The SSC bulletin is a weekly article covering the events at each Monday’s council meeting.
Members of the Student Staff Council entered room 104 on Monday, Sept. 22 for their first meeting with the newly elected freshman representatives. As council members rearranged chairs to make space for the new representatives, Assistant Principal for School Life Quinn Killy set birthday cake–flavored Oreo cookies and sour cream and onion Pringles chips on the designated snack table.
This week, the council discussed town hall meetings and formed new subcommittees to improve school life.
The council began the meeting by introducing themselves to one another, so the freshman representatives could get to know the other council members. The freshman class elected representatives Aliana Cromer, Roque Gistau, Jonas Grossman and Cassidy Holmwood during their class meeting on Monday, Sept. 15. Seven freshmen ran in the elections.
SSC then discussed the homecoming dance, which took place on Saturday, Sept. 20. Killy said some guests from other schools, who were required to bring a student ID to the dance, forged their student IDs rather than bringing a real ID. Killy said Assistant Principal for Academics Khalid Bashir looked up each student who brought a forged ID on their respective school’s website to ensure they attended the school they said they went to.
Killy suggested that next year the administration might require guests from other schools to bring a form signed by one of their school administrators. No representatives objected to Killy’s proposal.
Next, SSC debated implementing town hall meetings, which they began discussing back in April. Killy said the administration scheduled more Monday Meetings than necessary and said the council could potentially facilitate town hall meetings then. According to Killy, town hall meetings last took place over eight years ago. He said the council has not expressed an interest in holding town hall meetings since then.
During a town hall meeting, students would discuss issues in the school community, and SSC representatives would answer questions about student life in an effort to hear more student feedback. Killy said he wanted all representatives to go through training if the council decides to hold town hall meetings, and he said council members could complete that training during the SSC retreat, an annual three-hour meeting where representatives prepare for special activities. The council has not yet scheduled their retreat.
The council reviewed its yearly budget and decided how each grade would receive funding. Killy said SSC’s budget for this school year is 8,000 dollars, some of which the council has already spent on the homecoming dance. Last year, each grade received 250 dollars to fund their activities, which several representatives said was an inadequate amount.
As a result, representatives agreed that they could individually request funding for their grades as the year progresses instead of deciding on grade funding at the beginning of the year. After one representative makes a motion to ask for funding and another representative seconds the motion, the council will discuss the request before voting on whether to approve the motion.
SSC President Grace Khuzami then announced the council’s subcommittees; each subcommittee is centered on a different aspect of school life. The council established three subcommittees: one focused on mental health, one focused on special events and a new one focused on school policies. Representatives then decided within their grades which subcommittee they each wanted to join. Every subcommittee has at least one representative from each grade.
The school policies group discussed the new English department policy that requires first-semester written assessments to take place in class. The representatives said they disliked that the policy does not let students control how much time they spend on their writing. In prior years, students were often assigned take-home essays, and now, teachers control the time students spend on writing assignments in class.
The subcommittee suggested the policy allow students the option to work in the proctoring room to give students more time to work on assessments. The group said that teachers would still monitor students while working. The proctoring room change to the policy would still prevent AI use, which is the policy’s goal. Students with extended time already finish their in-class assessments in the proctoring room. The subcommittee did not reach a decision on how they would attempt to implement these changes.
The mental health group planned to bring back a therapy dog to school during the week of December 8: the first major assessment–designated week of the year. Since the school replaced Mental Health Teach-In Day with a week of mental health activities during community time and lunch, the group discussed which events they could plan for each day of mental health activities.
The special events group decided they wanted to celebrate more holidays, such as National Custodian Day. The Thursday, Oct. 2 holiday celebrates maintenance workers in schools and workplaces across the country. The subcommittee also decided to hold a trivia game on Halloween where participants get hit in the face with either a pie or a plate of whipped cream if they answer a question incorrectly.
The meeting concluded at 4:33 p.m. Sophomore representative Elliott Etter said he was disappointed by the birthday cake Oreos, which he said “sounded promising until the first bite.” Nonetheless, some representatives enjoyed the Oreos, and Killy threw away the empty package as representatives filed out of room 104.