As I walked to my first class on Feb. 13, I noticed a crowd forming in the Internet Cafe. When I walked over, I saw a newly installed vending machine: Farmer’s Fridge. I asked the students around me what this new vending machine was, and they told me the Student Staff Council (SSC) collaborated with Farmer’s Fridge to install the vending machine in hopes of providing healthy food options for students. The new vending machine made me wonder what else SSC has done throughout the school year to help the GDS community.
Although some of SSC’s planned events have garnered a lot of attention, some of their events have not gained proper recognition. For example, right before winter break on Dec. 10, senior and SSC President Natalia Freedman sent an email to the high school explaining an Elf on the Shelf scavenger hunt in the high school. Although a scavenger hunt sounds like a fun communal activity, I saw few people attempt to look for the Elf, and Freedman did not send any more emails on the subject.
“No, I didn’t search for [the Elf],” junior Noah Kolker said. Kolker said he did not know how to participate in the game. Freedman’s email did not explain what the prize was or how to show that you found the Elf. If Freedman had sent a follow-up email explaining the guidelines for the scavenger hunt, I would’ve been able to participate in the search for the Elf.
When students elected Freedman as SSC president in May of 2024, she promised the student body a hypoallergenic therapy dog. Freedman and the rest of SSC representatives fulfilled this promise in January and brought in a black lab named Pru, but SSC only brought a therapy dog once this year during a community time, which is less than one hour. “We’ve done more events this year,” Freedman said. “Things to boost school morale, you know, that’s not that significant.”
SSC should be more focused on making the student life better for the whole school year, not just one day. If SSC focused less on small holiday events and spent more time working on long-term projects, I think the council would be more beneficial to the student body.
While I wish SSC extended their impact on the community, I understand there are many restrictions to what SSC can do. When freshman Gavin Solomon ran for SSC, his main goal was to grant everyone in the school Quizlet Plus, a yearly subscription to the studying resource. Quizlet Plus offers more studying tactics than Quizlet, with fewer distractions like advertisements. (Solomon is a reporter for the Bit.)
Freedman said SSC did not have adequate funding to buy Quizlet Plus for the whole school. “We got pretty far in the process, then it turns out that there was some problem where you have to pay an absurd amount of money that we didn’t have,” Freedman said.
Lack of funding was also an issue for purchasing everyday necessities like furniture. Junior SSC representative John Morsberger has been working to add a much-needed piece of furniture in the Internet Cafe and around the school: new chairs. “There’s some restrictions when replacing the chairs,” Morsberger said. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen because chairs are expensive.” Morsberger added that Assistant Principal for School Life “Quinn [Killy] doesn’t want to have to pay for more.”
Junior SSC representative Grace Khuzami said SSC representatives propose ideas to Killy to first get a sense of whether their idea is possible. After SSC representatives write a detailed report about the proposal, the representatives send the report to the High School Principal Yom Fox. If Fox approves the proposal, SSC sends the proposal to Head of School Russel Shaw. Finally, if approved, SSC presents the proposal to the Board of Trustees.
I do not think that SSC focusing more on long-term projects means not organizing big, annual events like the Winter Formal or Homecoming but rather focusing less on smaller holiday events like an Elf on the Shelf scavenger hunt. If SSC focused more on long-term changes to help the student body, then it would be easier to implement things such as better furniture and studying resources that will help more students’ high school experiences.