This article was originally supposed to address a question that I asked myself one day while walking by the Attendance Office: how many pieces of paper does Calvert Hall use on just bulletins alone? But this question of paper use sparked an even larger debate between both students and teachers. The following is part 1 in a series.
So I asked, and Mrs. Patty Smithson told me. Everyday she sends an order for 120 bulletins. While not in AP Calc, I am able to do some basic math, and that comes out to 600 pieces of paper every week. The school year on average runs about 160 days. That comes out to 19,200 pieces of paper every school year on bulletins alone. There's one in each homeroom folder, as well as one in the Student Activities Office, the main office, and other various locations around the school such as the Library, the Math Resource Center and the Academic Resource Center.
But when Mrs. Smithson goes to print these, she also emails a copy to the members of CHC TV. This digital copy is the same one that can be found on both the main Calvert Hall website, as well as the student and parent portals. So I started to ask around and, out of fifteen or so students I asked from various grade levels, only two could 100% say they had read the paper bulletin. A majority of the rest said that their only times reading a paper bulletin was when they were looking at the one posted above the urinal in the bathroom by the cafe.
So the question becomes: what's the point of paper bulletins? While just a small sample size, it seems that manys students forgo the use of the bulletins for usually the same reasons, citing either the online version, watching the announcements in the morning, or just simply asking someone else. Most just didn't see the need to go to a paper bulletin to know what's happening around school.
If this seems to be the case, then why print so many hard copies for people to just not read them or throw them into the recycling can? Students are required to have a device by the school, and a vast majority of students have smartphones that allow them to access the Internet while outside. It would appear that the simple solution would be to simply reduce the number of bulletins to only a handful of central locations: the Commons, SAO, the Main Office, the Attendance Office, the ARC, and the MRC.