In 1924, the first ever edition of the North Star Newspaper was published, which started the long legacy of the Journalism department. The student-led publication highlights news, features, opinions, reviews and sports.

During the first several years of Omaha North High School, the newspaper was not given for free. Instead, it was sold for ten cents a copy.

The paper was exceedingly popular with students and the community, being a main source of knowledge for students and staff at Omaha North to learn about on-going topics.

Ad sales in the newspaper were also extremely popular. Each edition of the paper housed numerous ads for restaurants, stores, flower shops and more.

The North Star was created as a form of media to show insight into the lives and community of Omaha North. The North Star is a student-led publication which means that it is run by students.

Throughout the decades, the student-led paper has seen many different changes.

Mike Krainak was the advisor of the North Star for over 18 years.

During his time here, Krainak oversaw the newspaper and yearbook productions. The North Star was published monthly and varied between 8 to 12 pages each edition. Unlike current publications, they were only available on physical copies.

Krainak’s main goal was to offer students an environment that was “as close as possible to a real-world environment.”

“I wanted students to exercise their freedom of speech legally and ethically and not in a vacuum,” said Krainak.

Krainak and his publications did not have to abide by a written prior review policy. Prior review consists of school administrators reading and reviewing all materials of the paper before they go to print. This practice was the outcome of the 1988 Supreme Court Decision in Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier. Although there was not a written policy, Krainak made sure to involve administration in stories before going to print.

“No one likes a surprise, especially the administration. We were not in the gotcha business, and the administration has a right and obligation to be in the know,” said Krainak.

The journalism department saw many different triumphs during his time. Omaha North walked away from state journalism with the title three times within a five-year period between 1997-2000.

The task of being advisor did not come as a small suit for Krainak

“I used to tell journalism students, above all, no matter the story, editorial, column, or art, above all ‘be a reporter and a damn good one’,” said Krainak.

In 2003, Hillary DeVoss, formerly known as Hillary Aerts, took over for Krainak. Prior to taking over the program, DeVoss student taught under Krainak.

DeVoss held the role of advisor for 14 years before leaving in 2017.

She always held a passion for being an advisor.

“I always thought I never felt more alive advising journalism its living and breathing and doing something hyper-relevant, but also kind of lonely with all of your students work being published,” said DeVoss.

During her tenure at Omaha North, Devoss saw the largest change with prior review.

“Administrators started reading over work before it was published so that made the students hesitate about what to write about and that made students pick safer topics to write about which made students take fewer risks,” said DeVoss.

Prior review is still an important step in the publication process.

The class sizes have also seen different fluctuations throughout the decades.

While at North, Krainak’s class sizes averaged about 24 students per publication. These numbers translated into DeVoss’ run as advisor, even gaining larger numbers. Over the course of her career at Omaha North, staffing grew to 30 students. This is a drastic change from the 2024-2025 staff. Currently, there are 10 students on staff.

The drop in participation became prevalent after COVID-19 and the leaving of the previous advisor. At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Shelby Schmidt left the program to embark on building a new program at Westview. For the 2022-2023 school year, the journalism position remained unfilled which resulted in students not being aware of the program. In 2023-2024, Molly Schmeits took over the program and is currently trying to rebuild the staffing numbers.

“When I was part of the publication, there were over 28 students on staff. I want to recreate those numbers,” said Schmeits.

Through the decades, the North Star has been a feature of the Omaha North High legacy and continues to cover stories that impact not only the school but also the community.