It is 3:00 p.m., and crowds of North High School students are milling around campus, talking with friends and waiting for rides home.
But the staff of the Guide Post, North High’s student newspaper, are still hard at work, crouched over a row of MacIntosh computers as they produce the last issue of the school year.
The newspaper, which publishes monthly, won a bevy of high school press awards this spring, including second place in the Adelphi University Press Awards Most Outstanding Newspaper competition, third place for general excellence from the New York Press Association and more than a dozen New York Press Association awards for individual staffers.
Jodi Kahn, chairperson of the school’s Study Skills department, has overseen the Guide Post for eight years, and told the Great Neck News that student interest in the paper has steadily grown.
“When I first took over it was a smaller staff,” Kahn said. “I started to recruit kids, and little by little the staff has grown.”
The newspaper demands dedication from its student journalists. Production is a weeks-long affair, and as deadline approaches students stay in the paper’s office until 10 p.m., Kahn said. The Guide Post is also in the process of rolling out its Web site, part of what Kahn described as an effort to expand the use of video and multimedia by her student reporters.
“This is our first try doing this,” Kahn said.
The Guide Post’s staff was busy putting together the newspaper on the afternoon of May 23, but newly inducted editors in chief Nicole Biton and Justine Schoenbart took a few minute’s break from production to talk about what the Guide Post meant to them.
“I decided to join the paper because I liked writing but didn’t know much about journalism,” said Schoenbart, a junior who has worked for the paper since her freshman year. “I really enjoy the layout process.
Biton said the Guide Post provided an outlet for her writing outside of the day-to-day grind of school assignments.
“It had a purpose,” Biton, a junior, said. “It wasn’t just writing for school, like an essay.”
The work is demanding, Biton said – but worth it.
“It’s a lot of work. We’re here after school most days for two to three hours,” she said. “Every minute here is time well spent.”
Both Schoenbart and Kahn described a collegial atmosphere that brought together students of diverse interests and backgrounds.
“We’re one big family, and Ms. Kahn is our mom,” Schoenbart said.
Kahn, who joined the school system as a reading specialist in 1995, said the Guide Post was personally fulfilling for her as well.
“I spend more hours than I can count working with the students in producing the newspaper. They bring a wonderful joy and excitement with them every time they walk into the office,” Kahn said. “You could be having a tough day, but working with them just makes all the rough stuff melt away. We laugh, we dance and we bring fun to what is often a very stressful task.”
For Schoenbart, who has taken summer journalism classes at the University of Pennsylvania, the Guide Post is a preview for future work in news media.
And while Biton said she was not sure what direction her college career will take, those late nights at the Guide Post hold a special significance for her.
“I like being involved with the paper, and I think it’s a great way to say what you need to say,” Biton said.
