Announcements This Year Have Been Inexcusably Ineffectual

This year the administration has taken a different approach to the typical mid-morning announcements. Instead of the original over-the-intercom information, they attempted to go digital with a PowerPoint shown over the school’s closed circuit TV channel. Trying to take a fresh approach to the daily announcements, the administration thought that a video PowerPoint would be more interesting and make students more intrigued by what was going on in the school.

Rather than the usual intercom, announcements were shown on all the projectors in the school in a PowerPoint-like presentation, filled with blurry text and clip art. The idea was a bust and seemed like a poorly-executed joke. If the energy of all of the projectors in the school is to be used, they should be used on the original plan, innovative live broadcasting, rather than a simple, flat PowerPoint presentation.

Though teachers were encouraged to show announcements on the screen or read them aloud, some teachers didn’t even show the announcements. And in the classrooms that did, some students paid less attention to the presentation than when they were spoken aloud over the intercom.

The complete lack of announcements was unacceptable. Throughout the first quarter, it’s been inconvenient that the announcements have been so scattered and announced in an inconsistent fashion and in a non-constructive way. It seemed like more students were getting informed by passed by water-fountain talk rather than daily announcements.

Yet, the administration made an effort to take fresh approaches to spreading the news about the school. The fact of the matter is, they didn’t give up and quit. Even when the PowerPoint announcements were not going as well as they thought, they kept trying their best to inform the student body about their school.

But the intercom announcements have always worked. Though some may pay more attention to an energetic StuCo executive than a less than excited teacher, they work. The students that want to listen, can listen. And the ones that don’t want to hear certainly don’t have to. Considering there are five extra minutes during fourth hour on seven period days specifically for announcements, why did we ever switch from the intercom? The best and clearest way to get a message across to the entire area of the school at this moment is to play it over the intercom speakers, just like they do to call students to the office and announce cancelled sporting events. Why not use that for announcements, which are of equal importance?

After StuCo approached the administration about the announcements, they considered changing the announcements back to the regular intercom. But once StuCo unanimously voted to return to the intercom, the administration ceased the PowerPoint announcements.

Announcements are important. They inform East students of important dates coming up and accomplishments their counterparts have achieved, and the absence of announcements is unacceptable.

Knowing this, the administration made a respectable effort to try to keep students informed of their school, rather than shutting it down completely when the PowerPoints failed.

But most importantly, the original intercom announcements are back. They have worked in the past and will continue to work in the future. The administration and StuCo are working on a live broadcast that will take the place of intercom announcements and are set to be in effect later this year. The administration made a valiant effort mixing up the announcements, but should have sustained with the intercom until the live broadcast was ready.