studentcouncil

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Home : 2001 : June : 30

studentcouncil
By Jeannie

Congratulations on taking on the job of Student Council sponsor for next year. I was student council advisor for 15 years (although not for the last two due to a building change). Student Council is a marvelous way
for students to have a positive role in the success of their school.
Each fall we would have elections to choose student council officers. Since I taught in a
K-6 building, officers came from the 5th and 6th grades. Each student running for an office (President, Internal VP, External VP, Secretary, Treasurer) had to collect signatures of two students from each grade and two

staff memebers that felt they would do a good job in that office before they were allowed to run. I also required a parental permission slip since meetings were held after school. I found it most helpful to have a meeting with all candidates before the campaign week began. At that time I also passed out a sheet outlining fair campaigning rules and dates for speeches and elections. Each runer made two signs to put up in the hall and presented a speech to the student body as to why they should hold that office. On the final day of the week, we held elections and all students in the school voted. Since it was hard for some of the primary students to remember names of the candidates, I also put their pictures on the ballot. At the same time as the campaigning for officers was taking place, each individual classroom chose two representatives. All representatives and officers were installed in a ceremony the following week.
We met twice a month for about 1/2 hour after school. Over the course of the year, we ran many projects for the school and also service projects.
For example, we sponsored a talent show, student spirit days, fun days (hat day, rainbow day, slipper day, backwards day, etc), Valentine's Dance for 5/6 graders, planted flowers for teacher appreciation day, collected food for the food bank, collected money for UNICEF, sponsored a school wide Math-A-Thon project, etc.
While the students enjoy special projects, the main purpose of the meeting is to give them (and their classmates) a voice as to the happenings at their school. It is very important that the representatives understand that they are to go back to their class the next day and report on the meeting and also bring any concerns or ideas from their class to the meeting. You may need to check occassionally to make sure students are reporting back to their classes. Good luck with your year. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.