Lily Mott

A featured selection of my work as a reporter, producer, and anchor for the Rockbridge Report which is a student-produced, live cable broadcast with an accompanying website providing Rockbridge County with fair, accurate, and accountable news coverage

I served as the education beat reporter for the Rockbridge Report from September to December 2022.

Lexington City voters decided to select their school board by direct election, rather than by City Council appointment. I interviewed Doug Harwood, the founder and editor of The Rockbridge Advocate, to discuss the referendum results on the Rockbridge Report's live coverage of election night in Lexington, Virginia.

Lexington voters will find the new school board referendum on their ballots this year. The referendum will determine if the Lexington City Council will continue to appoint Lexington City School Board members or if voters will decide.

The division received $4 million in state funding and has until 2024 to spend it on pandemic recovery efforts, like extra tutoring programs and school counselors to support students transitioning back to in-person learning.

Rockbridge County Public Schools will hire three additional School Resource Officers, or SROs, to increase security in schools. The decision was made this year as mass shootings in schools reached an all-time high.

The Rockbridge County School Board approved a $2.8 million budget to replace the school’s HVAC system at their September meeting. Two other Rockbridge County schools are also in line for new heating and air conditioning.

I am producing the Rockbridge Report's Tuesday live updates, Thursday 30-minute newscasts, and accompanying website from January until April 2023.

This five-minute update includes George Santos's request to be removed from his House committees, Biden's plans to end the pandemic and public health emergencies this spring, a miscalculation in Virginia's public education budget, the preparations for Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day prediction, and more.

This five-minute update includes the beginning of the Supreme Court's hearings about student debt cancellation, updates on the war in Ukraine, the winter storm that pummeled California, Texas, and other parts of the US, IHOP's National Pancake Day, and more.

This five-minute update includes updates on the US banking system, security footage released revealing details about the death of a Virginia mental health patient, staff walkouts and school closures in Los Angeles, meetings between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the Pentagon's accelerated plans to deliver tanks to Ukraine, and more.

This live broadcast includes China's surveillance balloon that flew over the US, the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, vacancies on Lexington City Council's boards, authorities, and commissions, upcoming renovations to the Lexington Golf and Country Club, and more.

This live broadcast includes the Norfolk-Southern's most recent train derailment and Senate hearing, Biden releasing his budget proposal, the beginning of construction on new coffee shops and chain restaurants coming to Lexington, overcrowding in Rockbridge County schools, a preview of the Oscars, and more.

This live broadcast includes a Wall Street Journal reporter being arrested by Russia on espionage charges, protests in Nashville following a mass shooting at The Covenant School, Rockbridge County High School's new rules pertaining to the use of ChatGPT in the classroom, a train derailment in Minnesota, and more.

I first served as a meteorologist and then as lead anchor for the Rockbridge Report from September 2019 to May 2021. For more clips, visit the Rockbridge Report's website.