Five News Stories About Various Events Happening at North and in the Community
Starting second semester, Sun Club plans on visiting Harvest Ridge throughout the semester and contacting more elementary schools to talk about global warming. The club will be coming in during the school’s environmental unit and plans on sharing a presentation with the fifth graders sharing facts on global warming and what changes they can make in their life to cut back on global warming.
“I hope that they can see what is happening to our world and how little changes they make can make a big impact,” French teacher and Sun Club adviser Jenny Liberson said.
The club also will also be sharing a rap recycle video and an activity on recycle v.s trash to help the students to better understand the topic.
“We have to make sure it’s good enough for an elementary school audience to understand what we’re saying but also get the point across,” sophomore and co-committee head Rayna Aathreya said.
The FHN Band plans on coming together with middle schools Hollenbeck and Barnwell for a Northside concert on Feb. 22. This concert is done to recruit incoming freshmen to play in the band.
“It’s just getting in contact with them as much as we can,” Band director Ryan Curtis said. “That might be through letters or through emails or through concerts.”
The three bands, Hollenbeck, Barnwell and FHN, have been practicing independently prior to coming together and then will play as a group. Along with this, Curtis plans on doing something new this year with having an eighth grade night for not only the football games but also at a basketball game on Jan. 19.
“I remember my old band director in middle school, he played a show of our marching band and I was really inspired by that, I was like ‘I actually wanna do that when I get into high school’,” senior and drum player Amari Cunningham said.
On Jan. 4-7, 25 members of the FHN Drama Club attended Thescon, a state conference for thespians in Kansas City. The trip was organized by Drama teacher Kim Sulzner, who has been to Thescon over 25 times.
“It’s three nights and four days, we arrived on Wednesday and left late Saturday,” Sulzner said.
At the conference, there are over 100 events and workshops, including the opportunity to win scholarships.
“They’ve got well over 100 events and workshops; costuming, playwriting, audition skills, even making edible prop food, plus dance competitions and such,” Sulzner said.
Senior Addyson Akerman attended the event and competed in multiple challenges, including Tech Theater and Stage Management.
“I was really excited for the Tech Scholarship because I got to show off my tech skills and experience,” Akerman said.
The conference was attended by 2,500 students and over 5,000 total people from all over Missouri. The attendees also had the opportunity to audition for the all-state troupe that will perform at the next year’s convention.
“Everyone had a lot of fun,” Sulzner said.
St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann has announced that he will not seek a sixth term when the office is up for election in 2026. This will end his 20-year stretch as County Executive, as well as his 38-year-long career in St. Charles County politics.
Ehlmann cited the quality of the community as one of his greatest achievements as County Executive.
“[Things like] creating an environment where people want to move here, growth in population,” Ehlmann said. “We have got people who have been coming here since I was a little kid, and they come here for two reasons: good schools and safe areas.”
Ehlmann also referenced changes and improvements to law enforcement in St. Charles County.
“We went from a sheriff’s department to a police department,” Ehlmann said. “We’ve felt like we’ve done a lot to encourage these officers, in addition to education, providing more and more training and we think they’re more professional than they’ve ever been.”
When it came to his greatest challenge while in office, Ehlmann recalled the controversy St. Charles County faced for having relaxed COVID restrictions as compared to those of neighboring jurisdictions.
“I had all kinds of professional journalists come out here and ask me if I was crazy,” Ehlmann said. “‘Why aren’t you afraid you’re going to have outbreaks and more and more people dying,’ and the fact of the matter is we did what we thought was the best, but there was no guarantee.”
Ehlmann pointed to his extended age as his primary reason for retirement and reports that he looks forward to spending more time with his family.
Last year was an extremely strong and successful season for the FHN Mock Trial team. The students continuously accomplished great things all throughout the year including winning first place at state. This year, they feel the absence of seniors who provided great leadership last season. Mock Trial coach Randy Pierce reflects on the seniors from last season.
“We would like to have them here,” Pierce said. “They provided wonderful leadership.”
Despite the loss of leadership, mock trial is flourishing this year more than ever. They have doubled the size of their team and everyone is adjusting nicely.
“We now have 16 new people, so a total of 28 students. This gives us a little bit of a head start,” Pierce said.
For a veteran like Pierce who’s been coaching for 50 years, this many new students is nothing to worry about.
“Generally speaking, I don’t need to modify my teaching style much,” Pierce said.
Even with everything that’s happened, mock trial is encouraging students to join their team next year. Pierce invites all students to come watch their competition happening Jan. 16-18.
“We will be happy to have people come and observe our competitions so that they can look at it and get a better feel for the club. It’s up to them to decide if they want to join our team next year,” Pierce said.
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