“This is the Memorial Moment.” These words are heard by the vast majority of New Hyde Park students in the morning before a series of announcements. For a few students, including me, these words are lost, as are the words following them, which may often be important.

There are a variety of reasons that announcements may not be heard. I and other students have class at Sewanhaka and come back far too late in order to hear the announcements. Seniors that have a free period in the morning might not be in the school and also miss the announcements. Even students who are in the school may not hear them, as classrooms are often loud and announcements may be muddled.

These announcements are often very specific. While knowing about meetings for a sport is quite important for those athletes, it does not pertain to the vast majority of students. When there are a wide variety of these announcements, they take up a long time, and due to that, people might not pay attention. Numerous teachers have expressed annoyance with the current system. The announcements take up a substantial amount of class time, and as they are often viewed as unimportant, teachers simply feel as if it is unnecessary. They thus might miss announcements that pertain to them, making the announcements effectively useless.

My proposed solution is an app installed on all school iPads. The announcements could be simplified to one sentence: “Please check the announcements app for important announcements regarding spring track, Model UN and more.” This would enable students to see all of the announcements easily, and would solve all of the issues listed above. People that are not able to hear the announcements in the morning, for whatever reason, would be able to see them all on this app. It could clarify what is said on the announcements, allowing students to see it any time throughout the day without having to attempt to pay close attention. It would enable extended announcements, as speakers are pressured to keep it short due to the disruption it causes to classes. Numerous apps already exist to serve this purpose, and implementing one of these would solve the major problems with the announcement system, and benefit students greatly.