Our values

When we launched the site in 2010, the goal was to create a publication based on the following values:

  • We believe that an informed community is a stronger community. When people don’t know what their elected officials are doing, it can be easy for distrust to spread. Our goal is to provide people who live in the Shawnee Mission area with a straightforward account of the issues that come before their governing bodies, so that even if they disagree with their decisions, they will understand what was behind them.
  • We believe in holding elected officials accountable for use of public funds. Research shows that when communities don’t have a news organization keeping tabs on local government, costs to taxpayers go up and government becomes less efficient. We believe it is our job as the area’s only dedicated news source to inform the public about how elected officials are allocating their tax dollars.
  • We believe in strong public schools. It’s pretty easy to make the argument that strong public schools are the foundation upon which Johnson County — and thus much of the state’s economy — was built. It is our belief that for Johnson County schools to maintain their long-standing reputation for excellence, their boards of education and administrations should be held accountable for the decisions they make about education policy and the use of resources.
  • We believe in celebrating the community’s successes. One of the things that makes a community a community is a shared sense of pride — about the life it provides its residents, about the initiatives it undertakes, about the accomplishments of its citizens. We want the Shawnee Mission Post to help foster the social capital that makes northeast Johnson County a great place to live and raise a family.