On Jan. 25, 2019, ASB announced that they would no longer continue creating a weekly announcements video, typically posted every Friday. This came as a surprise to many on campus, since video announcements have been a part of FUHS student’s Friday routine for many years.

Video announcements originally began as the responsibility of the Video Production class. Five years ago, when the advisor of Video Production was replaced, ASB took on the job for what was supposed to be a temporary amount of time. Flashforward to 2019, and ASB still produced them.

Video announcements are not an easy task, and over the years has put immense pressure on ASB students and advisor Ms. Kelly Virden.

Brooklyn Campbell, the Executive Board Treasurer, explains the weekly pressures that video announcements put on Ms. Virden.

“Ms. Virden would be staying up all night trying to edit the video and get it together,” Campbell said. “It is especially hard because other programs at Fullerton have offered to help with them, but we haven’t received any.”

Another influence on ASB’s decision to end video announcements was the lack of teacher participation in playing them.

“There are a lot of teachers who do not show video announcements, [who say] there isn’t time set aside from their class to do so, which makes some [teachers] feel like they don’t have to show them,” Campbell said.

Despite claims that there is not time set aside for video announcements, there is additional time in the bell schedule set aside for announcements. Every second period has an extra five minutes (an extra three on early release days) which permits teachers to listen to the announcements daily and show the video announcements every Friday without compensating teaching minutes.

So, to address the big elephant in the room, will video announcements return? Principal Rubio says that video announcements could return, if ASB and another program work together.

“It just takes a couple of students from ASB who are in charge of video announcements and some who are good with technology,” Principal Rubio said.

She expresses the need to efficiently produce the video announcements during the week at school, so the programs’ respective advisors are not picking up the heavy end of the load.

“It’s all about timeline. If you guys can have it ready Wednesday, teachers can review it during the day on Thursday and have it ready to show on Friday,” Principal Rubio said.

If video announcements do return, Principal Rubio has some suggestions so more teachers show them.

“One thing to do is a campaign to talk to teachers about why they do not show them; maybe the technology doesn’t work, or the links aren’t up,” Principal Rubio said. “Also, students should be asking for teachers to show them.”

In short, video announcements could potentially return if the programs at FUHS can find a way to work with ASB to split the duties and make the production more efficient.