One candy bar at a time
By Aggie Karafas

Candy and drinks are being sold by the high school science teacher, Carl Collie, for one dollar each. The money earned will be put toward the senior-junior trip.

This year the senior-junior trip is an Alaskan cruise for one week. The cruise includes tours through the cities along the route, hikes through Alaskan rain forests, and water rafting.

The cost for the trip right now is 1250 dollars. 

In one week of selling candy and drinks Collie has raised almost 400 dollars. Collie expects the cost of the trip to go down to about 600 dollars.

Students and staff involved with the trip are excited to visit Alaska. “I’ve never been,” Collie said.

Raffles will help contribute to the raising money for the trip. You can win up to 500 dollars in the October raffle. In the winter months, there will be another raffle where the prizes are an Xbox 1 and a PS4.

Technology at NCS improves
By Josh Partin

This year at Neuse Charter School, there is a very wide range of new technology for the students to use in the classroom.

The teachers also use technology to teach their classes.

History teacher Beth Miller said, “This year we have the ELMO projectors and the Chromebooks.”

Miller also pointed out how much her teaching has changed with the new technology. “[It is] less pencil and paper and more reliance on technologically-produced things.”

Neuse is building up
By Sammie Atkins

Neuse Charter School is growing, literally. Neuse has been approved to start construction on a new building.

The construction for the building will start on September 2. The due date has been pushed back a few times due to permit problems. As of right now everything has been worked out and things are starting to take off.

The building will be built on the lawn area in front of the office. The high school building will be three stories tall and about 35,000 square feet.

The school is also planning to build a middle school building, library, and auditorium as soon as the high school building is built.

After the building is complete, Neuse is going to get rid of the high school and middle school trailers.


Elementary students will not be getting a new building right away. They will continue to use the trailers and in about ten years there should be enough funds to build the elementary building according to elementary principal Kyle Gahagan.

In the new building, middle school will have their own floor in the high school building until construction on their building is finished.

“Middle school would still be able to move around through the high school building because they share teachers with the high school” said middle school principal Cari Delatorre.

The budget for all the buildings to be built is between five and six million dollars.

 High school principal Joel Erby said, “I’m very excited. This is the first time for me being involved in building a building from bricks up seeing all the details and talking to the architect. Also, the Neuse Charter School board and administration have worked hard to see this through.”

Erby also said, “Seniors will get to make a time capsule to put into the new building for the students to look back on.”

“I’m very glad to see the school expanding with new … opportunities,” said Ron Brookshire, grandfather of a second grade Neuse student.

“I’m jealous. I’m going to visit Neuse Charter after I graduate just to see the new building,” said senior Mark Fang, student body president.

Administration, staff, students, and parents are excited for the new building to be built and are watching Neuse Charter School grow and move forward.

Seniors take new seminar
By Caroline Lancaster

Neuse Charter School has started a new class just for seniors.

Beth Miller, high school history teacher at Neuse Charter School, is one of the two teachers in charge of teaching the senior seminar class, a class to help rising college students.

The class is designed to help seniors with their applications to four year colleges and universities. “We help them with the application process, basically, and to handle their freshman year,” said Miller.

The class will also have a guest speaker at least once a week and go on many field trips throughout the year.

“They show us how to do college resumes and things you should do in college,” said senior Tre’Shon Charles. “There’s not really anything they could do to make it better.”

According to Miller, the final exam will be project based to make students show that they have retained the skills they learned while in the class.

Sweet Frog supports NCS athletics
By Brianna Windham

On August 27, Neuse Charter School held an athletic fundraiser at Sweet Frog Frozen Yogurt in Smithfield.

Gym teacher Gail Browning, who attended the event, said, “It went well. The staff was very friendly, and the store was beautiful. … If I could change anything it would be to get out more flyers and Facebook it.”

Browning is planning to have another fundraiser at Sweet Frog for the high school cheerleaders.

Browning’s favorite part of the fundraiser was when her kids took a picture with the store’s frog mascot.

Neuse Charter School enforces policy changes
By Jamal Boylan and David Davis

A new school year has started at Neuse Charter School, and new school rules have been added. New changes for clothes, phones, food and more have been implemented and students have reacted strongly.

For instance, students are no longer allowed to wear sweat pants, because it is improper.

Another new rule that’s been implemented during lunch students are not able to pick up food from the office.

Policies regarding cell phone use are also being enforced. In our society, the use of cell phones is very common, especially texting. Now students are not allowed to text during class, and can only use phones while at lunch.

“If it is a true emergency you can come down to the office and call your parents,” said Joel Erby, the high school principle at Neuse Charter. Erby also said he has never used his cell phone when it was not permitted.

Senior Darrin Robinson said it is important to return a text “every time your phone rings.”

Juniors to visit college campuses
By Caroline Lancaster

The fall trip for the junior class, which will take place in October, will be to tour colleges.

They will be touring three colleges on the trip, but which specific ones they will visit has not yet been decided. The students were given a list of schools and asked to choose three colleges of their choice. The most popular picks will be where they go.

“It should be about one hundred and forty to a hundred and fifty dollars,” said Carl Collie, high school science teacher at Neuse Charter. “Depending on which colleges we go to, it’ll be about forty or fifty dollars per trip.”

Already, 26 juniors have confirmed that they are going on the trip.

Angelica Cortes, one of the juniors going on the trip, said, “It sounds like it’s going to be super fun. I can’t wait”

Sophomores gear up for fall trip
By Haley Jean DuPree

This year is going to be exciting for the sophomores. They will be going to either Busch Gardens or Carowinds this fall. 

The cost of the fall trip will likely be 60 to 70 dollars.

“The cost is just right,” said sophomore Devante Stevens.

Last year, as freshmen, the class went to Camp Rockfish.

“It was fun, so this year’s trips are bound to be fun also,” said sophomore Herbert Williams.

Sophomore Logan Wolbert agrees that the trips will be fun. “Yeah, I’m really excited,” said Wolbert.

In the spring they will be going to the mountains for white water rafting.  The cost will depend on the amount of students who choose to go on the trip.

Freshmen going to Camp RockFish for class trip
By Duncan Ozturk


Freshmen will be taking a class trip to Camp RockFish, a Methodist camp that Neuse freshmen have gone to for the past three years.

The freshmen will be going in the fall for a day trip.

The camp allows students get to see themselves as a unit and lets them know that they are not alone in high school. The camp builds leadership and team building.

 “I love to camp, the staff are great, and they made great accommodations for us,” said high school teacher Jordan Gill, who has gone on the trip with the freshmen in the past.

The camp has a lot of activities for the freshmen. They can try archery, rock climbing, standup paddle boats, canoeing, fishing, and a high ropes course.