The Dixie Blog: The Final Year

Flyers-
It has been my opportunity and pleasure to serve Dixie High School over the past two years with The Dixie Blog. Unfortunately, the time has come and I will be retiring the blog in May of 2013. There are multiple reasons why it is time for the blog to end, but the most immediate reason is the lack of a staff and successor to manage the blog. I am proud of the many accomplishments that have been made by the blog over the past two years and I know that it will have a lasting, if subtle, impact on Dixie history.

I was very pleased with the decision earlier this year to merge the Flyer Flash and The Dixie Blog into one powerful organization. The idea at first seemed strong and powerful, but it is now clear that Dixie High is not yet prepared to make a complete shift from print to internet, and that the rebranding of the Flyer Flash did not do justice to its history. For this reason, the Flyer Flash and The Dixie Blog will separate at the beginning of August 2012. The Flyer Flash will continue in its traditional print format, and The Dixie Blog will dissolve at the end of this year. Through this year, however, the blog will carry content and support the Flyer Flash, but only after it has premiered in its standard print edition. After May of 2013, the Flyer Flash content will be found only in its monthly editions.

The Dixie Blog will remain accessible and online after it is retired in May. When saying it will be "retired" I simply mean that it will no longer be updated, and it will no longer be managed or operated by a Dixie High student. The same will go for the following online organizations that are linked to The Dixie Blog: facebook.com/dixieflyers, facebook.com/dixie100, and twitter.com/dixieflyers. These services will also be retired in the same manner. As blog administrator, the passwords for these sites will not be given out to any other individual, and if a similar blog or organization is to start in the future at Dixie High School, it will not be affiliated with The Dixie Blog that has been in operation during the years of 2010-2013.

I appreciate the support of the many teachers and students at Dixie High. The Dixie Blog has been a powerful tool and has been well-received by many. There is no other blog or service similar to it in Washington County, and I have yet to find anything similar at any high school within Utah or even the nation. I enjoy covering school activities in photographs that are exclusive and will not be found in the yearbook. The blog is a powerful service that I wish to retire appropriately by celebrating Dixie High's current and past accomplishments.

Thank you to the administrators and faculty who have supported the blog and its purpose since its conception, and thank you to the many readers and thousands of hits the blog has received over the past two years.

Sincerely,
Shaun Smith
The Dixie Blog Administrator
blog@dixiehigh.org