The “FHS Press” first started being printed in October 2008 and replaced the former newspaper called the “Bulldog Express.” Since the first issue, more than 120 different writers have published over 2,000 articles in the newspaper over the past 99 issues. Over the years, many changes have been made to the newspaper. With this issue, the staff wants to reflect upon the best of the press over the past 13 years.

The name “FHS Press” was first printed at the top of the October issue in 2008 under the former newspaper adviser Dave Hartman. This change came after years of publishing the “Bulldog Express.” During the 2008-2009 school year, there were only seven writers on the staff with Kelley Follmer acting as the first Editor-in-Chief of the FHS Press.

During the following school year, 2009-2010, the staff grew over twice in size with 16 writers, with Meagen Finnerty being appointed Editor-in-Chief. 

In 2010-2011 the staff was made up of 10 members, who were led by Editor-in-Chief Emily Francis.

2011-2012 was Hartman’s last year as advisor of the “FHS Press.” During this year, the staff had 17 members and Emily Bittner was the Editor-in-Chief.

Current newspaper adviser Aaron Fitzpatrick took over the “FHS Press” in 2012 after Hartman left the district to be a teacher at Hampton Middle School. During the 2012-2013 school year, the staff was made up of 14 students and was headed by Editor-in-Chief Sarah Choflet.

For the first time, the FHS Press was headed by Co-Editors-in-Chief, Gigi DeWeese and Emalee Sekely, in 2013-2014. During that year, the staff was made up of 19 writers.

The largest staff in the history of the “FHS Press” was in 2014-2015. This record-breaking 26 student staff was headed by Editor-in-Chief Brianna Frashure.

While the staff dropped by four members next year in 2015-2016, the quality of the content produced by the staff wasn’t hindered at all. That year, the staff was led by Reilly Collins as the Editor-in-Chief.

Hannah Shumsky led the class as the Editor-in-Chief during the 2016-2017 school year. During that year, the staff was made up of 23 students.

The staff size increased once again to 25 during the 2017-2018 school year. The newspaper was led by Rachel DeCesaris as the Editor-in-Chief. During that school year, the staff decided to add the Editorial section, which contains more opinionated articles than Features articles.

During the 2018-2019 school year, Claudia Huggins led the staff as the Editor-in-Chief with 22 other students on the staff. For their publications in 2018, the staff was awarded “First Place” in the ASPA contest. The staff was also “Best Editorial” for the article “The root of the problem” that was written by the entire staff in October 2018. One other change to the layout of the newspaper was the alteration of changing the sidebar on the right side of the page to a topbar the top of the front page.

From seven to 26 staff members, the FHS Press was always at its best. So much hard work was put into this publication over the past 12 years. Building the paper takes an enormous amount of dedication, but improving it each month takes passion and commitment. It is not easy creating the FHS Press each month. You begin with the article pitches at the beginning of the month and finish with the printed copy.

When the printed copy of the FHS Press comes each month, it’s truly a fulfilling feeling seeing everything that was worked on printed and in front of your face. You see how it comes to life and all of the hard work you put into it finally pays off. After distributing all of the papers, you get to see the community’s reaction. This reaction makes you feel like you have created something so much more than just a school newspaper. You feel like it’s ‘the’ newspaper for your community.

Students take this class multiple years in a row. It’s a class and publication that students can bond over and make new friends. It’s not just a class where one writes an article once a month and they move on; it’s so much more than that. It’s the class time, the friendships, the inside jokes and everyone’s work put together that makes the FHS Press and Print Media Workshop so worthwhile.

We truly appreciate all of the hard work from all of the past Editors-In-Chief and staff members of the FHS Press. We would also like to thank you for helping us get our newspaper to where it is today. Each writer has had their own influence on what this award-winning publication has become. 

We would like to thank each of the readers for their continued readership over the years and providing feedback and suggestions to the paper. Thank you for supporting us and spreading the word about our publication, the FHS Press, around and beyond our community.