With the removal of the BARK study hall period at the end of the 22-23 school year which was used by the Filmmaking enrichment BARK to produce Buena Today, the responsibility of producing the morning announcements have been passed to Ryan Bolland’s Sports and Event Management Course.
Buena Today did not start as a BARK class. In the early 2000s, it was a thirty minute program that aired on Caps Public Broadcasting System. At this time, people were switching to streaming services and the viewership dropped as a result.
“We had to change because the program numbers were declining. There was not a ton of interest in the course” Filmmaking teacher Amanda Graves said.
Frank Davis, the assistant principal in 2012, had the idea to create the five minute announcement program we know today. The format at that point in time included athlete spotlights, a “powers packed moment” from principal at the time Bobbi Power’s, and for announcing school events. Graves left Buena for a time and took the program back over when she returned as a part of the Filmmaking BARK and she let the student’s take full ownership over it.
Senior Emil Hernandez appeared as a student anchor frequently. “It helped me learn my editing software but it still felt more like a job than a hobby,” Hernandez said.” The episodes had to be edited the night before, but I was also trying to balance Buena Today and my own homework.”
In the end, after BARK was removed. Hernandez did not regret the experience but was relieved to have more time after school going into his senior year.
May 26, Buena Today aired what was believed to be the last five minute segment. However Bolland, who remembers watching buena today episodes as a buena student in the 2000s, now runs the program.
“Buena Today is a way to highlight extracurricular activities to students.” Bolland said. He believes that Buena Today could become something for clubs, electives, and athletics to share what they offer and accomplish to fellow classmates. In contrast to last year’s Buena Today program, making a single episode takes a student assembly line under Bollands direction.
“Some students are filming or editing- the others are making a slide or a graphic to have in the background.” Bolland said. He hopes more students will join the program to lighten the workload and accomplish more.
From an eleven minute cable channel, to a student-run news style broadcast, to the current collage of school activity information, Buena Today never strays from their main purpose: morning announcements. No matter what episode, either from the early 2000’s or yesterday’s daily video, they will always remind students that “it is a great day to be a bulldog.”
