New Albany-Plain Local Schools students are getting a glimpse into the connection and camaraderie that come with being in groups on a large campus, thanks to the new and improved house-sorting system.
The tradition started in the 2011-2012 school year at the high school level, where students were sorted into eight houses named after the original New Albany schoolhouses.
The program grew and evolved into a beloved student tradition until it ended in 2020. However, knowing the love and history of the program, a group of high school students asked the school administration to bring it back for the 2024-2025 school year.
Now, the program is back with a new structure and opportunities for students of all ages to be involved.
Chosen home
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A student at New Albany Intermediate spins the wheel to determine their House.
Students at the Early Learning Center start out as Team Eagle, then, when students enter first grade, they join different houses in a beginning-of-the-year house-sorting ceremony.
The four culture houses of Akoma, Fortis, Yili and Zonta are presented on a spinning wheel, and first-grade students gather and spin to see which house it will land on. The cultural houses change slightly from the primary to intermediate school, with the houses adding a companion mascot, but the values of the house stay the same.
“They go out to recess, and they’re like, ‘Hey, I’m in Fortis! You’re in Fortis.’ and that’s been really cute to see kids naturally taking care of each other,” says Susie Norman, a gifted intervention specialist and an Akoma house leader at the intermediate school.
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Ms. Radel's third-grade class House Sorting at New Albany Primary School.
These students then keep this house assignment until seventh grade, when they move up to a new sector: the tree houses.
For the seventh graders, the house-sorting ceremony looks a little different. Instead of spinning a wheel, they get to pick an egg out of a bucket that has their house assignment inside. This can be one of eight houses, all based on tree species in Swickard Woods – Aspen, Cedar, Cypress, Mulberry, Poplar, Spruce, Tupelo and Willow. The students keep this house through high school graduation.
The house connections between schools, with students moving from the primary to intermediate school and middle to high school under the same house, give students the opportunity to have established connections with older students and the staff and teachers they meet.
“With us being split up into houses, we’re more connected and less divided because there’s people from different grades talking to each other, making connections,” Senior Adusei, a NAHS senior and a student leader of the Willow House, says.
New students are also integrated into the process. At the middle and high schools, new students draw their houses in the office, while the younger grades often have larger groups of new students and gather them all to spin the wheel for their house.
Beyond the threshold
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NAHS House Sorting event: Students select an egg and then open it to identify their House.
Being a part of a house means more than being a member of Akoma or Spruce House – it’s about being part of a larger community and being accountable for each other, especially during the House Cup competition.
Throughout the year, students can earn points for their house by getting involved in different ways. This includes good academic performance and attendance at school and extracurricular events, doing kind gestures for others and wearing their house shirt on spirit days.
For example, during school pep rallies, students can get points for wearing their house shirt.
The different grade levels also have philanthropy initiatives they participate in with their houses. The district hosts several drives throughout the school year where students collect items for the Healthy New Albany Food Pantry or other community initiatives such as worn denim for the New Albany Community Foundation’s Jeans for Green initiative.
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Members of Cypress House at New Albany Middle School. Cypress won the MS House Cup in 2025.
NAPLS Director of Communications Patrick Galloway says that belonging to a house not only encourages students to get involved, but it promotes a sense of student belonging and excitement to come to school.
As the Kids Mental Health Foundation explains, students who have a sense of school belonging are often more likely to engage in schoolwork and have better academic performance, as well as feel happy and self-confident. This encourages students to interact and collaborate, helping decrease feelings of isolation, anxiety and depression.
As the program continues to evolve, the students are getting more involved, with the intermediate school adding student house leaders and students making their houses their own with secret handshakes and more.
“It has so much more room to grow, because everybody’s always coming up with different ideas, and even when we leave the cabinet, the juniors are going to become seniors next year, become leaders,” says Junior Adusei, a NAHS senior and student leader of Spruce House. “(We all are) also going to have great ideas, (and are) going to build on and make this house system something great.”
Hear from some of the New Albany High School seniors and house leaders about what this means to them.
How did you feel when the house system was announced for NAPLS?
- Tatiana Bell (Spruce House): “My sister would always tell me about the houses, so learning that it got brought back up, I was really excited, especially since we have all the (murals) on the wall that all the seniors signed that correspond with their house. I’m super excited that we can bring that culture back into high school.”
How do you feel about the Harry Potter connection to the houses?
- Sreshta Erravelli (Cypress House): “(We) grew up learning stories like that, so the fact that we’re doing it in our school, it’s pretty fun and cool, and it just makes me feel so grown up and excited.”
What impact do you feel this house system has?
- Junior Adusei (Spruce House): “I just want to create a space where everybody can feel included like I did. When I got the email that I was a house leader, I was just so happy because I feel like I could make connections with a whole bunch of different people, not just people in my little clubs, but people around the whole school.”
What is your hope for the future of the house system?
- Senior Adusei (Willow House): “I’m really excited to see how it grows, and how we can change a lot of stuff we already have and make it better, build off old stuff and make it more inclusive for a lot of new students and people already here.”
- Allie Taylor (Aspen House): “Our (house leaders last year) were super big on school spirit, always pepping people up at the pep rally, having no fear of anyone judging because we’re all in unison and together. It’s great to see the spirit, and as we grow, people won’t be as timid to participate or afraid to speak up on anything, so that’s what I’m really excited for.”
- Sreshta Erravelli (Cypress House): “I think that it’s so cool that we could be doing who knows what in 10 years, and coming back to be like, ‘Hey, Cypress, what’s up? ’ I think that’s also cool for kids who are just coming up to high school and house (will be) going on for so long for them. It creates this idea of legacy.”
Jane Dimel is an assistant editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at jdimel@cityscenemediagroup.com.
