Katye Cormack, who also teaches AP Government and American Government, was named the Student Council sponsor this year.

“When I first started teaching I did Pep Club for about five years,” Cormack said, “so I’ve sponsored stuff before, but this is my first year sponsoring the Student Council.”

Not only has Cormack taught and sponsored at North, she was also a student from 1998-2002. 

“I think what helps is that I did Student Council for four years when I went to North,” Cormack said, “so it wasn’t like I was jumping in blindly.”

Cormack also happens to be the second generation of StuCo sponsors. Her father, Jerry Cormack, was a sponsor at North all throughout her childhood. 

“[My dad] did StuCo for like 20 years, so I pretty much grew up coming to North for things,” Cormack said. “I remember running around while they were decorating for Homecoming, and I was up here for North relays when we used to crown Spring Court, so I kind of just grew up around it.”

Being surrounded by StuCo activity from a young age, Cormack was itching to finally be able to be a part of it herself. 

“I think a lot of people develop thoughts about what high school is gonna be like from TV, and for me, I always developed my ideas of what high school was gonna be like by actually being up here [at North],” Cormack said. “I was always around the stuff that StuCo did, and then when I went to high school, it was pretty much all I wanted to do.”

Jerry Cormack retired as sponsor about the time she began high school, but his work continued to be a big part of Cormack’s life.  

“There’s some stuff that he did that’s still around, there’s some stuff from when I was still in school, and then there’s brand new stuff,” she said. “So it’s kinda nice to sort of watch the evolution [of StuCo] over the years.”

Remote and more recently hybrid learning, have posed challenges of their own for Student Council, such as communication. Student’s will webex in on their remote days when they aren’t in school, but that complicates things.

“I think the biggest difficulty with hybrid is that we don’t have a big group,” Cormack said. “It’s much better in person, like it’s easier to engage with people, but we’re divided in half.”