By Dana Sternthal
Staff Writer
The daily bulletin at Mira Costa is consistently ignored by many teachers, which deprives the student body of valuable information it needs to know on a daily basis.
The daily bulletin is posted on the Mira Costa website everyday, and there are an extra six minutes during second period so that teachers have time to read it to students. It usually contains pertinent information about team tryouts, club meeting times, or other relevant information which informs students about what is happening on campus.
When the bulletin isn’t read, students miss out on vital information. For sophomore Ryan Miller, the bulletin had important information regarding independent PE registration, but because his homeroom teacher did not read the bulletin, he missed the deadline. The daily bulletin is essential for maintaining an informed student body; refusing to read it is unacceptable.
In order to give everyone an even chance and keep everyone informed, the bulletin should be read in every homeroom class. Even though this is already the school rule, it needs to be enforced.
In order to ensure the daily bulletin is read, Costa needs to develop a unified system in which students can receive the daily bulletin in its entirety. Teachers sometimes choose a student to read the bulletin aloud, read it themselves or in many cases print out individual copies for students to read themselves. Having multiple ways to access the bulletin but having a unified daily system would allow for better distribution of the information.
In the past, the Mustang Morning News has broadcast the daily bulletin during its shows every Wednesday and Friday. Recently, according to MMN advisor Michael Hernandez, the show has stopped including the bulletin because it is time consuming; Hernandez says that it interferes with the goals of the class and should be the responsibility of the teachers to read it. The MMN chooses how to provide news to Costa students, and they are not required to show the bulletin.
Instead, teachers should allow students to access the bulletin in multiple ways. This can be through a variety of options, including allowing students to access it on smart phones or printing out copies. Even if every teacher read it aloud, students may not always be listening. As such, students are themselves responsible for accessing the information, which is readily available.
The bulletin is available for students online or to pick up in the office every day, but this shouldn’t be a replacement for teachers not reading the bulletin. Students shouldn’t have to go out of their way to receive the bulletin considering the stress already implemented in daily academic, athletic and social life.
Allowing students to use their own devices, such as iPads and smart phones, to access the bulletin goes hand in hand with the push for electronics being incorporated in the classroom. In the future, when all classes use iPads, reading the bulletin will simply be a matter of going to the school website or the Twitter feed that posts the daily bulletin.
The daily bulletin is a necessary component of Mira Costa that can’t be ignored. All students should get the information from the daily bulletin during their homeroom classes. With the increasing incorporation of technology in the classroom and the multiple sources on the internet for getting the bulletin, there is no excuse for teachers to neglect it.
Without the daily bulletin, the student body would be uninformed, and it would make it difficult for students to participate in the many activities and opportunities Costa offers. Mira Costa currently has a way to get information to students, but it’s ineffective if the staff does not cooperate and read it to the students.
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