Every day at Terryville High school the morning bell rings, allowing students to exit their first period classes and rush off, feet pounding down the halls, to wait in line at the cafeteria to get some breakfast before finding their way to their homerooms. Eight minutes later, the bell rings again, signaling that it is time for the next period to start. As the scent of french toast and waffle sticks dunked in maple syrup waft through the halls, the PA system crackles on and students hear the usual greeting of “Good morning THS!”. Terryville’s morning announcement crew step up to the mic to welcome us all to school for the day. Teachers quiet their students, shushing them, and asking them to take their seats as the boys begin the Pledge of Allegiance and, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, announce the important events of the week.
Due to the current global pandemic, schools across the world were shut down to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including our own Terryville High School. Even though the school successfully switched to online learning, some aspects of everyday school life were missing. Connor, Nick, and Jacob collectively realized that they missed doing the morning announcements, so Jacob said “Why not bring them back?” And bring the morning announcements back they did.
On April 22nd, 2020, a post circulated through different social media platforms heralding the return of the morning announcements through an Instagram account named @ths_morning_announcements_. The next day, the first post went up and viewers were met with the familiar “Good morning THS!”.
From that day onward, Zappone, Garrity, and Fusco would meet every night to record the next day’s morning announcements over a Zoom call. They get their briefs from emails from the principal, Mr. Hults, and also add in the regular announcements like what day it is and what classes are assigned for that day.
Another part of the process for making the morning announcements includes coming up with a “word of the day”, which comes after the announcements, when the boys end with the day of the week, whether it be a “wacky Wednesday” or in general an “exhilarating day”. To come up with a new word each day they get inspiration from the weather or holidays. Sometimes they just look up other ways to say, “have a good day”.
To keep the announcements fresh and interesting occasionally the boys will host a guest teacher. The process for being a guest star? Just asking. Zappone said, “If any teacher wants to come on, they are welcome to join us.” Currently, they have had science teacher Mrs. Baranowski, Spanish teacher Ms. Erickson, and history teacher Mr. Schumann. Mrs. Baranowski advertised spirit week with her “College Decision Day” outfit, Mrs. Erickson wanted to thank all of THS for a successful spirit week, and Mr. Schumann wanted to tell his students how much he missed them.
Each member of the morning announcements team enjoys their job. Nick Fusco said that he really likes doing the morning announcements because “[i]t’s a good way to connect with the school and take our minds off of online school. It brings normalcy to the [chaos of the world right now].” That sense of normalcy may be why so many people tune into the morning announcements every day. The account now has 133 followers (as of 5/29/20) that include students and teachers alike. Jacob Zappone commented that the response has been very positive and that “a lot of staff members say they look forward to watching us every day.”
However, the school year is rapidly coming to an end, which means that there won’t be any need for the morning announcements over the summer. Next school year, which will hopefully be in the school building itself, there will be no need for the Instagram account. But the boys hope to use it to keep students updated on events happening at THS, such as school dances, spirit weeks, or pep rallies. 
As current seniors- soon to be graduates- of THS, Jacob and Connor will sadly be leaving the morning announcements team, leaving the task in the capable hands of current sophomore, soon to be junior, Nick. As for the future vision of the morning announcements, at least until the end of the school year, the group wants more guests and say that teachers have been giving them plenty of ideas for what to do at the end of the year. Past the end of the school year, Connor says, “Leave it up to Nick!”
Written by Rebecca Dorsey