The Middleton High School (MHS) daily announcements are a familiar part of Advisory classes, airing every day except Friday – a recent change. They highlight club meetings, events occurring around the school and other miscellaneous matters of importance. With a video posted on the district’s Youtube channel at noon for nearly every school day since 2016, it begs the question of who’s behind such a feat. 

That person, as of late, is Kyle Khol-Perez, the Media and Marketing Specialist at MHS. Among other media tasks like creating posters for district families, live streaming school performances and arranging the course selection handbook, Kohl-Perez spends every morning piecing together the daily announcements.

The process starts with staff, club leaders or anyone else with something to share emailing the MHS media account with their content and how many days it needs to be shown. The information gets added into the script, along with any provided graphics that need to be added to the video in editing. Though, if no graphics are provided, Kohl-Perez is able to create them himself.

Next, two or more volunteers enter the studio room (room 2205) at 8 a.m. each morning to record that day’s script using a teleprompter to read their lines. This process takes only a few minutes, after which the volunteers leave for their classes. Kohl-Perez then takes over to edit the clips.

Bloopers and outtakes are cut out, clips are arranged accordingly and all the effects and backgrounds are added during the two classes between the start of the day and early Advisory. Of course, shortcuts are taken when possible and still-relevant graphics get reused to save time. Sometimes, even entire recordings are copied directly from past announcements. However, most effects and transitions are remade from scratch every morning, save for the title screen. 

While there has not been an issue with getting the announcements done on time, the short deadlines still are not ideal. “It’s always been a countdown clock until 11 o’clock but it’s also never been like, a huge issue.” Kohl-Perez said, “I wish I could take infinite time because then it would look better and stuff. But also it’s like, never guaranteed that an entire Advisory is paying attention to it anyway.” 

Of course, viewers of the announcements know that there’s more to them than just club news. This includes three school body run segments played at the end of the announcements. Including Hall Pass, an interview show; Fake news, a satirical news channel; and a weather report by art and mathematics teachers Peter Ludt and Matt Lane.

Kohl-Perez is most directly involved with Hall pass, having brainstormed the idea with the show’s host, Aydin Rosas (12), long before its debut. Kohl-Perez cites the “Tiktok man-on-the-street” style interviews for the show’s inspiration. Episodes are recorded whenever time allows prior to class starting, and edited later in the week or month.

The weather report is the newest of the three current segments. It was an idea brought up to Kohl-Perez by Ludt and Lane due to their shared passion for meteorology. They record when they can on Wednesday mornings, and Kohl-Perez edits the videos on the same day. Most relevant graphics and information are provided by the two hosts, and Kohl-Perez just puts them in where he is asked to.

Fake news, however, has very little input from Kohl-Perez. Originally created by a former student, leadership was later passed down to student Jeremiah Kim (12) upon their graduation. The show is fully written and edited by the students themselves. Kohl-Perez just sends them the raw, unedited footage, and later receives the finished video from the students. He then reviews it for anything too inappropriate, and finally attaches it at the end of that day’s announcements. They record in the studio during advisory on Wednesdays, and each episode can take from a week to a month to produce.

Kohl-Perez has expressed interest in expanding student involvement in the announcements, particularly by having more interactions between students and a fully fledged sports section. 

“I would love to have a student just take the reins on like ‘Here’s what happened last week in Middleton activities and athletics and here’s what’s happening next week.’ And then maybe if someone wants to do interviews and stuff like that. I think there’s a huge opportunity there,” he said , “I just haven’t ever been able to find the right student who wants to do it.”

Any student who has an idea for anything to add, or just wants to help record the announcements is encouraged to ask their advisor for the relevant contact information. They can also connect with Kohl-Perez through the MHS Media club, though the club is not directly involved in the announcements. Kohl-Perez is open to hearing any suggestions for future announcement additions 

“It’s always nice to see students who come up with ideas and to see them fully through,” he said.