Feehan Kicks Off Its 50th Year

As much as everything has changed in the past 50 years, the first day of high school is generally filled with the same problems — students getting lost on the way to classrooms, difficulties opening their lockers, and the culture shock of being just one of 1,000 high school students. 

This years’ class of freshmen experienced all of that today, just as last year's freshmen did and the 49 other classes of freshmen did in the past.

“Getting accustomed to the fact that there are 999 other people … it just makes things overwhelming,” said Principal Bill Runey of the challenges new students face.

Feehan has orientation for new students before classes start, but the size of the campus, four buildings on 44 acres of land, can still be intimidating and confusing for the first week or so.

Of course, the confusion of being in a new place for the first time is not limited to students. Runey said there are 13 new staff members who have to get acclimated as well.

“My first year as principal I got lost,” Runey said.

The teachers have orientation as well, though this year their separate day of training was canceled due to Hurricane Irene and the resulting power outages. Instead, they stayed longer at the standard teacher orientation, which was held in whichever classrooms were lit sufficiently by natural light, as the school still lacked power.

Since their training requires them to switch classrooms for different instruction every 30 minutes, they needed to know when to change classrooms. But with no power, there wouldn’t be any bell, so Runey stood at the top of a stairway and blew a coach's whistle instead.

“It was a little old-school,” Runey said.

An old-school start seems appropriate for a school celebrating its 50^th anniversary.

The school does not have one single event planned to celebrate the occasion, but instead plans to incorporate the 50^th theme into every event this year.

“We’re going to take all of events and enhance them,” Runey said.

The school itself is also undergoing some enhancements, with the auditorium getting new seats, new carpet and air conditioning for the first time. The school also has new lockers and has continued to implement more electronic white boards in classrooms.

Runey said they wanted to fix up some of the facilities as part of the 50th anniversary.

“This is a unique year for us. It’s a little bit more celebratory,” he said.