Every day, NHP Memorial greets with a gentle and warm welcome through their morning announcements, after the bell is rung and the pledge is said. Recently, the morning announcements have taken a swift turn, gradually becoming longer. 

The usual pattern is as follows: In the morning, the morning announcements are the usual, talking about school club activities, honor society meetings, in-school events and what schedule the day follows, ending off with a simple encouragement. 

Sometimes these announcements vary in length, being 1-3 minutes long. The first period teachers are frustrated with this as it takes up time to start the lesson, do the do-now or assessment. 

“I want more announcements, and I think they should go longer,” a teacher said. “They are important for the well-being of all of us at school.” 

However, now NHP is adding another section to their morning announcements, where specific teachers and subjects per week take on the announcements. They speak during periods 2-3, ranging from talking about the importance of their subject, to the events going on about it, to ending with a riddle. 

Now these announcements are becoming even longer, resulting in annoyed teachers and excited students. With these announcements, it is not only taking up the first period, but also the second and third periods, forcing teachers to alter their lesson plans and make shorter tests. 

“Imagine getting to hear about every event, deadline, and schedule change over and over—it’s a perfect way to make sure nothing is forgotten,” junior Fatima Naysa said. 

The students are excited about this because they do not have to learn and can take their test later, claiming that the announcements are the problem. The teachers are angry because they have to shift their lesson plan according to the schedule of the announcements. But the staff who run the announcements want to ensure that every announcement is heard with clarity and that everyone in the school is well informed of the school events. 

Due to the varied opinions of the school, the announcements have gotten longer and longer, now extending to the fourth, fifth and sixth periods. During this time, the announcers talk about the latest news going on in the world, and talk about what the lunch is in the cafeteria. 

They have added commercial breaks, where the school starts selling ad space, having student made commercials for clubs, fundraisers and a snack business. 

Teachers have started to truly get furious, and have organized protests. They have also begun to riot and have threatened to go on strike for these announcements to be over. They screamed as they held up their well-crafted signs about how these morning announcements are taking over their lives. 

The students, on the other hand, are creating classroom parties, where they take control of the classroom, putting on music connected to the TV, bringing snacks and drinks and blocking out the noise of the loudspeaker. 

Due to the response of the teachers, the Board of Education had to get involved. They mandated that each school in the Sewanhaka District had to adhere to the school’s morning announcement rules and acknowledged the importance of announcements, ultimately extending the announcements to the entire school day.

They planned to have students come to school in the morning, sit down in their first period class, then go to the auditorium and listen to the entertaining announcements for the entire school day. NHP Productions was set to narrate each announcement and make them with visuals to keep the students and teachers engaged.

After these announcements are done, the students will go home for about 30 minutes, then come back around 3:30 PM to participate in their “After-School-School” to make up for their lost time. The daily schedule will be shifted from 8 AM to 3 PM, and the students will receive dinner, and leave school by 10:30 PM. 

Additionally, there will be “After-After-School Extracurriculars” that will take place after the school day is over, from 10:30 PM to midnight. This includes sports, games, club activities and school events. If the students are caught sleeping, they will go to detention, which will take place from midnight to one AM. 

The bus will take students to school, but not from school, as this can result in injuries due to the darkness outside. After their day is over, they can go home, become well-rested and then come back at 8 AM to hear the joyous announcements again. 

Many students share mixed opinions about how they feel on the seven hour long announcements and night school. Some are excited to see what the school will look like during the night, while others believe they will be falling asleep during a test. 

This is the only solution that the Board of Education has given as this law will make every party happy and there will be any more protests. This law enables the students to gain discipline, respect and time-management skills, providing further benefit to students then harm in the long run. 

According to Monsters University, studies show that more than 60% of students learn better during night-school, because they feel more productive and energetic then they are in the day. Through a linear quadratic scatter plot regression, the trend moves upward, where the students tend to do better on their test grades when they have night school versus the day. 

“I despise working between the hours of 10 PM to 3:30 AM because I feel I can never focus on what I need to do,” junior D1 energy drink lover said. “I always end up falling asleep.” 

As a result, the morning announcements have extended to the end of the day and now “After-After School” will take place along with extracurricular activities. Students and teachers have mixed opinions about this new decision from the Board, but these are the current consequences.