Reporter Christopher Peak Captures 3 New England Journalism Awards

The New England Newspaper & Press Association gave New Haven Independent reporter Christopher Peak three awards for his government, schools and business coverage.

The trade organization, representing more than 450 newspapers across six states, announced the results of its 2019 New England Better Newspaper Competition, for stories published between July 2018 and June 2019, at a Saturday night awards ceremony in Boston.

It awarded Peak second place in government reporting by smaller dailies for his stories on New Haven’s $160 million debt restructuring. In what’s known as a ​“scoop and toss,” the city government delayed paying down its debts to take pressure off the operating budget until 2024, but at a cost of $84 million more in interest payments until 2034.

“Believe it or not, in three stories illustrated with bar and line graphs, Christopher Peak and the New Haven Independent make you care,” the judges wrote. ​“Somehow they explain these mind-numbing concepts in a series that you actually *want* to read — and that teaches you a thing or two about municipal finances.”

The organization awarded Peak third place in a special recognition for best solutions-journalism project among all daily newspapers for a story on a Quinnipiac Real World Math STEM Magnet School teacher whose individualized math lessons helped her fifth-graders max out their standardized-test scores.

“As the comments below the story point out, math is a very difficult subject to teach and learn. The reporter does a great job of showing how and why this teacher’s work matters — she’s changing young people’s minds about math,” the judges wrote. ​“This is a story that anyone can relate to because we’ve all learned math at one point (to some degree),” and it’s especially relevant for parents now trying to ​“understand what’s happening in the classrooms.”

The organization also awarded Peak third place in business and economic reporting by smaller dailies for his story on English Station, the defunct power plant in Mill River that’s been stripped for parts amid a series of questionable real-estate transactions.

The judges called it ​“an exhaustive examination of the dirty dealings surrounding the disposition of an ecological nightmare of a power plant.” ​“The reporter dug and dug and comes up with a precautionary tale about what can happen in the shadows of real estate dealings having to do with industrial sites beyond any use (or redemption),” they said.