As student council starts planning the school year’s events, they are also prioritizing an internal reorganization. The newest goal of student council comes from observing other schools in the area. Student council is also opening the floor for all Park students to suggest ideas and give feedback on past events.
According to student council advisor Elaine Rennhak, COVID-19 had an effect on how student council is run. After students returned full time at Park, it was difficult to keep attendance rates high.
“Last year was our first year coming back and revamping the student council post-pandemic, so our troops were smaller in number. This year, we reinstated an application process — where any student who wants to participate in student council would have to petition their peers and get signatures,” Rennhak said. “Even with that, we now have 54 active official members, which is really exciting and we just selected officers. So one of our main goals is just to rebuild the program and establish some leadership and general knowledge.”
Senior Suweis Hussein said student council was inspired by surrounding schools and their efficient ways of organizing events.
“We want to achieve the structural aspect of student council that we’ve seen in other schools like Orono,” Hussein said. “We saw that they were able to meet their deadlines and have really great outcomes, such as their homecoming games and their pep rallies. And so we thought, ‘why not include that aspect of structure?’”
According to senior Cayden Kuss, student council creates a warm environment for students who need help connecting to Park.
“I hope that people will have felt more comfortable coming to school events and being welcome here,” Kuss said. “The school could use a boost of culture.”
Rennhak said one of the main goals of student council this year is to have students continuously coming back to school events and making long-lasting memories.
“At the heart of student council, the work we do is memory making,” Rennhak said. “Keeping attendance at dances really high. Making sure that these dances are still things that students want to attend, excited to attend and overall just boosts school spirit more.”
Hussein said she joined after watching the seniors before her have control over important events in their last year of high school.
“They (seniors) made sure that they knew what kind of music, what kind of themes and all that stuff that they wanted,” Hussein said. “And so it wasn’t that the sophomores or the freshmen were in charge of it. It was that they were in charge of their own events.”
According to Rennhak, student council takes applications, but regular students can come to meetings and make suggestions if they want to.
“We have our official members that are meeting, but meetings are open for anyone who wants to attend just casually and listen in as well,” Rennhak said. “There’s no requirements for casual members. Drop in, share your feedback and share your ideas as you see fit, whenever you’re able to. It’s more an open student forum.”
Student council meets 7:55 to 8:15 am Tuesdays. Student council’s next meeting is Oct. 17.
