First drafts of history can be extremely simple: a note jotted down, a photograph or, these days, a screenshot.

Here is a photograph of Bricolage Academy taken minutes before 6 p.m. on September 7, 2026. Why did I take this picture? Bricolage’s board is scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. on September 8. But, as evidenced in the photo, less than 24 hours ahead of that scheduled meeting there is no publicly posted meeting agenda. (We’ll come back to this.)

Fifteen years ago next week, I wrote my first story for The Lens. I was dispatched to the ReNEW Schools charter network’s board meeting. The Lens’ brilliant project, the Charter School Reporting Corps, had an ambitious goal to cover the monthly meetings of the dozens of charter school boards in the city’s newly decentralized system.

That night, while drafting the ReNEW story and not knowing my future in journalism, I contemplated whether to add the year “2011” to the file’s name. Four computers and 15 years later, adding the year was clearly the correct choice. 

In the initial Corps’ work, we covered growing school budgets, with grants pouring in from across the country, and the rapidly expanding number of charter schools. A lot of those early Corps’ stories were short dispatches about school programs and performance. We published meeting agendas and meeting cancellations. Those single paragraph stories became a tracking device for how, or whether, charter school boards were adhering to the state’s Open Meetings Law. 

At its core, the law is designed to ensure the public can observe the deliberations and decisions of public bodies directing taxpayer dollars and services. Informing the public what will be discussed, via a publicly posted agenda one day in advance, is required. 

Fifteen years later, I’m writing about a shrinking district and charter networks closing and consolidating campuses. Here’s my not-so-traditional back-to-school story for Gambit Weekly: Here's what to know about New Orleans charter school closures this year

Fifteen years later, I’m still driving by a charter school to see if the required agenda is posted, ensuring the public can decide whether they wish to observe the deliberations and decisions scheduled for tomorrow.

This single photograph, from the early evening on Labor Day, is incremental journalism in action.

More about my reporting and why I started Lamplighter News.

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