The 2024-2025 school year officially marks Omaha North High’s centennial year. The alumni association and school have different events to celebrate the monumental birthday. One of the first being homecoming.
The 2024-2025 homecoming week of celebrations started on September 23 and ended on September 28. Throughout the week, students and staff participated in spirit week. The themes for each day are chosen by student council. The themes for this year’s event focused on the different decades. Monday was “senior citizen”, Tuesday was “rock ‘n roll”, Wednesday was “tie dye/neon”, Thursday was “Y2K”, and Friday was “best dressed.”
To wrap up the week of celebrations, Omaha North hosted their annual homecoming parade. The parade has been a part of North homecoming celebrations for many years and is hosted by Student Council.
“The parade is part of North High School history, and it was a continuous tradition up until last year,” said Rachel Anastasia, Student Council Sponsor.
Students were encouraged to attend, even being dismissed from the building at 1:05 in order to get down to the parade site.
The parade showcased different clubs and groups at North. Robotics, Show Choir and Volleyball are just a few of the clubs or sports that participated in the parade. Not all groups decided to walk it, many built floats that pertained to specific decades.
Aside from clubs and athletics, alumni classes also participated in the parade. Many of them handing out candy to the students along the route.
To highlight the past principal role, all three of the past principals were present. Bernice Nared was principal from 1997-2001, Gene Haynes was principal from 2001-2020, and Collette Nero was principal from 2020-2024.
Planning for the parade is a multi-step process. One of the first steps, aside from determining the date, is contacting the city to apply for a permit to shut the street down. Once the approval from the city comes in, the planning at the school level commences. The parade relies on many moving parts to fall into place in order to have it.
“We are not sure how the parade will look after this year because the city wants to make some adjustments to it,” said Anastasia.
