With the absence of homeroom this school year, the way students get information is changing.

“I send out Google Slides for all staff to put in any club information, any announcements that they want to have,” new assistant principal Michele Brehmer said. “Those are pushed out to everybody’s graduating class Schoology accounts. It’s also on the website under daily announcements.”

About 54% were aware of the schoology slides before taking a survey given to Palatine High School students. The procedure for announcements is still influx, and administrators are still searching for the best methods to deliver information.

Before the removal of homeroom, students would receive announcements through short news segments put together by the broadcast media students. This was known as ‘PTV’ or ‘Pirate TV.’ Now, there are no more set weekly announcement videos.

“We are meeting and trying to figure out whether or not we post them in regular classroom Schoology and what that looks like,” Brehmer said. “It’s also on the website under daily announcements. We are working on having them live streamed in the cafeteria.”

Students that have seen the previous announcement process are concerned about what this means for the future. 

“In previous years, there were lots of announcements for the fall play,” senior Mckenna Smith said. “PTV used to make videos and the announcements would last all week. I just didn’t hear much about it this year.”

Within the student body, there are many ideas for new ways to have announcements. A format in video or talking over the intercom during the school day were amongst the popular options. Some responses from the survey mentioned pushing out information from a twitter account or email.

“We’re trying to be as digital friendly as possible because students are always on their iPad or their phones,” Brehmer said. “We’re trying to figure out the best way to do that..the speaker or push out some sort of text message notification or send emails to students.”

Students don’t want to lose the weekly shoutouts, which would spotlight different activities and students throughout the school every Friday, and still feel that homeroom was the best way to get information. As the future of announcements is still to be determined, students just hope that the experience for freshmen through seniors is not compromised.