The sun rises, a new week starts and students flow through the school, groggy. Before class begins, they are greeted by a cheery speaker, junior Tina Li, announcing the latest news of the school during a segment called Info Time.

Li, a Student Council representative and student activist, replaced last year’s Info Time host, Claire Gallion (‘22). Coordinating with Dean Summer Williams, Li contacts different clubs within the school for new information to share and organizes what to say for the five minutes given to her on Monday mornings.

Li said that Info Time is valuable, as it provides an accessible and central place for students to advertise information they wish to share with the entire school community weekly.

“Info Time is a good opportunity to highlight all the projects, events and organizations within our school. This not only helps those organizations attract more members, but I also hope it can make every [student] feel welcomed and find the space for themselves in the school,” Li said.

School Within a School (SWS) social studies teacher and the Student Government Faculty Liaison Jen Martin said that while Canvas announcements, emails and information posted on a website are helpful, they do not reach students to the same extent that verbal announcements do.

“I think that only certain kids regularly check the class announcements on Canvas and are actually actively looking at what all those announcements are,” Martin said.

Headmaster Anthony Meyer said while it’s still important to have students look at the emails for information about events or opportunities in the school, it’s more powerful to hear from Li during Info Time.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for the community to hear from a student about different things that are happening, an opportunity to cheer on other students and to hear news, and I love [Li] being our new voice,” Meyer said.

Martin said Legislature is currently working on a bill to bring back morning announcements during the school schedule instead of before school starts, ideally at a minimum of once a week for five minutes, possibly during advisory. This way, Martin said, most students would be alerted by their teachers to quietly listen to the announcement.

“Right now, you have kids who have come in early enough to hear it and you do have some teachers saying, ‘Let’s quiet down,’” Martin said. “But, a lot of kids are still in the hallways, and it’s loud at the beginning of the class. It’s not a time when people are really listening, sitting, fully taking the whole thing in. It’s really only reaching part of the audience.”

Meyer said he prefers for Info Time to not cut into an academic block in the schedule.

“I prefer it to be before the school day begins, not once the school day begins, since I worry about the impact on the academic time,” Meyer said.

Williams said it might be difficult to include a dedicated time for Info Time and that having it during X-block would be complicated.

“[It’s a] free open campus, [so the issues are] who’s here, who’s tuning in, who’s so deeply involved in their club that they are not listening because every drop of club time and X-block is precious,” Williams said.

Regardless of when Info Time airs, Li hopes it will brighten up students listening to Info Time.

“Monday morning can be really stressful and hard for many students because it’s the start of a new school week, so I hope that my positivity can help even one person feel hopeful for the rest of the week,” Li said. “Then, I think I have done my job.”