Dear MinnPost readers,

Kyle Stokes, a senior reporter covering K-12 education for Southern California Public Radio’s KPCC and LAist, will join MinnPost in January as the next Twin Cities beat reporter.

Stokes is a University of Missouri journalism grad whose career so far has been mostly in public radio. Before joining SCPR in 2016, he had stints at stations in Seattle, Indiana and Missouri. But Stokes is a Minnesota native, and one of his first internships was at KTTC News in Rochester. At SCPR, Stokes reported on the nation’s second-largest school system and led coverage of the 2019 L.A. teachers strike, with his reporting appearing nationally on NPR, 1A and The Takeaway. Stokes also reported on the district’s enrollment decline, the struggles of high schoolers working full-time during COVID, the warning signs that preceded a crippling cyberattack on the school system, and the challenges of teaching students with dyslexia. When not stepping in to help cover wildfires or the death of basketball star Kobe Bryant, he also tracked some of the nation’s most expensive school board elections and closely monitored the board’s politics.Stokes will cover issues ranging from housing to transportation to city government, and we’re excited to tap his experience engaging audiences and uncovering important stories that otherwise might not come to light. If you have tips for Stokes or would like to introduce yourself, you can reach out to him on Twitter, LinkedIn, Mastadon or by sending an e-mail with the subject line “attention Kyle Stokes” to feedback@minnpost.com.

His first day at MinnPost will be Monday, Jan. 23.

— Elizabeth Dunbar, editor

P.S. He’s a huge Minnesota Wild fan and is excited to return to his home state, where far more people will appreciate his Twitter rants about nonsense goalie interference penalties!