The morning announcements have been a staple at Alisal for years, but this year has brought a change. 

Traditionally, the announcements, and the announcers, were heard but not seen. Principal Ernesto Garcia came up with an idea to replace the intercom announcements by creating a YouTube channel and broadcasting them over the internet.

 ASB students are usually in charge and this year is no different, except there are 13 announcers, rather than just two. This year’s announcers consist of nine seniors –  Diego Puga Escobar, Arly Lara (ASB president), JD Solis (Senior Class President), Jackie Rangel (ASB Vice President), Amerika Delgadillo, Sebastian Perez, Emelie Solis (Senior Class Treasure), Yarely Mendoza, Jackie Martinez secretary of Class of 2022; and four Juniors – Roco Contreras, Ashley Corral, Mariangel Ruiz, and Leslie Mora (Class of 2023 Secretary). 

According to  Activities Director Claudia Chaidez,  “The morning announcements are open to my leadership students and we have to do a certain amount of hours [40] per semester, so they have priority and it is open to everyone in leadership or ASB that would like to sign up. Anyone that wants to sign up can it’s not mandatory and if they feel comfortable they can do it.” 

Many students  do the announcements because it is needed for their grade and also it’s something they enjoy because it’s a good way to start off the day for the students. “I love that we get to inform and make someone’s day by our cheesy jokes and segments,” says Arly Lara.  JD Solis added, “I enjoy the skits we do and segments because it is different and it makes people laugh which makes me happy.”

The content of the announcements comes from a script that contains all the information that is presented on YouTube live are created from a shared Google form with teachers where they fill out the announcements they need to spread the word for a club or activity, and the script is copy and pasted into a document that is used the day of the announcement. Planning the announcements happens between Chaidez and the announcers, where they meet up and discuss their plans for that day by planning it ahead of time. 

Every week a new pair of announcers does a rotation for the week. “I like the rotation, it brings different personalities and sometimes I like to enjoy seeing others,” said Lara. Martinez adds, “I feel the rotations we have are wonderful since they do allow many of my peers to challenge themselves and for the audience to receive the announcements from different people and enjoy different segments.”

When it’s a student’s week to deliver the announcements, they come up with a segment that can be used when it’s their turn. It can be anything from a trivia question, to games where random students are selected to participate, a joke of the day, an interview or inviting guest speakers comes up to the students to decide what they would like to do. 

As for the shift from pure audio to video, it has been pretty simple and easy for the students to get used to. Claudia Chaidez states, “It’s not difficult at all, we just need to be on campus on time.” As being on campus on time can be an issue, on the side recording and making the announcements can be pretty easy as they just need to use a Macbook and hit record and end the live when all the announcements are done.

For the most part, feedback has been good, but there has also been some complaints. Sebastian Perez said, “I have received some feedback saying that we should make it shorter or make the segments more extreme (like with the scorpion eating segment he did with Mr. Ashby).” Emelie Solis said, “I have received feedback from students [and] they want to hear different and better jokes.” Puga added, “I’ve received feedback like people think it is entertaining and from some people think it could be cut down because it is a little too long.”

For the announcement crew, they will take both the compliments and the criticism and they will continue to both inform and entertain the school daily.