Since the school year began in late August, North has seen many positive changes in the school atmosphere. Students and teachers alike have seemed to be enjoying coming to school more than previous years. However, in order to keep the positive energy going, it’s going to take everyone at North working collectively to keep the positive energy flowing. There’s a lot of positive things going on at North and instead of focusing on the negatives, we should be putting our energy into making North more positive. 

More Student Involvement

One of the biggest boosts to school morale this school year has to do with us students becoming more involved in school activities. With student run groups like the Goonies showing up to all kinds of fall sport games to lead the student section, or leaders/presidents of clubs meeting with Principal Jeffrey Fletcher to discuss things they like and dislike about school policies, students have been more active in all kinds of school activities. Earlier this year, students across all grades were super engaged in grade level elections that took place. Having people across every grade discussing and posting on social media on who they wanted to win added a level of excitement and interest for everyone. Having such an exciting concept and subsequent reaction be student led, opens up the possibility of teachers and administrators being more open to having more activities being run by students.

School Cleanliness 

A huge issue surrounding last year’s school year had to do with the unnecessary vandalism that occurred at North. As a collective community, we have been more considerate and more careful with objects around the school this year. We can’t complain about the building being dirty or gross if we are actively adding onto the problems that are making it that way. If we continue to be conscious about what we are doing in school the final two years in our current building will be more enjoyable for everyone. If everyone continues to behave normally and go throughout their day not trashing things or purposely destroying things, we can remove part of the stigma people have about our school’s cleanliness.

Face to Face Learning

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit and everyone was forced online for a few months, a certain feeling of disconnect between students and teachers began since learning was no longer face to face. For the past two years, students have had the option to either come to school in person or continue learning virtually and that split caused an even further disconnect since not everyone was having the same learning experience. However, this year saw nearly everyone return to in-person learning. This change back to normalcy benefits everyone since everyone can now easily contact their peers and more importantly, their instructors. Having nearly everyone back in the building also helps the school atmosphere since students can see their friends that they may have not been able to see due to learning in person and learning online. Having more students back in the building has also increased the demand for more teachers meaning new members of the staff have been hired this year such as Matthew Naes, Ryan Curtis, Amanda Barnhouse and many more. With more students and new teachers in the building, North has even more people to help better the school atmosphere.

Return Of Student Favorites

This school year has seen the continuation of many returning student favorites from the past. So far we’ve had multiple assemblies and Homecoming take place inside of FHN. Coffee Fridays are also here to stay for the foreseeable future and more students can sit at lunch tables now that the every-other seat rule has been lifted. With nearly every COVID restriction lifted, students can look forward to a more hands on learning experience that students in the past two years may have not been able to experience. With more people willing to go out to watch sports games and participate in clubs, students and teachers alike should be able to do more this school year in and out of school that may not have been possible in previous years. We should be looking forward to being able to have more pep assemblies this year, more in school activities and more participation throughout the school in general.

Room For Improvement  

While we have seen many improvements in the past three months, it’s important to continue fixing certain issues we still have. We need to remember that the new school won’t fix all of our problems. The school atmosphere will be up to all of us. If we don’t continue to better ourselves now, we’ll just be in the same old environment in a new building. Teachers and students alike need to realize that we are all just trying our hardest to do our best. Constant arguments and bickering won’t make many of us happy. We need to realize that grade division is good during pep assemblies and other events when used in a fun way but allowing that to bleed into our everyday school life causes nothing but division. Together, we have the option to go back to the bleak and unpleasant school environment many have felt and disliked before, or we can change for the better and make North the great place we all know it can be.