Renata Clò

Renata Clò was an education reporter at the Arizona Republic, which is also known locally as “the Republic.” She covered K-12 education in the 58 school districts of Maricopa County, including the state capital of Phoenix.

Clò was born in Brazil and came to the US to pursue a master’s degree in journalism at Arizona State University. She worked at a local TV station in Ohio before returning to Arizona to cover the city beat at the Republic. 

She said that she knew at a young age that she’d find a job where writing was a big component — a decision that surprised her parents and two brothers, all of whom are engineers. Clò currently works as public information officer for Valley Metro, the transit system serving the Phoenix area.

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By Agnes Cheung

There are two groups of people in this country right now, and one group is not living in the same reality and have very different notions of facts.

What is difficult as a journalist is trying to be fair to everyone, even when some people don’t see facts the same way when there is evidence and credible sources. 

I once reported on an anti-immigrant protest of about 1,000 people in Scottsdale [a city just northeast of Phoenix]. It was in front of a hotel that was temporarily housing asylum seekers and migrants.

I went up to a man for an interview. Right off the gate he asked, “Before I talk to you, I need to know who you voted for in the last election.”

I replied, “Well, I’m not a U.S. citizen, so I don’t vote.”

He pointed at me and started yelling repeatedly, “You’re a member of the media and you’re not a U.S. citizen!” I ran to my car and left. I had thought that if I appeared to be a human being to him, maybe I could get through to him. Now I would just say, “No, I’m not going to go there with you. I’m just here to do my job.”

I was obviously too naive to think that, especially at an immigration protest.

Why Education Is Just Like Politics

I started as a city reporter for Scottsdale at the Republic. There were only two education reporters for 58 school districts, so a lot of times the city reporters ended up covering a little bit of the school district in their area.

Around fall 2021, I covered Jann-Michael Greenburg, who led a local school district with 30 schools and 22,000 students. He had been very outspoken about defending COVID-19 mitigation measures, about not banning books from schools and wanting to talk about social justice. The wealthy parent community of Scottsdale was the exact opposite: They believed that critical race theory was taught in schools, and they were against COVID-19 mitigation measures, LGBTQ+ conversations, all of that.

Greenburg accidentally leaked the web address of his father’s Google Drive in a screenshot. His father, Mark Greenburg, had been very involved in local politics. Some parents in the opposing group gained access to the Drive and found records of people opposing his son — social media posts, divorce proceedings — though all were public records.

There were multiple investigations. The police and the district all cleared him. Then Mark Greenburg filed a lawsuit against one of the parents, and one of those parents filed a counter lawsuit against Mark Greenburg. That story was how I got involved with the education beat, which is just as politicized as the city beat I covered. I expected it to be polarized.

When I interview people who do not believe in the facts that I am reporting, I have a few sentences that I always fall back on: “Let me play devil’s advocate here” and “There are critics who said this and others who said that.”

What gets lost is that no one is really discussing what’s truly best for the students. It feels like the day-to-day news cycle is getting in the way.

When I am unable to challenge that person’s position anymore, I usually say, “I definitely understand where you’re coming from.” It’s not a lie, I do understand where they were coming from. 

One key project that we published for the school-board election was that I sent a questionnaire to every single candidate that filed to run in all 58 districts. Many did not answer, but we published all the responses we that we did receive. 

In my newsroom, one question that we want to ask all candidates is whether they believe in the 2020 presidential election results. It might not necessarily be connected to education coverage, but it’s important because they are going to be elected officials. I feel like voters should know whether the candidates believe in the democratic process. 

Many candidates did not answer the questionnaire at all because they felt that the question was partisan. It’s funny that here in America, they would think that just by accepting democracy, they are partisan. A lot of candidates simply declined to answer that particular question or just said that the question was not related to their work as a board member.

Remembering Your Real Audience

What gets lost is that no one is really discussing what’s truly best for the students. It feels like the day-to-day news cycle is getting in the way. 

After covering the school-board election, I really want to bring the attention back to those kids. I want to report on what’s actually going on with students’ mental health.

A lot happened after two years of the pandemic. Some of them lost their loved ones, some of them are having a tough time as they see their parents lose their jobs, and some of them are experiencing issues due to remote learning.

When I write, I write to the parents, teachers, and the education advocates. I want the stakeholders of the issues to be informed. I want to do a public service with my stories. The students are the ones who are affected by the school-board election, but right now, they are getting lost in the middle of all these debates and vitriol.