To an average student, it may seem that Haldane’s student council doesn’t do that much. Th ey plan spirit week themes and occasionally organize a fundraiser, but besides that, what do they accomplish? “I feel like student council is only active during homecoming week,” said junior Ruby McCormick. “Besides that, I don’t really know what they do.”
Each grade has a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and a number of representatives. In addition to the grade-level student council members, there is a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer for the whole student body. The purpose of the student council is to advise the school on decisions that affect the student body and to organize school events, like field trips and dances.
High school math teachers Marilyn Granese and Kristen Peparo are the student council advisors. “We typically meet once a month, sometimes more depending on the need,” said Peparo. There are a few main things that the student council has to organize each year: spirit week, class trips, and fundraising events for those class trips. “In September, we meet to plan the spirit week days,” said Peparo. The homecoming dance and the winter dance are both yearly fundraisers organized by the student council. “Many of our events, like homecoming and the winter dance, the purpose of those, yes, is to give a wonderful high school experience, but also to help lower costs for things like field trips,” said Granese.
Besides yearly events like spirit week and the winter dance, certain students bring their own new ideas for student council projects. “The vending machine was a student council initiative,” said Granese. “That was a student idea that was like, how can we bring in extra money, and we want snacks. So the student council collects the extra money. Whatever the profit is after paying out Pepsi, the student council gets the reimbursement checks for that.”
In addition to making their own changes to the school, student council members also advise school administrators on decisions and policies that affect students. “Something that came up last year was there had to be an amendment to the dress code in the code of conduct,” said Peparo. “The student council had to look through the draft of the new dress code to see if there was anything problematic and helped contribute to that change in policy. The student council is essentially a group that teachers and administrators lean on when decisions need to be made on behalf of a class, since the kids are elected and are representing the grade.” Ultimately, the student council decided no changes were necessary. Additionally, each month, different student council members present at a Board of Education meeting. “I represent the student body at Board of Ed meetings and different events within the school district,” said student body president Giovannina Manfredi. “A lot of times, I have to voice concerns about certain issues, maybe from a grade or a club or an interest group.”
Student council members are elected at the end of each year. They don’t make speeches to the student body, and they don’t typically hang up posters advertising their campaign; most of the campaigning is done through word of mouth. Some students argue that this method of campaigning causes the student council to become a popularity contest. “I think that a lot of people win because they’re popular,” said Manfredi. “They win because they know a lot of people and they advertise it.” Additionally, student council involvement looks good on college applications, so there is an incentive for students to join just to get that benefit, and not because they want to represent their classmates. “I think a lot of people are in student council for the wrong reasons, and it’s difficult at times to coordinate with other people when I don’t feel like they’re giving as much effort as they can,” said Manfredi.
The emphasis on popularity and college applications, combined with how infrequently the student council meets compared to other clubs, might contribute to the general conception that the student government doesn’t do very much. However, student representatives do have a lot of power to bring positive change to the school; it just depends on the ideas and initiative that individual members bring. “I think it’s like, you might not know on a day-to-day basis what the student council is doing for you,” said senior class treasurer Lincoln McCarthy. “But I think it’s more like overall decisions, like homecoming and spirit week, that are made for the students by the students.”
