It is official. Our new name is The Valley Echo.

The Pascack Valley High School Student Newspaper has undergone several changes with its name since 1955, when the first known edition of Pascack Valley’s student newspaper was released: from The Smoke Signal, to The PV Student Publication, to—now—The Valley Echo. 

The publication’s first official name was The Smoke Signal. On Feb. 29, 1956, the first known edition of the student newspaper with the title The Smoke Signal, was printed for the PV community. 

The title The Smoke Signal was created to relate to our mascot at the time, the Indian. A smoke signal was a way Native Americans communicated with one another, using the amount of smoke and a certain amount of puffs of smoke to talk to different tribes, according to the National Improvement Hub.

On June 22, 2020, the Board of Education voted to remove the Indian mascot from PV; thus, the newspaper changed its name. We created a new name, The PV Student Publication, as a placeholder while trying to develop a permanent name. 

Then began the selection process for our new name. As an editorial staff, we had ongoing discussions within our staff and with the PV community in an attempt to hear many opinions. 

And, on Oct. 17, 2022, we released our new name: The Valley Echo. 

By changing our name to The Valley Echo, we want to symbolize our news echoing throughout the Pascack Valley community.