Tyler Kendall
Editor-in-Chief
Students and teachers will encounter new changes to NCHS, including improvements in security and technology measures to benefit the school community for the upcoming 2013-2014 year.
A printing quota will be introduced this year, for both students and teachers, prompted by an incredibly high printing demand in the district, according to principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi. “We’re trying to figure out a way to start going more digital with things,” he said. “We also looked and saw that the cost per page in printing, when you print to printers is much higher than when you print to copiers. So the quota really exists to printing to printers verses printing to copiers.”
Students will be allotted 500 black and white prints, and 50 color copies according to NCPS Technology Director, Dr. Robert Miller.
Noting the recent change of locking the doors by the athletic facilities, Dr. Luizzi explained new safety initiatives that will be implemented. “We’ve ordered another security desk like how we have out front and we’re going to put it down by the athletic doors so those doors can stay open during the day,” he said. “I think that will help with the flow of things.”
Visitors will also be introduced to new sign-in procedures. “Certainly visitors who are coming will have to present their license so we scan it in. The scanner checks to make sure there is no reason that they shouldn’t be on campus,” Dr. Luizzi said. “Then they will get a nametag that will have the date, their picture, and will fade after 8 or 10 hours.”
Technology at NCHS will also have new additions, including a free, guest network so students can easily connect and gain WIFI access. “The technology department worked over the summer to create a guest network,” Dr. Luizzi said. “We also hired a new technology integrator, Ms. Sydnye Cohen, and she is really good with hand held devices and technology. She brings to us a lot of knowledge and experience, and commitment and passion to using the iPads and incorporating them into the classroom as well.”
Ms. Cohen is not the only new face students will see this year. A total of nine new faculty members will be added to the NCHS community, including four in the english department, a new visual and performing arts teacher, and a new psychologist.
In addition to having new teachers on their schedules, students may see enrollment in new courses, too. “We have our new classes that are running this year, especially in the science and history departments,” Dr. Luizzi said. “There will also be a new theatre set design and construction class that will work with our theatre program to design and create some of the sets.”
Although ‘Mentoring Advisory’ appears on schedules, too, it is not a class itself but rather just an expansion of the system in place from last year. “We will meet about twice a month usually Friday mornings with the video announcements,” Dr. Luizzi said. “We are going to do some of the strategic student success plans that we started last year, such as goal setting, and then we will have some other grade level specific things as well, such as talking about the college process with seniors.”
While these additions have been implemented already, the core structures that make up NCHS will remain the same. “We don’t have to totally change and overhaul things,” Dr. Luizzi said. “We just try to make them a little bit better every year.”
