ANTIOCH — The superintendent of Antioch Unified School District has proposed an agreement in which Mike Burkholder, publisher and author of the East County Today site, will identify positive stories, highlight successes and ghost write material for a new school website.

The school board will vote on the contract at the Wednesday night meeting.

The agreement will be for one year and will be up for renewal afterward. The job description includes writing stories, taking photos and videos, using social media and other tools to highlight the district’s successes.

“Mr. Burkholder came forward with a proposal and after discussing it, that’s why I’m going forward with a contract,” Superintendent Stephanie Anello said. “I thought it’s a good proposal and it would be good for the district.”

The proposal includes creating a site based on East County Today’s model and will encourage students to create content to add to it.

The contract will cost the district $53,900, which Superintendent Stephanie Anello said is a savings, because hiring a public relations employee would cost the district more in benefits. The contract was not included in a public bidding process, but Anello said that this was not required.

Burkholder declined to answer interview requests before the board meeting, but issued a statement: “I appreciate the Antioch Unified School District giving me an opportunity to potentially work with them to promote the many wonderful things occurring within the District. It’s really smart that the District is looking at ways it can provide greater outreach while being proactive in improving its communication to the entire community.”

The statement closely mirrors another statement that Burkholder had issued when he was a candidate in the AUSD school trustee election.

Today, anyone and everyone can take advantage of the Internet. The school district is no different. The district should not be forced to rely on a newspaper to tell their story; instead they should simply tell it using their own website.

Mike Burkholder, September 7, 2016.

For the news releases concerning the district that are not specifically highlighting successes, Anello said she would continue handling those tasks, and would not trade favorable news stories for access.

It’s unclear whether Burkholder will continue to write about the school district on his website if he is also employed by the school district and receives taxpayer money. Questions on East County Today’s coverage of public entities in Antioch were not returned.

“In general, when you are working as a publicist or promotional person, it tends to impair your ability to comment in an independent way,” said Edward Wasserman, dean of UC Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism.

Wasserman said that there was nothing inherently wrong with reporting on a subject that the author is financially dependent on.

“Doing publicity work and reporting on behalf of the school board as an agent of the school board is perfectly OK,” Wasserman said. “He can’t then turn around and purport to be an independent news source. There are many ways his entanglement with the school board could affect coverage of other entities and a lot has to be said of what readers expect.”

Superintendent Anello compared Burkholder’s role at AUSD to East Bay Times freelance columnist Trine Gallegos, who does community outreach contract work for Antioch High School.

Gallegos’ Times’ column, called the “School Bell,” discusses school happenings at all East Contra Costa County schools and identifies her position at Antioch High.

The issue has been added to the consent calendar for the school district’s Wednesday night meeting, which will mean that the issue would not normally be up for debate. However, Walter Ruehlig, president of the school board trustees, intends to return the item to the regular calendar for discussion.

“This is going to be a matter of vigorous discussion and debate. I can say that with fair assurance,” Ruehlig said.

