It’s a Wednesday near the end of the school year last year, and chapel is about to end. Cheers erupted as a line of students appeared to make their announcements. Some spoke about club events or meetings, and others detailed about schedules or events during the week. Athletics director Scott Wagner became known for his signature “Goooood afternoon everybody.” 

But this year, announcements during chapel have ended and are now replaced with intercom-style announcements after a decision from the administration. 

“We needed to find a more appropriate place and space for the announcements because we wanted chapel to be that dedicated sacred time.” said Jennifer Grems the Assistant Principal for Student Life. 

Many students that are in clubs now said they have fewer ways to find out information about meetings. Last year announcements in chapel were the main way club officers got information about meetings and activities to the student body, said grade 12 student Justin Li, president of the Model United Nations Club.

Last year, Li made announcements frequently during chapel, encouraging students to cheer on his club and recognize its success.

“It’s school pride. And I think losing chapel announcements really kills that school pride.” said Li. 

Losing announcements this year heavily impacted club sign ups. Most clubs who had a high number of members saw a decrease in sign ups this year without any announcements or advertisements. 

“Last year we had over 70 sign ups for MUN alone, this year no chapel announcement, no advertisement for the club we dropped to below half of that,” said Li

Chapel announcements kept the whole school informed of what events occurred throughout the week and other students’ accomplishments. It provided an open way for students to present their announcement to inform the school said grade 12 student Kerrin Lee. 

“We can’t bond as a school throughout our achievements or what is going on outside of academics,” said Li. 

A widely known regular announcement, the featured athletes of the month no longer appear in chapels. Before the school added the new Monday morning agenda from Damon, athletics director Scott Wagner said he was disappointed in the final decision. 

“I’m happy now that there’s another avenue that I can let everybody know about the wonderful athletes we have,” said Wagner.

Red cross club president Luke Javellana spoke briefly about how his club specifically had struggled to get information about the blood drive out to the student body. The club was able to get one announcement to inform students when the blood drive took place, and many never got a second reminder due to emails being sent to junk mail. 

“From the perspective of someone who has a club, I really need announcements,” said Javellana.