North Harford High School’s journey through the years

     Agriculture. The Hawk’s Nest. Yearly musicals. North Harford High School has many unique qualities, but it has not always been this way.      

     While students may not realize how different the school has become, some teachers have seen it through the past 40+ years. It has developed in several different ways, including interior design, diversity, hawk pride, and of course teaching methods.

     After being built and established in 1950, North Harford High School has undergone mostly physical changes. In the 2010-2011 school year, it became an official Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences (NRAS) magnet school. Not only that, the first in the state to have a functional farm on campus. 

     With farming and Agriculture being crucial to the area, it was a development many were working towards. One of those people being Mrs. Laura O’Leary, one of the teachers involved in the program, teaching Natural Resources. She is also an alumnus of the school and took on environmental science after loving it in high school. “Environmental science has always been strong here at NHHS,” she reflects, “there was a teacher who helped inspire me.” Aside from the physical changes, she does not think it has changed very much over the years.

     Along with the magnet program, the school was renovated in 2008, changing the interior dramatically. Mrs. Christine Allred, an English teacher for grades 9 and 12, describes how much more beautiful it has become, saying that “The only thing that seems familiar is the science hallway!” The Baltimore Sun claims that it “virtually be[came] a new building,” in their article on the major architectural changes. Additions included more and larger classrooms and expansion of the gymnasium, auditorium, cafeteria, parking lots, and other areas of the like. Essentially, the renovation was to “modernize” the building for the new generations of students who were attending. 

     Aside from physicalities, the activities students partake in has also been edited to fit popular schoolwide interests over the years. Allred also discussed the activities that went on at North Harford about 30 years ago. They decorated and rode on floats for the Homecoming parade and did a senior rockathon which was an overnight fundraising event. She believes that these just “wouldn’t fly today,” but almost all the sports have remained in place. 

     Allred also added that she wishes students were still as involved in green and gold Hawk spirit, but “people are so busy nowadays that we don’t always have the time… to express our passion… for our school and community, and it’s place in our lives”.