Chandler Watkins
Chandler Watkins reports on how decisions in school board rooms and city halls ripple through classrooms, families and neighborhood life. She is a reporter and multimedia journalist at KCTV5, covering education and community-focused news on weekday evenings since joining the newsroom in February 2024. Before joining KCTV5, she reported for KPLC 7 News, KSLA News 12 and Fox12 Oregon, bringing experience from multiple regional television markets into her current beat.
School boards, budgets and enrollment
Watkins closely tracks how school districts manage declining enrollment, aging facilities and strained budgets, with particular attention to multi-step decision processes and their consequences for families.
In Olathe, she has covered the superintendent’s message outlining challenges facing the district, including enrollment decline, and a plan to use a $389 million bond for district-wide improvements, construction of three new schools and consolidation of existing ones. Her reporting follows the bond-funded consolidation plan through specific school pairings - such as Fairview and Northview, Central and Ridgeview, and a full rebuild of Meadow Lane Elementary - and documents how these changes will unfold over the coming months and years.
She pairs that policy coverage with stories on community reaction and transparency. In follow-up pieces from Olathe, Watkins reports on district leaders answering community questions about consolidation, explaining timelines, task forces, steering committees and which grade levels are likely to be affected. Her work details how the superintendent distinguishes between immediate operations and longer-term consolidation, clarifying that no schools are planned to be consolidated in the next school year while still preparing the public for future changes. She uses interviews with district officials and clear breakdowns of bond usage and governance steps to make complex restructuring plans understandable to families and staff.
Watkins applies the same lens to school finance in Lee’s Summit, where she has reported on the Board of Education’s vote to rescind part of a voluntary 65-cent property tax levy rollback first enacted in 2023.
Her story explains that the board approved rescinding 40 cents of the rollback, leaving a voluntary reduction of just over 25 cents and setting the operating levy at $4.5008. She notes how the levy is allocated between capital projects and the general fund, and how the unchanged debt service levy fits into a combined tax rate of $5.3708 for the 2026–2027 school year.
Crucially, Watkins connects those figures to projected operating revenue shortfalls of $7 million to $10 million and to warnings from district leaders about potential elimination of 175 to 225 staff positions if revenue gaps are not addressed.
Student experiences and access to opportunity
Alongside boardroom coverage, Watkins reports on how logistics, infrastructure and program design shape students’ day-to-day opportunities and experiences. In one story, she covers a “travel nightmare” in which area students miss a mission trip because of flight issues, focusing on how transportation breakdowns can derail educational and service opportunities. In Olathe, she has reported on Michael’s WonderWorld, a fully accessible theme park that is part of the broader Halo Ridge development, describing it as an amusement park designed for all regardless of ability.
Her coverage outlines accessible rides and attractions - from pendulum rides and a 4D theater to sports-themed experiences and water features - and situates the project within a larger development that includes a care collective, youth sports arena and accessible hotel, retail and dining.
Watkins also documents new recreational spaces intended to give local kids and families safe places to play.
At Blues Park, she covered the ribbon-cutting for a $1.7 million outdoor roller-skating rink, reporting that the 16,000-square-foot facility includes new restrooms and parking and is open daily from early morning to midnight. Her story notes that this is the second roller-skating rink owned and operated by the city and highlights officials’ framing of the project as “a blessing” for the community. In these pieces, Watkins combines investment and design details with community voices to show how physical spaces - from accessible theme parks to city-run rinks - expand or limit opportunities for children and families.
Community projects, technology and local economy
Beyond schools, Watkins covers civic projects that blend technology, entertainment, education and economic development, often focusing on how public decisions and private ventures intersect. At KU Innovation Park, she has reported on the ribbon-cutting for a new micro data center launched by Euphemystic Ventures, explaining that the facility fits inside a 250-square-foot room and is part of an “AI first” approach to helping companies prove out and scale artificial intelligence concepts. Her story situates the data center within a statewide landscape of similar facilities - joining 20 others across Kansas - and notes the involvement of the local chamber of commerce and expectations for future expansion driven by AI growth.
Watkins has co-reported on a major AI data center tax deal in Independence, covering a Jackson County judge’s decision that blocked residents from voting on the package. In that piece, she explains how court records and city charter provisions led the judge to conclude that the ordinance authorizing up to $150.6 billion in revenue bonds took effect immediately and was therefore outside the scope of a public referendum. Her reporting translates dense bond and charter language into plain terms, making clear that residents had no legal window to trigger a vote and that the ruling effectively ends the referendum effort.
She brings similar precision to coverage of large-scale mixed-use developments.
In Gardner, Watkins has reported on the city council’s unanimous approval of rezoning 214 acres along I‑35 for a potential entertainment, arts and education district, which planners hope to open by summer 2029. Her story breaks the development into numbered districts, describing features such as a “Main Street” with on-street parking, a 2,500-seat performing arts center, a concert pavilion, a recreational lagoon, vacation villas, a 300-key hotel and a 6,000-seat esports arena.
In another co-authored piece, she covers Kansas City’s passage of a $2.6 billion budget that cuts a projected $100 million deficit nearly in half while protecting core services, underscoring her focus on how fiscal decisions shape the city’s ability to invest in residents and infrastructure.
Public safety and human impact reporting
Watkins also reports on public safety and accountability stories that carry significant human stakes. She has covered the case of a Children’s Mercy doctor who was severely injured in a hit-and-run while biking home from the hospital, outlining the circumstances of the crash and the ongoing police investigation into the driver who fled the scene.
Her story details the doctor’s critical condition and the community support that has emerged in the aftermath, highlighting both the personal and institutional impact of the incident.
In a co-reported piece on law enforcement misconduct, Watkins documents the arrest of a former Bonner Springs Police Department detective following an investigation into alleged misuse of department resources to monitor and stalk his spouse while on duty. Her coverage relays information from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, including the discovery of child sexual abuse material and multiple charges ranging from stalking and breach of privacy to sexual exploitation of a child, unlawful acts concerning computers and official misconduct. She also traces the administrative timeline, noting that the detective was placed on leave upon notification of a criminal investigation and that his employment ended shortly thereafter.
Watkins balances these heavy topics with more human-interest reporting, such as a story on rare sports memorabilia from former Kansas City Chiefs fullback Tony Richardson going up for auction. In that piece, she walks through items being sold - autographed helmets, signed footballs, art, shoes, jerseys and pieces linked to figures like Buck O’Neil and Muhammad Ali - while explaining the local auction process and community interest.
Across this range of work, Watkins maintains a clear, fact-driven style that emphasizes timelines, charges, key figures and the real-world effects of events on the people and institutions involved.
4 more education journalists.
Abdul Latif Jameel
Abdul Latif Jameel publishes long-form, research-led pieces on how emerging technologies and scientific advances reshape education, industry, and society. He writes for the Abdul Latif Jameel masthead at the intersection of learning, innovation, and applied science, with a focus on technology, skills, and the future of learning. He explains complex fields such as quantum sensing in clear, accessible terms, breaking down frontier science and tying it to real-world applications. His coverage links breakthroughs in sensing, data, and automation to training, curriculum, and lifelong learning. He treats education as an applied system connected to industry, policy, infrastructure, and human development. He reports in an analytical, explanatory style, using research, pilots, and large-scale initiatives to examine how technologies are implemented, evaluated, and scaled in learning and training environments.
Abril Preciado
Abril Preciado is an Emmy award-winning bilingual television journalist at FOX6 News Milwaukee who focuses on education, school crises and policy decisions affecting students, families and staff. She follows school communities over months, from emergency response through investigations, relocation plans and the first day back in class. Her reporting on the Lincoln Avenue School fire covers displacement, safety changes, rebuilding and the move to temporary space. She also uses public records to examine local officials, test official claims and connect government conduct to public trust. Before joining FOX6, she reported for Univision in Sacramento, covering the Farm Workers March, wildfires, politics and the Latino community, and contributed border reporting for a national radio network. She centers families, explains complex decisions clearly and focuses on the human effects of policy.
Adria Iraheta
Adria Iraheta is a community-focused reporter at Denver7, distinct for centering students, families and residents in every story about schools, neighborhoods and public services. She covers how decisions by school districts, local agencies and public institutions land in daily life, with a particular focus on Aurora and Arapahoe County. Her beat sits at the intersection of education, community issues, public services, safety, infrastructure, health and climate, from job cuts in a school district to a new transit safety app, DMV outages, street changes and record heat waves. With a decade of local television reporting experience, she reports on the ground in specific local scenes, using plain language, direct questions to officials and clear explanations to show how policies, programs and changes affect the people who live, study and work in Colorado communities.
Alan J. Borsuk
Alan J. Borsuk stands out for connecting what happens in schools to the policy and political decisions behind them. He writes in-depth K-12 education analysis for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and serves as a senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. His work focuses on Milwaukee Public Schools, school choice, literacy, teacher pipelines, and school accountability. He uses long-range perspective, detailed reporting, and structured analysis to explain how reforms unfold, why they stall, and what they mean for students and leaders. He has also written on vouchers, Teach for America, discipline, and teacher evaluation, drawing on decades as a reporter and editor on education and public policy.