agenda packets and minutes | Board clerk or district website | Every board meeting (typically 2x/month) | Agendas reveal upcoming decisions; minutes record votes and public comment. Read the packet before every meeting. |
| District annual budget and adopted budget | District CFO or finance page | Annual (adopted June–August in most states) | The single most important document on the beat. Every spending decision is here. Read it cover-to-cover in your first week. |
| Bond spending plan and quarterly progress reports | District finance or bond oversight committee | Quarterly | Tracks whether the $180M is being spent as voters were told. Compare each quarterly report to the original plan. |
| Teachers' union contract (current CBA) | Union or district HR | Renewed every 2–4 years | Governs salary, class size, working conditions. The source of most labor disputes. Note the expiration date. |
| Community college enrollment reports | Institutional research office | Semester or quarterly | The vital sign for the community college. Enrollment drives funding. Track by program, not just aggregate. |
| Bond oversight committee meeting agendas and minutes | Committee chair or district website | Quarterly or as scheduled | Public accountability mechanism. These meetings are often sparsely attended by press — showing up signals seriousness. |
| State test score results (by school and district) | State education department | Annual (released summer or early fall) | Public performance data. Compare year-over-year and school-to-school. Prepare analysis templates before release day. |
| School district audit (independent financial audit) | District finance or state auditor | Annual | Reveals financial health, internal controls, and any audit findings. Read the management letter — auditors flag problems there that do not appear in the financial statements. |
| Community college accreditation reports and self-study | Accrediting body (e.g., HLC, SACSCOC) or college website | Every 7–10 years, with interim reports | The most honest institutional self-assessment available. The accreditor's response letter is even more revealing. |
| Community college board meeting agendas and minutes | College board clerk or website | Monthly | Tracks program changes, personnel decisions, budget adjustments. Often less formal than school board meetings. |
| University NCAA financial report (Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data) | University athletics or U.S. Department of Education EADA database | Annual | Revenue and expenses for every sport. The athletics subsidy story lives here. Compare to peer institutions. |
| University system board of regents meeting agendas and minutes | System office website | Monthly or quarterly | Major budget and policy decisions happen here, not at the campus level. Tuition votes, program eliminations, and capital projects are decided at the system level. |
| University campus budget (if separately published) | Provost or VP for finance | Annual | Shows how state appropriation, tuition, and fees are allocated across colleges and athletics. |
| State legislative education committee hearing schedule and bill tracker | Legislature website | During session (varies by state) | Tracks bills affecting all three institutions. Set alerts for hearings. |
| Property tax assessment data | County assessor or treasurer | Annual | For the bond story. What voters are actually paying. Translate into household-level impact for reader-facing reporting. |
| District special education performance reports | District special education office or state education department | Annual | Compliance, staffing, and outcome data that reveals whether the district is meeting its legal obligations. |
| Community college completion and transfer rates | IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) or college institutional research | Annual | Measures whether students are finishing what they started. The gap between enrollment and completion is a story. |

---

**Recurring Calendar**

| Event | Approximate Timing | Coverage Note |
|---|---|---|
| School board meetings | 2x/month, typically Tuesday or Thursday evenings | Attend in person for the first three months minimum. Read packets 48 hours before each meeting. The public comment period is where story leads surface. |
| Community college board meetings | Monthly | Same approach as school board. Attendance is lower, so your presence is noticed faster. Faculty and staff watch who from the media covers their institution. |
| University board of regents meetings | Quarterly or monthly (varies by system) | Often held at a different campus each time. Budget and tuition votes are the key meetings. Athletics budget review typically happens at the spring or fall meeting. |
| School district budget adoption cycle | February–August (state-dependent): superintendent proposes, board workshops, public hearings, adoption vote | The annual budget fight. Start reading the proposed budget 4–6 weeks before adoption. The workshops — where board members ask questions of staff — are more revealing than the public hearings. |
| State test score release | Summer or early fall (date varies by state) | Coordinate with your editor for same-day coverage. Prepare comparison spreadsheets and templates in advance. Identify the five schools with the biggest year-over-year changes before release day. |
| Bond oversight committee meetings | Quarterly (check the committee's charter for the schedule) | These are often sparsely attended. Showing up signals seriousness. The committee's questions to staff reveal where the concerns are. |
| Teachers' union contract expiration / negotiation cycle | Varies — find the current contract's expiration date in week one | Labor negotiations are rarely public until they stall. Build union and management sources before the next cycle begins. If the contract expires within your first year, this story will consume weeks of coverage. |
| Community college enrollment census date | 10th or 20th class day of each semester (fall and spring) | Official enrollment count. The college will report this publicly, but compare to prior years yourself. Program-level data is more telling than aggregate enrollment. |
| University athletics budget and EADA report release | Annual, typically fall | Compare to the prior year. Look at the subsidy trend line over five years. Compare to peer institutions in the same athletic conference. |
| State legislative session | Varies by state (January–May in many states, year-round in others) | Track education bills. Your state legislator source and the committee schedule cover this. Set up bill-tracking alerts on the legislature's website. |
| School district construction milestones (bond projects) | Ongoing — get the project timeline from the bond spending plan | Site visits to bond-funded construction projects produce photos and accountability stories. Groundbreakings and ribbon-cuttings are PR events; go to the site between events to see real conditions. |
| Back-to-school and first-day coverage | August or September | Plan feature and enterprise angles well in advance. Avoid the photo-of-smiling-kids-entering-building story unless you have a real angle — enrollment changes, new school openings, staffing shortages, construction delays. |
| Graduation season | May–June | Graduation rates, college-going rates, and the stories of individual students who overcame something specific. Enterprise planning starts in March. |
| Community college registration periods | Varies — typically open 4–8 weeks before each semester | Enrollment trends become visible during registration. A drop in registrations is the leading indicator of the enrollment decline story. |

---

**Key Contacts (by Role)**

These are the roles to identify and build relationships with. Names change; roles persist.

1. **School board chair.** Sets the board's agenda priorities and manages board dynamics. Often the superintendent's closest ally on the board — or the superintendent's most visible adversary. Either dynamic is a story. Approach: request a sit-down meeting in your first two weeks. Come with three specific questions about the bond implementation. Do not ask for a general "state of the district" conversation — officials hear that from every new reporter and it produces nothing usable.

2. **Superintendent.** Runs the district's daily operations and sets the strategic direction. Controls what principals do, how money is spent, and how problems are framed publicly. The superintendent will give you the official version of everything. Your job is to know enough to ask the second question — the one that follows up on the answer they rehearsed. Approach: request a background meeting early. Superintendents respect reporters who have read the budget. Read it before you meet them.

3. **District CFO or chief financial officer.** Controls the numbers behind every decision. In a $180M bond scenario, this is the person who knows the project timelines, the contractor selection process, and the debt service schedule. Often more candid than the superintendent because financial data is harder to spin. Approach: records requests first, interview second. Show you read the documents. Ask about the numbers, not the narrative.

4. **Teachers' union president.** Institutional memory. Political operator. Often the best-informed person about what is actually happening in schools — because teachers report upward through the union chain faster than through the administrative chain. Knows which schools have the worst conditions, which administrators are under internal investigation, and which budget claims are accurate. Approach: coffee meeting, off-campus, no stated agenda. Let them talk. Do not take notes at the first meeting.

5. **Community college president.** Manages the enrollment crisis and the institutional response. Under pressure from the board, the accreditor, and the faculty simultaneously. Will present the institutional narrative — growth plans, new programs, partnerships. Your document inventory will tell you how accurate that narrative is. Approach: request a meeting after you have read the accreditation self-study. Ask about the findings and recommendations. A president who brushes off accreditation concerns is telling you something.

6. **University athletics director.** Controls the athletics budget under legislative scrutiny. Will defend spending as investment in brand, recruitment, and alumni engagement. Your NCAA financial data will show whether that investment pays for itself or is subsidized by student fees and general funds. Approach: file the records request first. Request the meeting after you have the data. Come with the numbers.

7. **University provost or VP for academic affairs.** The counterweight to the athletics director. If academic programs are being cut while athletics spending grows, the provost is either pushing back or going along. Either way, that is a story. The provost also controls faculty hiring, tenure decisions, and curriculum — the academic side of the university that receives less press coverage but affects more students. Approach: frame your interest as institutional budget priorities broadly, not as an athletics investigation.

8. **Bond oversight committee chair.** A citizen volunteer with a public accountability role. Often a retired finance or construction professional appointed to represent taxpayer interests. Typically willing to talk because the role is inherently public-facing. The committee chair can tell you whether the district is on schedule, on budget, and transparent. Approach: attend the first oversight committee meeting and introduce yourself afterward. Ask about the committee's access to information — whether they get what they need from the district.

9. **County assessor or tax official.** Can explain the property tax impact of the bond in concrete terms — what it means for a homeowner with a $300,000 house, how the rate compares to neighboring jurisdictions, whether the district's tax rate is approaching a legal ceiling. Essential for translating bond finance into language your readers understand. Approach: a straightforward phone call. This is routine for their office.

10. **One parent organizer outside the official PTA structure.** The perspective the district does not control. Knows which schools have problems, which parents are angry, and why. Often a parent of a child in special education, a parent who has filed a complaint with the district, or a community organizer focused on educational equity. Approach: attend three board meetings and note who speaks during public comment. The regulars are your leads. Introduce yourself after the meeting, not during it.

---

**Story Seeds**

These arise from the beat structure itself. Each is reportable within the first 60 days.

1. **Where is the $180M going?** The bond spending plan is a public document. Compare the voter-approved project list to the actual spending timeline. Are projects on schedule? Have costs changed since the bond was approved? Has the district quietly shifted money between projects? Bond promises and bond reality diverge in almost every district — the question is by how much. *Start with:* the bond spending plan, the most recent oversight committee report, and the original ballot language.

2. **Who got the contracts?** Bond-funded construction generates vendor contracts. Public procurement records will show who won the bids, whether the bidding was competitive, and whether any vendors have political connections to board members or administrators. In a $180M bond program, the largest contracts will be worth millions — and someone decided who received them. *Start with:* a public records request for all contracts awarded under the bond program, including the bid tabulation sheets.

3. **The enrollment cliff at the community college.** Enrollment is declining. Which programs are being cut? Which faculty are losing their jobs? Are students being redirected to other programs, or are they leaving the institution entirely? What does the accreditor think? The gap between what the college advertises to prospective students and what it can still deliver is widening. *Start with:* semester-over-semester enrollment data by program, the most recent accreditation correspondence, and an interview with the faculty senate president.

4. **The athletics subsidy.** How much general-fund or student-fee money subsidizes university athletics? Is that number growing? What would that money fund if it were redirected to academic programs? How does this campus compare to peer institutions in the same athletic conference? Most public university athletics programs lose money. The question is how much, and who pays the difference. *Start with:* the NCAA financial report and the EADA database. Calculate the subsidy per student-athlete versus the instructional expenditure per student.

5. **Teacher vacancies and substitute coverage.** How many teaching positions are unfilled in the district right now? Which schools have the most vacancies? How many days are students taught by substitutes rather than certified teachers? Vacancy data is often poorly tracked publicly but available through records requests. The pattern of vacancies — concentrated in high-poverty schools, in special education, in math and science — is a story about educational equity. *Start with:* a records request for current vacancies by school and subject area, and substitute teacher usage data for the current year.

6. **What happened to the last superintendent's priorities?** Every new superintendent launches initiatives. When they leave, those initiatives often die quietly. What did the previous superintendent promise, and which of those promises survived their departure? The gap between institutional rhetoric and institutional follow-through is a reliable beat story. *Start with:* board meeting minutes from the previous superintendent's first year; compare to current district strategic plan.

7. **The pipeline question.** How many school district graduates enroll at the community college or university? Is that number changing? If the community college is losing enrollment while the school district's graduation rate is stable, where are the graduates going — out of state, to for-profit schools, directly to the workforce? *Start with:* graduation data from the district, enrollment data from the college, and the state's higher education enrollment clearinghouse if available.

8. **Student debt at the community college.** Community colleges are marketed as the affordable option. What do students actually pay after financial aid? How much debt do they carry? What is the default rate? Community college debt is smaller per student than university debt, but default rates are often higher because community college graduates earn less. *Start with:* the college's IPEDS data (federal reporting) and the College Scorecard.

9. **Board meeting attendance and public comment patterns.** Who shows up to school board meetings? What do they talk about? Are certain communities overrepresented or absent? Are the board's decisions responsive to public comment or disconnected from it? This is a participation story disguised as a governance story. *Start with:* attend six consecutive meetings and track speakers, topics, and demographics. Compare the meeting attendees to the district's student demographics.

10. **The facilities gap.** The bond funds new construction, but what is the condition of existing school buildings? Deferred maintenance backlogs are public record in most states. The contrast between a shiny new building funded by the bond and a crumbling existing building that was not included in the bond plan is a visual and narrative story that writes itself. *Start with:* the district's facilities condition assessment, if one exists, or a records request for the deferred maintenance backlog and work-order history.

---

**30-Day Ramp-Up Plan**

**Week 1 — Read before you call.**

- Day 1: Introduce yourself to the school district communications director in person. Ask for a 20-minute orientation meeting. Request the agenda-packet distribution list and the most recent board meeting packet. File your first records requests: bond spending plan, current teacher vacancy data by school, the most recent independent financial audit, and substitute teacher usage data.
- Day 2: Read the school district's adopted budget cover-to-cover. Mark the five largest expenditure categories. Note where bond spending appears. Identify the personnel budget as a percentage of total spending — it is almost always the largest line item and the one that generates the most conflict.
- Day 3: Read the community college's most recent accreditation self-study and the accreditor's response letter. Note the findings and recommendations. Highlight anything the accreditor flagged as a concern — these are story leads.
- Day 4: Pull the university's NCAA financial report from the EADA database. Calculate the athletics subsidy: total athletics expenses minus generated revenue (ticket sales, conference distributions, media rights). The difference is what students and taxpayers cover.
- Day 5: Read the last six months of school board meeting minutes. Note recurring themes, contentious votes (any split votes are worth understanding), and frequent public commenters. Make a list of names that appear repeatedly in public comment — these are your future sources.

**Week 2 — Start calling.**

- Day 6: Call the teachers' union president. Request a coffee meeting for later in the week. No agenda; listen. Let them tell you what they think you should know.
- Day 7: Call the community college PIO. Ask for enrollment dashboards (semester-over-semester, by program) and the most recent board packet. Request a list of programs that have been added or eliminated in the past three years.
- Day 8: Visit one school. Introduce yourself to the principal. Tour the building — look at the physical plant, not just the classrooms. Ask what is working and what is not. Pick a school that represents the middle of the district, not the showpiece.
- Day 9: Attend your first school board meeting in person. Sit in the back. Take notes on procedure, dynamics, and public comment. Identify who the power brokers are — which board members ask the hard questions, which ones defer to the superintendent, which ones have their own agendas. Do not introduce yourself to board members at this meeting. Observe first.
- Day 10: Call the bond oversight committee chair. Introduce yourself and ask when the next meeting is. Ask whether the committee publishes its own reports or relies on the district's reporting.

**Week 3 — Deepen and connect.**

- Day 11: Meet the superintendent for a background conversation. Come with three specific questions from your document reading — not general questions. One question about the bond timeline, one about a budget line item you want explained, one about something you noticed in the board minutes.
- Day 12: Visit the community college campus. Talk to students in the common areas. Eat in the cafeteria. Walk through the buildings that serve the programs with declining enrollment. Look at bulletin boards — they tell you what is happening on campus. Visit the library and the tutoring center; ask the staff what they are seeing.
- Day 13: Call the state legislator's office. Ask the aide about the athletics budget scrutiny — what is the legislature actually looking at? What data have they requested? Is a hearing scheduled?
- Day 14: Attend the community college board meeting. Compare the dynamics to the school board. Note whether the faculty senate president is present and whether the board discusses enrollment data publicly.
- Day 15: Follow up on records requests filed in week one. Identify any delays and escalate if necessary. If records have been delivered, begin reading immediately. Note any gaps or redactions.

**Week 4 — Write.**

- Day 16: Pitch your first enterprise story to your editor. Use one of the story seeds above, backed by the documents you have collected. The bond spending story or the enrollment cliff story will likely be the most ready — you will have the documents and at least two source conversations by this point.
- Day 17: Begin reporting the pitched story. Make the calls you have been setting up — the sources you met in weeks two and three are warmer now.
- Day 18: Visit a second school — different demographic profile from the first. Compare conditions, staffing levels, and what the principal tells you about district support.
- Day 19: Attend your second school board meeting. Compare the dynamics to your first visit. Note any changes in the agenda items or public comment topics. Introduce yourself to one board member after the meeting — the one who asked the most specific questions during the meeting.
- Day 20: Read the student newspaper's coverage of the athletics budget. Call the student editor. Compare their reporting to what you have found in the NCAA financial data. Ask what stories they are working on that you might complement.
- Day 21: File the story you pitched on Day 16. By the end of week four, you should have one published enterprise piece. It does not need to be a masterpiece. It needs to signal to the community that the beat is staffed again, that the new reporter reads documents, and that accountability coverage has resumed.

---

**Next Step:** Day 1, Task 1 — walk into the school district office and introduce yourself to the communications director. Everything else flows from that first relationship and the records requests you file the same day. Once your first story seed is ready to develop, run research-brief-creator to build the full reporting plan, or expert-finder-brief if the story requires outside expertise you have not yet identified.

## Known Limitations
- This guide maps the beat by institutional structure and document availability. It cannot account for the specific political dynamics, interpersonal relationships, or unwritten norms of your community — those emerge from reporting, not from a planning document. The guide gives you a framework; the community fills it in.
- Source approach strategies assume a reporter introducing themselves for the first time on a beat. If you are already known in the community — positively or negatively — the approach dynamics change in ways this guide cannot predict. A reporter with a reputation for adversarial coverage will need a different first-contact strategy than a newcomer.
- The document inventory assumes U.S. public records norms (open meetings laws, FOIA/state public records acts, federally mandated reporting). Beats in jurisdictions with weaker transparency laws, or beats covering private institutions (private schools, private universities), will find significant gaps in document availability. The guide does not cover how to report around closed records.
- Story seeds are generated from the beat structure and the information provided. They reflect obvious institutional tensions — the kinds of stories a good editor would suggest on day one. They are not scoops. The original stories on any beat come from sources and documents, not from a planning exercise. Treat the seeds as starting points, not as the limit of what the beat offers.

## Related Skills
- [research-brief-creator](../research-brief-creator/SKILL.md)
- [story-angle-finder](../story-angle-finder/SKILL.md)
- [expert-finder-brief](../../investigation/expert-finder-brief/SKILL.md)
- [reportage-structure](../../writing/reportage-structure/SKILL.md)