About The Orbit

Welcome to The Orbit, the North Polk Journalism Staff’s new and improved online newspaper! This is the second website the Journalism Department has had the opportunity to publish all things North Polk.

North Polk High School is located in Alleman, Iowa, and consists of the communities of Alleman, Polk City, Ankeny, Sheldahl, and other parts of Polk County in between.

The Journalism Department first started second semester of the 2019-2020 school year with the Intro to Journalism class, taught by Jessica Trier. The class consisted of three students, Aden Burdine, Maggie Baumgardner, and Sophie Hoffmeier. These students got the opportunity to interview student and teachers, and write detailed articles on many different topics. Just as the class got in motion, the COVID-19 shutdown hit on March 15, 2020. Throughout the shutdown, the Intro to Journalism students kept up with their work by conducting quarantine interviews with their peers through Facetime, Zoom, texts, emails  and various social media apps.

Each year, teachers Jessica Trier and Tia Stubbs continue to advise and to build our program.  All of the writing on this site comes from these student staff; however, pictures might come from students in our other branches of the Journalism Department, Broadcasting and Yearbook.