by Kirsten Kraus | feature editor

Sophomore Rachel Delgado sits in her second period English class, mindlessly scrolling through her phone, waiting for the bell to ring. As the students around her line up at the door and mindlessly explore their Twitter feeds, that five additional minutes of second period is not being used to its full capacity.

“I have English second period, and we never watch simulcast, even though we usually finish class early,” Delgado said.

Second period has five extra minutes so that teachers can show simulcast, but the majority of teachers still do not play it.

“I always thought the extra five minutes were for attendance, not simulcast,” senior Lindsey Bohannon said. “My teacher uses the whole period for teaching most days, so even with the extra five minutes we don’t ever have time.”

Simulcast is under five minutes so some people, like the simulcast teacher Amber Padilla, think it should be played in second period regularly.

“I think simulcast should be mandatory just because we do have five minutes built into the period,” Padilla said. “Some students who wouldn’t otherwise know or hear about things going on around campus would be forced to watch it in their second period.”

Many students like watching simulcast to get information about things going on around school, but others don’t think that it is unnecessary.

“I don’t really want to watch simulcast and I don’t think we really need to. Most of the things they show we already know about, and it’s mostly the same stuff all week. I would rather spend the class period working on classwork or homework and maybe watch simulcast once a week when the information is still new and relevant,” Bohannon said.

Students volunteer their time every day to help produce this broadcast during their class period and throughout the day.

“We spend from the time the bell rings to the end of the period everyday. There are only four students so they usually come back during flex on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and two of the students come in during fifth period lunch. It’s an around the clock job,” Pardilla said.

Though these students and their teacher are devoting time and effort to produce a daily simulcast, most students never get to see their work on the big screen.

“There are a lot of teachers who don’t show simulcast, so it kind of makes you feel like you’re wasting time, but the students who do see it usually enjoy it. We are always going to put in the effort and make it the best we can, regardless if no one watches it or if everyone watches it.”