Confusion abounded after school district wrongly named the Paso Robles Press in their email
We are not Paso Robles Daily News.
We are the registered newspaper serving the community of Paso Robles since 1889. We print a weekly newspaper, and we publish daily online.
We are The Paso Robles Press.
This need for clarification comes immediately following a cease-and-desist letter we received from Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Curt Dubost and Kim Holmes, his interim executive assistant.
The letter from the PRJUSD in reference to the article by Paso Robles Daily News stated:
The reporting today relative to tomorrow’s Special Board Meeting to continue drafting the District and Board response to the recent Grand Jury Report contains factually inaccurate assertions that Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Gaviola is the target of a criminal investigation. The publicly available Grand Jury Report in no way implicates Deputy Superintendent Gaviola. There is no pending investigation of her. No allegations with respect to any matter addressed in the Grand Jury Report have been shown to implicate Deputy Superintendent Gaviola in any way. Both the Board President, Mr. Arend, and I have publicly stated that any person possessing evidence of any wrongdoing by any current employee should come forward now. To my knowledge, nothing has been received to date.
Because these untrue statements are defamatory in nature and harm the District and its employee, Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Gaviola, we request that you immediately correct your story and retract the statement.
Enclosure: Letter from Board President Christopher Arend
The article that Dr. Dubost is referring to was a piece published online by Scott Brennan, Paso Robles Daily News, and KPRL Radio, both in no way affiliated with our publications.
The cease-and-desist letter above from Dr. Dubost was sent to other media outlets and distributed internally throughout the district. Upon receiving the letter, we immediately responded with clarification that we are NOT Paso Robles Daily News, nor are we affiliated with Scott Brennan or KPRL.
PRJUSD Board President Chris Arend, Dr. Dubost, and Kim Holmes immediately acknowledged the error and stated it would be rectified. Holmes sent over a formal letter of apology and assured that all parties received the correction.
Dear Ms. Mattson,
I write to offer my humble apology for a grave error made today in preparing and transmitting a letter as part of my work with Paso Robles Jt. Unified School District. I am currently serving as an interim executive assistant to help the district through a period of turnover and vacancy in this key position.
The letter was prepared in response to both radio and print articles from KPRL Radio and Paso Robles Daily News (NOT Paso Robles Press). Their stories contained misinformation that we felt needed to be retracted and corrected immediately as the Board will be meeting in the morning regarding the recent Grand Jury Report, the subject of their allegations.
The content of the letter was prepared by Superintendent Dubost, and this is where his attention was focused in reading what I prepared. It was MY error to confuse the two media names when I was searching for contact information, as the day was coming to a close and I needed to get the letter out. I did not take the time to review background where I might have seen my error in time. None of these factors excuse my mistake.
I feel especially bad given the context of the letter and the current situation. As the school district felt the need to defend itself and its employees against perceived defamation, my error placed your newspaper in a position to also feel defamed – by misleading readers to think the “bad press” against the district came from you, when it most certainly did not.
Please accept my deepest and sincere apology. We have revised the letter and retransmitted it to our staff and to the correct recipients. Anyone listening to or reading about these current events should be assured that the Paso Robles Press never disparaged the district, nor did we intend to disparage the Press through this correspondence.
Sincerely, Kim Holmes
Unfortunately, this is a common error that seems to repeat itself and leads to no clarification on the other side. Paso Robles Daily News is a website that started in 2012. The Brennan’s chose a name that obscured the copyrighted name of the existing newspaper of record and has proven to cause consumer confusion over the past eight years.
As of this morning alone, we have received a few emails and comments online regarding this defamatory article that Paso Robles Daily News and KPRL wrote.
We did reach out to both Jennifer Martinez and Jennifer Gaviola to clarify that we did not write the defamatory article.
Jennifer Gaviola’s response:
Thank you for your email. I have always appreciated your coverage of our district, and as a community member, the fair journalism practices your paper adheres to.
I am sorry there was this confusion, and I never wanted to be the story. Our students’ stories should always be our focus. I am saddened that this type of unfounded reporting has turned to this. The professional ramifications for this defamation are a great concern to me, but I will try to focus on the good and our mission to safely get kids back in school.
Thanks again, Jen Gaviola
Jennifer Martinez corrected her social media post and “apologized for causing any problems for the Paso Robles Press Publication.”
Jennifer Clayton also sent a message stating “I have also corrected my post and apologize.”
Our mission is to “Make Communities Better Through Print and Communication.” We have a high level of responsibility for being the newspaper of record for the City of Paso Robles. Our pages will be read for years to come and held in the historical archives. We take immense pride in our journalistic efforts for our community. We employ local writers that live and love our town.
Over this last year, we met the same challenges as all other small businesses did, and we are still here, still writing and still printing every week, the good news, the real news, your hometown news, thanks to our loyal subscribers and advertisers.
As the Publishers of the Paso Robles Press, we will continue to bring the community our very best with dedicated journalists and well-researched information following a journalistic code of ethics with every story.
We appreciate everyone for their support and thank the PRJUSD for making public statements regarding the confusion.
Hayley and Nic Mattson, Publisher’s Paso Robles Press and Owners of 13 Stars Media
You can read our coverage of the Special Board Meetings here:
Paso Robles School Board Addresses Key Items on 7-11 Committee Report
PRJUSD Continued Grand Jury Report “Paso Robles Schools: A Cautionary Tale” Discussion
PRJUSD Board Review of Grand Jury Report ‘Paso Robles School District: A Cautionary Tale’
Today’s PRJUSD Special Board Meeting started today at 8:30 a.m. The meeting can be viewed live through the PRJUSD YouTube Channel here.
