It’s 8:30 a.m. and class is interrupted by two whimsy voices informing students about upcoming events and opportunities. As the sounds wander the halls, many are curious of the people behind the microphone. These are their stories.
The morning announcements are played each Monday and Friday. They voice important updates. It may seem like an easy job, but there is more work and preparation happening behind the scenes than meets the eye. It’s a tradition for announcements to be delivered by members of student council. Seniors Hannah Hoover and Nora Brackley are the voices behind high school announcements. Hoover is the senior class president, and Brackley is the vice president. The duo are close friends and co-hosts.
Hoover applies tricks to her trade in making announcements run smoothly. Because of the short notice of when announcements are made, flexibility is key.
“If it looks like a big long paragraph or there’s names in it, [we] read through it first,” Hoover said. “Sometimes the teachers don’t check their grammar spelling before they send something in and we’ll be reading something off, and if it just makes no sense. That’s kind of embarrassing because everybody is hearing us.”
Hoover and Brackley use tactics to inform others and spread the word about the morning news in addition to relying on just the verbal announcements.
“Brackley and I record the announcements and then post that recording on Snapchat and anybody who has us on Snapchat can see them in case they can’t hear it through the intercoms or they’re not here during first hour,” Hoover said.
Announcements sometimes turn into a tag team effort. The NHS staff are always willing to give Hoover and Brackley assistance when needed.
“If one of us isn’t here, Ms. Kelly and Mr. Charity could fill in. Mr. Mckay and Mr.P[hilipson] did it one time because me and Nora weren’t here but it’s like our job,” Hoover said.
To avoid interruptions, announcements are made five minutes before class ends. Sometimes this simply is not enough time. “There was one time where there were a lot of them [announcement reading] and then it got cut off by the bell because when the bell goes off the intercom system cuts off … if we’re talking to the mic you can’t hear what we’re saying,” Hoover said. “If we think it’s going to cut off we’ll just wait until the beginning of second hour so nothing’s going to stop us from being able to finish.”
The announcement reading job opens up communication opportunities and life building skills for Brackley.
“It’s networking because you get to talk to a lot of different administrators and then also students get to come and talk to you that you don’t usually get to interact with,” Brackley said.
Doing announcements is brave since feedback will always be given to the announcer whether positive or negative.
“I would say make it your own, people are gonna say stuff to you about it and you can either choose to take it or just leave it as some would say. You do get criticized a bit but you really have to ignore it or whatever makes you happy you should do that,” Brackley said.
Administrative assistant Joylynn Kelly has been doing announcements for four years and writes everything for Hoover and Brackley to say over the loudspeakers.
“In the beginning of the year it’s tricky because we always pick the senior class president and vice president to do announcements,” Kelly said. “It’s kind of a trial by fire getting the time down, how close you are to the microphone and how to work everything. All that good stuff.”
News is submitted by staff members to be announced over the loudspeakers and then Hoover and Brackley are given instructions on what to announce on certain days.
“I write up the announcements, teachers, athletic counseling or other administrative staff will email me what needs to go into the announcements,” Kelly said.
Kelly uses resourceful tools at the start and end of the weeks to decide what information to convey.
“I put the slides up on the TV and I decide what ones the girls read on Mondays and Fridays,” Kelly said.
Although announcements are seen as a job taken lightly, there’s more work and information being done behind all of that.
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