New year, new staff

Orange leaves, crisp air, and discounted school supplies are all signs of a new school year starting up. Livewire’s first magazine for the 2025-2026 school year is officially out. This magazine explores themes of changing emotionally, physically, and metaphorically. The visual theme includes layouts and graphics of butterflies going through metamorphosis, showing the metaphoric changes of life.

The first Livewire magazine of the year conveys the many stages of change a person may go through throughout their life, including changes in personality, maturity, grief, and finding oneself. Though the staff lost 5 seniors in leadership roles, they are on schedule to release all five magazines throughout the 2025-2026 school year.

Livewire’s advisor is Larry Steinmetz, who has been a teacher at Bullitt East for over 20 years. He believes that if you aren’t challenged, you aren’t learning. Steinmetz pushes his staff to strive for success and to become the best version of journalists that they can be. Livewire’s editor in chief, Haylee Donovan, is the true showrunner of the staff. This is only her first year as editor in chief, but that doesn’t make her expectations for her staff any lower. Donovan believes in the same principles as Steinmetz, pushing her staff beyond their own limits. She controls the staff while Steinmetz sits back and gives her freedom to be the best editor-in-chief she can be.

“I look at our staff as a whole and see how Haylee is really turning this into her own and empowering people to do the job they’re meant to do. Madison Hodge, Riley Davis, and Alexa Vititoe are just some people who have stood out in order to get this magazine together and maintain the website; many people have stepped up in their own way, but there are too many to name. As a group, we have done a really good job so far this year,” Steinmetz said.