With the third week of school coming to an end, hundreds of puzzled parents and anxious teachers filed into North Penn High School last night for its annual Back to School night. While parking was a challenge in itself, inside the building, North Penn became a madhouse of confused adults trying to imitate their children for two hours.

Luckily, members of the JROTC were stationed at the major intersections and in each of the pods to help ease the chaos.

“It’s hard because, you know, [we] walk around the hallways and [we] know how to get to classes but it’s a lot harder to explain to [the parents] than it is actually showing them how to get there,” commented junior and JROTC member Xavier James.

With Back to School night comes diversity, so there were confused new parents, but also some veteran parents walking confidently to their child’s classes. Whether a veteran or novice, however, most of the parents seemed to enjoy the thrill of learning their child’s schedule and meeting their teachers.

Mia Washington, a veteran parent who has a senior in the high school, enjoyed meeting her daughter’s teachers.

“It is exciting to meet the teachers,” Washington commented. “You kind of get a feel [of] what their personalities are and what your student experiences throughout the day.”

Washington also loved the opportunities and possibilities North Penn has to offer, “I think it’s great because my daughter has been exposed to a lot of different opportunities and I believe it’s going to set her on the right course for the future.”

Jeff Jacob, another parent of a senior, said that he was most surprised by the enthusiasm of his son’s teachers.

“They like to teach while having fun, and they like their kids to have fun too,” Jacob said.

Mrs. Cheri Sabanas, a teacher at Pennfield Middle School, has children in North Penn and showed sympathy for them after experiencing their struggles as North Penn High School students.
“We as parents are more understanding of what our children go through everyday here [after Back to School Night].”

Aside from meeting their kid’s teachers, parents were also anxious to meet the new building principal, Mr. Todd Bauer.

“There was a little bit different feel in the building coming in to meet the new principal,” said Mr. Pete Nicholson, one of North Penn’s five assistant principals.

Bauer himself felt that the night went well, saying that “every back to school night in every building I have ever been in has had the same amount of energy. There was just lots of energy because parents are excited to meet their kid’s teachers and to learn about the programs. I thought it went fantastic.”