Senior seminar students host college fair
By David Davis and Jamal Boylan

On September 13, the students in Neuse’s senior seminar class put on a college fair for the rest of the high school.

The participating seniors each had a display on a college of their choice and they had on their smiles, ready to talk about what college they might be going to as students and staff members circulated around the displays in the cafeteria.

History teacher Beth Miller, one of the staff members that leads the senior seminar class, said that at the college fair one would learn “Lots of information about colleges from across the country.”

High school principal Joel Erby had a great time walking around, admiring students’ displays and asking informal questions to the students. 

Meredith is an all-girls’ school and place where senior Sakoyia Heath would like to attend. She showed off a display board with photos and information about Meredith at the college fair.

Senior Miranda Phipps said that her college and career goals are “To go to college and become a teacher”

Miller believed that putting on the college fair was a good experience for the seminar students. “Teaching responsibility is important for getting a good education and setting goals for life.”

Cougars want to run
By Holly Hanes

This year Neuse Charter will be having its first annual 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk held at the school. The event will be on Sunday, October 20 at 2:00pm.

If you register before October 18, the fee will be $25.00 and any time after that the fee will be $30.00.

Coach Gail Browning said, “I believe it will be very successful.”

There will be awards given to many different age groups. 

The run is to raise money for the Neuse Charter cross country and track teams. 

For any additional information and sign up forms, see Coach Browning. 

Cheering for Sweet Frog
By Brianna Windham and Aubree Barker

On Tuesday, September 17, a fundraiser for the Neuse Charter High School cheerleaders was held at Sweet Frog in Smithfield.

Many of the high school cheerleaders came and helped to clean and cheer outside so people would come in and get some yogurt.

Freddy Bonilla, Neuse junior and cheerleader, and Maurice Watson, Neuse sophomore and cheerleader, were both able to get in the girl frog costume and greet the children in Sweet Frog.

Senior Ashlee Rouse, co-captain of the cheer squad, said “I think the fundraiser went well and I did not expect so many people to be here.”   

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”