Some of you may be wondering about the way that your student body government works, so I’m here, as one of the senior senators, to give you some insight! Student government consists of the president, co-president, three senators for each grade, three committees, public relations, 7th and 8th grade support liaisons, a treasurer, a snack shack manager, and last but not least a secretary. We have meetings in the student center every Tuesday, officially beginning 10 minutes after school at 3:40 pm.

The first portion is for public comment, where all students are welcome and encouraged to come and ask questions or leave comments. For example, you could comment on something that you think was done well for a school event, like music, that you want to see more of, or you could comment on something you think was done poorly and should be changed in the future. Public comment portions in the past have gotten very long and taken up too much time, so recently they’ve been more structured with a speaker list and fixed time for each topic. We’ve also had Mr. Ramirez come in once for public comment to discuss some new school policies and get feedback on them.

After public comment, we shift to grade time where the senators from each grade get together to discuss plans for grade events and more. To plan a grade event, we must get an event form from the office and fill it out with the general details of the event like date, time, and location, as well as how many chaperones will be needed and who they will be. Often the first people we reach out to as prospective chaperones are the designated grade parents. The event form then needs to be approved by a number of people, namely Dr. Reitano, Mr. Lai, and the front office, before the event can be publicized. Events should ideally be publicized starting around two weeks before the event so that people have time to hear about it, but this is often not achievable.

After grade time comes committee time, where everyone groups up into one of the three committees that they chose from when joining student government. The three committees are community, spirit, and dance. Each committee has executives that lead the group, but all members are still encouraged to voice their opinions and contribute.

• The community committee plans community nights and dinners, like the previous Non-Assumptious Frumptious Fun, and the upcoming Games and Grooves.
• The spirit committee plans and decorates for spirit weeks and other school spirit events.
• The dance committee plans and sets up school dances like winter formal and prom.
• Public relations helps senators and committees with publicizing their events by making posters and social media posts.
• The 7th and 8th grade support liaisons assist the 7th and 8th grade senators with planning grade events and making sure that everything goes smoothly.
• The treasurer manages student government’s funds and works with other roles on fundraisers and merch sales.
• The snack shack manager oversees stock for the snack shack.
• The secretary takes attendance, keeps track of and enters grades, and adds different events to the shared calendar.

During some meetings if there’s time we play games like heads up seven up, but it’s not a usual thing. At the end of the meetings each grade, committee, and other members says what they accomplished. The grade senators are dismissed around 5:00 pm, but the executives stay for 15 minutes longer.