As of Feb. 13, third period will no longer begin with announcements over the intercoms, but as a live stream on Safari Montage. They will now occur at 10:05 a.m., with Dr. Stephen Covert presenting the first live announcements Monday, Feb. 13.
The transition of announcements from the intercom to the Internet was made possible by the implementation of new technology in the Media Center during its renovations over the summer. At the beginning of the year, the system was not yet functional as parts were back-ordered and the district had yet to do the training required to use the program. The recent completion of this training has allowed for the live streaming to begin.
“We now have the ability to show [the announcements] live. We are one of the only schools in the district that did not do live news,” Assistant Principal Brain Dorn said.
Fifth grade teacher Andy Vitkus’s students will do both the pledge and announcements on the live video. This will continue until later on this year, when students at all grade levels will be incorporated. According to administration, the assistant principals will rotate with Covert on Mondays to allow the students to get to know them better.
The TV Production classes will be in charge of the technical side of this operation, allowing student to see what goes into a daily news broadcast. Announcements will remain in the same format at first to allow the TV production students to get comfortable with the set up.
“It is cool because we get to participate more,” twelfth-grader Matthew Blow said. “We will get to work on the technology side of the announcements everyday.”
Mark Goebel, the TV Production teacher, has been pushing for live announcements for a while. “I think it is great because it is what the rest of the county does,” Goebel said.
The class will continue with their own video assignments approximately once a month. According to Goebel, students taking TV Production next year will have a choice between working with the announcements versus making their own movies.
The goal is to diversify the announcements eventually, with showcases of TV Production’s own works and possibly video projects done in various classes on campus.
The live announcements will last for the same amount of time as announcements currently do, three minutes, because that’s the allotted time in third period for the announcements. The footage will be looped continuously following the live showing to allow for individuals who missed them to view the announcements later in the day. It will continue to be the expectation that all classes watch the announcements as they are shown.