The SSC bulletin is a weekly article covering the events at each Monday’s council meeting.
The weekly Student Staff Council (SSC) meeting began at 3:31 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24. Representative attendance was low, but all absences were excused by SSC President Natalia Freedman due to the beginning of spring athletic practices. One senior member and one sophomore member missed the meeting, and no freshmen members attended the meeting. Freedman put the day’s snacks on the table after representatives entered room 104. The usual animal cracker and pretzel snack combination was replaced by a variety of Oreo cookie flavors and assorted chips.
Freedman later discovered that mice had likely gotten into the chips due to evidence of holes in the chip bags. Assistant Principal for School Life Quinn Killy was surprised that the mice had gotten into the chips because the chips had been locked in a cabinet in the high school office. The OREOs were uncontaminated because Killy brought them in from home.
This week, SSC discussed the long-awaited installment of the Farmer’s Fridge vending machine that offers healthy food options, and the council discussed planned deals with tampon and smoothie bowl companies.
SSC planned to make an announcement about the Farmer’s Fridge vending machine at the Monday meeting on March 3. Freedman said that the machine, which was installed last week, will be stocked with food on Feb. 27 and noted that she has so far heard positive student feedback.
The council formed four subcommittees in late January, each focused on a different facet of school life: health, furniture, special events and food. Representatives split into those groups on Monday to work on upcoming projects.
The health group discussed the purchase of pads and tampons from the feminine care company Rif Care for the women’s and gender-neutral bathrooms. Sophomore representatives Willa Wible and Alicia Kim, who worked with the company for their winning Hopper Tank project Purple Pack in 2024, leveraged their prior relationship with Rif Care to strike a deal. As a result, SSC will get a 15 percent discount on their products.
The special events group reached out to smoothie bowl chain Playa Bowls during the meeting and asked if the company would sell smoothie bowls at GDS during lunch. Playa Bowls responded and said that if the school could meet their minimum sales requirement, they would come to GDS. The council agreed that students’ purchases would likely exceed the minimum sales requirement. Killy is setting up a meeting with Playa Bowls to do a routine fingerprint background check on their employees before allowing them to sell food at the school.
The furniture group worked on finding coat racks to put in the senior corner and measured the space during the meeting to see which size of coat racks would fit. The group noted that the racks could be used to hang backpacks instead of coats once the weather gets warmer. They also tried to find a new mirror to put in the men’s first floor bathroom. The previous mirror was broken on Halloween and has been missing ever since.
The food group discussed strategies to prevent students from taking too many snacks from the snack boxes across the high school. The group debated moving the snack boxes to the Hop Shop or to offices where teachers should be present. They also confirmed their plans to implement Breakfast Buddies at the next junior class meeting on March 10, during which the juniors will have breakfast together.
SSC then split into grade-level groups to go over grade-specific projects. The seniors planned a volleyball tournament for March, and the sophomores discussed holding a St. Patrick’s Day raffle. The juniors worked on coming up with St. Patrick’s Day plans that would not take place during a class meeting, as the food group had scheduled Breakfast Buddies during that time. There was no freshman sub-meeting since none of the freshman representatives attended the council meeting.
The meeting came to a close at 4:32 p.m. Killy handed out the remaining Oreos and reminded representatives not to eat any of the mouse-contaminated chips as they filed out.