Juniors Henry Lessard and Hayden Saad and sophomore Declan Scheid are now producing the morning announcements as student anchors and video editor, respectively, with the goal of increasing student interest and enjoyment.
Social studies teacher David O’Reilly explained he has been compiling, scripting, filming and editing the announcements by himself for the past year and a half. After looking for students to take over, he got in contact with Saad, Lessard and Scheid, he said.
Lessard explained he and Saad learned about the anchor opportunity in their government class.
“Mr. O’Reilly came into our class and asked if anyone was interested in being an anchor,” he said. “We raised our hands, and I thought we would be the perfect people for the job.”
Lessard said he and Saad work well together, which allows them to be successful as anchors.
“We know when to talk and when the other person is going to talk, so we have great chemistry together,” he explained.
Saad said a week after O’Reilly visited their class, they began practicing how to read the script from the teleprompter and speak with the right inflection.
He explained the announcements are recorded one day before they are aired, so Scheid has adequate time to film and edit the video.
Lessard said he wants to develop the announcements team into a club to get more people involved.
Utilizing student run announcements will help students improve their public speaking skills, Saad explained.
“Talking in front of other people isn’t always easy for people, so if you can do it for a video, it will hopefully make it easier,” he said.
The team plans to make additional changes to the announcements to create more school-wide engagement, Lessard said.
“We want to start doing segments for the announcements,” he said. “We had an idea of interviewing teachers on certain subjects or even quizzing them on things.”
Saad explained he wants to interview students and teachers before and after big events. He added the announcements are the best method of providing students with information, rather than sending emails that students may ignore.
O’Reilly said he took over the announcements from instructional coach Gina Vehorn in 2024, and last year there weren’t any students interested in participating.
Librarian Mike Nolan, who advised the announcements team for 15 years before Vehorn took over in 2023, explained a tasteless joke made by a student led to the administration banning live announcements.
“I became very nervous about doing the announcements because you could easily get burned and lose your job,” Nolan said.
O’Reilly said the new anchors and editor will be carefully trained to ensure they don’t say anything offensive or inappropriate, and the announcements will continue to be recorded in advance.
O’Reilly added he hopes the new team will lead to more student entertainment.
“Students give a different type of energy than adults do, and I think students can appreciate that a little more,” he said.
Published and digitized December 2025.
