The 2024-25 school year was Francis Howell North’s first year in a brand-new building. There have been many mixed emotions about the new building, but one particular concern has left many teachers and students concerned — the odor.

“I think that they were concerned about it… we didn’t know at the time what was going on,” Administrative Assistant, Cara McHaffie said. “So just starting to figure out where it’s coming from, what’s going on, and it was just a concern of ‘how can we get this fixed?’”

Teachers, students and faculty first began noticing the odor during the summer of 2024. There were multiple different areas throughout the building where the odor was present, but it was most prominent in the history and business hallways. It eventually became so intense that it began to affect teaching and learning.

“It definitely impacted things last year, because we had to move teachers out of their classroom into other learning spaces and different things like that,” Assistant Principal Shelly Parks said. “So, people were having to do shuffling, and that was hard on people.”

However, McHaffie kept a chart of several different reports the office received that included complaints about the odors and where they were coming from. This helped to not only locate the issue, but also assisted in the process of resolving the problems.

“I would just like to say how thankful I am that it is so much better and a thing of the past, because it was impactful, but we survived it,” McHaffie said. “I’m very thankful for a much different year this year with no smells.”