West Chester native Jessica Schmidt will leave her WXIX-TV career after nine years to become Sycamore Schools’s new communications and community relations director.
The 2009 Lakota West High School graduate was hired by the Sycamore school board Wednesday night.
She told coworkers earlier this week that she was leaving Channel 19 when her contract expires Sept. 5. She starts at Sycamore Sept. 8.
Schmidt anchors afternoon newscasts and hosts Fox 19's Cincinnati's Crime Vault podcast. She was hired in September 2016 to be the Sunday night news anchor and a reporter four nights a week.
"It has always been a goal of mine to work in my hometown — the city where I grew up watching and loving the news," she told me in then before joining Channel 19 from WFIE-TV in Evansville, Indiana.
Schmidt interned at WKRC-TV in 2012 while studying broadcast journalism and psychology at Kent State University. She also was a reporter, anchor, and news director for TV2, Kent State’s student-run television station.
After graduating in 2013, she was hired by the Evansville NBC affiliate and worked there for three years.
At Channel 19, she was promoted from the weekend desk to co-anchor afternoon newscasts and reported from the Alert Desk. She’s also part of Fox 19’s investigative unit.
She's the third anchor to quit this summer. Anchor Courtney King returned to her hometown of Chicago last month, and morning anchor Amber Jayanth left in June.
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