Allie Neugeboren, Editor-In-Chief
@alneugiecourant
With a new school year comes fresh additions to update the atmosphere of the high school. While the beautification project updates the greenery outside of the school, a new initiative was taken to create NCHS community award board that adds entertainment to the hallway traffic in the English hall and trophy room. The new Student of the Month, Faculty of the Month, and Athlete of the Month boards hope to highlight the qualities of the NCHS student body based on “The New Norms” that were brainstormed in connection classes in the past few years.
Principal William Egan is a part of the committee in charge of vetting and creating the boards for student and faculty of the month, along with Math Department Chair Anthony Bloss, art teacher Jennifer Sinski, and school counselor Ann Vernon. Each month, a survey will be sent out to faculty to nominate students who they believe demonstrate the respectable qualities of a model NCHS student. Principal Egan highlights the inspiration for the boards. “Realistically the changes were inspired by some faculty that really want to recognize students and staff who don’t always gets recognized. We’re fortunate to have such a talented student body, we have wonderful students who do wonderfully academically and get recognized in a variety of ways,” he said. “It’s students that embody that if you have an opinion, you share it in a respectful way, you’re kind to others, respect the environment, you clean up after yourself, you use technology appropriately, go through the day with a positive attitude and you have fun,” he said.
Principal Egan notes how the boards, along with the cultural improvements around the school, promote the further building of the community. “I have such a high opinion of this place, the school is just looking for ways to continue to celebrate the positive things that go on here,” he said.
The boards for student and faculty of the month will include a photo of the monthly winner, their name, how they encompass the respectable qualities of a NCHS student, and a certificate.
As for the ‘directory board’, it essentially recreates the staff page from the yearbook, entailing a mini photo of every staff member to help students and visitors recognize teachers. Principal Egan encourages building a stronger community between teachers and students. “We’re really trying to build a community, with all the cultural improvements around the building, in the last three years that hopefully people recognize. One of the things that have been lacking is you don’t always know who everyone is,” he said. “We’re a community of learners and I want everybody to have a knowledge base of who everyone is,” he said.
Apart of the committee vetting students and faculty for the awards, art teacher, Jennifer Sinski points out the added bonus the boards bring to the hallways. “We are making the school aware of the wonderful people, students and morale that lives and breathes in our community every day. I think that the point of this is to make better use of a very high traffic hallway,” she said. “We wanted to give those who walk those halls (students, parents/visitors, teacher, staff, etc.) an understanding of the type of students that go to our school,” she said.
Athletic Director Jay Egan took inspiration from the student and faculty boards to create ‘athletes of the month’. Similarly, this board in the trophy room will have a monthly photo of a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior whose coaches of each season’s sports feel represents the athletic core values: responsibility, accountability, motivation, and strength.
Mr. Egan notes the importance of depicting athletes from all grades. “My favorite part is the representation of all four grades, when you reward the behaviors that we’re looking for 9th and 10th graders, I think we’re building capacity as far as leadership and those positive qualities on the teams and with the student body,” he said.
Purposefully, the ‘board’ is a mirror in which the winners photo’s will be placed on top of, to tell every student athlete walking by that, “You could be next,” he said.
The committee plans to begin showcasing student, faculty, and athlete awards at the beginning of October, as surveys will be sent out at the end of September.
