This school year, the ERHS administration eliminated after school announcements, on which many activities were reiterated from the announcements of the morning. This change has brought up the issue of whether the removal of after school announcements affects student participation in extracurricular activities.

“The number one priority for the students of Roosevelt [High School] is to maximize student learning,” said Principal Reginald McNeill. “Because the afternoon announcements cut into five minutes of the students’ eighth period classes, we felt it was in the best interest of the students to eliminate them.”

However, many students have expressed their concerns that not having afternoon announcements makes it harder to get involved.  According to some students, solely relying on the morning announcements causes many students to miss them altogether.  The nature of mornings before school begins consists of late buses, transitioning to classes, and loud hallways.  Therefore, many students are unable to even hear the morning announcements, which now, is their only opportunity to hear about upcoming events.

The advantage of afternoon announcements include their ability to reach the greater majority of the school population because everyone is usually in school by eighth period.

Also, according to Carlee Meadows, a junior here at ERHS, “the afternoon announcements provided a reminder for students to come to an activity. Like, people would say ‘oh they’re meeting today, maybe I should stop by’.”