East Idaho reporter Carly Flandro will be leaving Idaho Education News to join a nonprofit in Pocatello this month. Flandro is wrapping up three years of covering K-12 education for EdNews.
Flandro is joining Pocatello-based Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that works with private landowners to protect their land by creating tailored agreements known as conservation easements. The nonprofit aims to “protect, connect, and enhance wildlife habitat, working lands, and community spaces” in Southeast Idaho. She will be the nonprofit’s community conservation, communications and marketing coordinator.
An award-winning reporter, Flandro’s stories won first and second place in the Data-Driven Journalism category of the 2024 Idaho Press Club awards. She also received second place in special coverage for an investigation into Idaho special education.
In 2023, her 11-part series, Still Here: Tribes fight to be seen in Idaho classrooms, won first place in the Special Coverage division. Her podcast, The Teachers’ Lounge, also won third place in the Audio Interview category that year.
In 2022, her work placed in the top three of three categories: editorial, general news story in a daily publication, and light feature report in a daily publication.
Some of her recent coverage has included two investigative stories on the “Everyone is Welcome Here” controversy surrounding former West Ada teacher Sarah Inama’s classroom posters. One story revealed how school leaders were unswayed by hundreds of emails that were overwhelmingly in support of Inama, and another shone a light on a divided school board.
Flandro also participated in the Education Reporting Collaborative, a team of journalists from eight local and national outlets that created solutions-oriented reporting on education. While working with that group, she contributed to two series, one about how the childcare crisis affects working parents, and the other about surveillance in schools.
In 2022, Flandro received a grant from the Education Writers Association, which she used to create her award-winning series on how to improve educational outcomes among Native American students.
Flandro’s favorite part of reporting for EdNews was visiting schools and interviewing teachers and students.
“Any time my work brought me into a classroom or into a school or around students and teachers, I think those were my favorite parts of doing this job, because that’s where you see the reality of what all the news leads to. Ultimately, everything that EdNews does is about those students,” said Flandro.
Managing editor Jennifer Swindell said Flandro will be missed.
“Carly has talent, drive and passion and I know she’ll be successful in her next pursuit,” Swindell said. “She’ll always be a part of the EdNews family.”
EdNews now has a reporter position open. Contact Swindell if you are interested at jswindell@idahoednews.org.
