The Staples High School Student Assembly (SA) has decided to take a more vocal role as student advocates this year. While a May 2010 Inklings survey showed that 0% of those polled believed that the group provides for the student body, this year’s executive board aims to change its past image.
“If we define success by how much people know about what we are doing, then we weren’t as successful in past years,” said President Michael Goodgame ’11. “We’ve had motivated leaders, but the lack of success is that there’s a certain amount of apathy for us. We need to get the word out more.”
Goodgame, along with other members of the board, aspire to build strong communication forces with the student body this year.
Public Relations Officers Jordan Rubin ’13 and Ned Hardy ’13, have established a page on Facebook for the group to spread the word about their plans and get feedback from students.
In the past, SA has rid students of dreadful summer assignments for all not enrolled in AP courses, dealt with student parking, and organized student-teacher socials, a mock trial, the 5K Run in the Sun fundraiser, recycling and other environmental campaigns, a food drive, and of course, the talent show.
“We are much more focused this year on the goals that we want to achieve,” said Event Coordinator DJ Sixsmith ’11. SA plans to build a new recycling and trash campaign, and continue to organize the successful 5K Run in the Sun and talent show.
“Unfortunately because of the internships, we have lost a lot of senior participants in the talent show,” said Sixsmith. SA may work towards moving the date of the show to a time before participating seniors depart.
SA hopes that more runners will participate in the 5K to show their support and because the money raised goes towards Staples tuition grants. “The more money we make, the more money we can share with people who really need it,” said Sixsmith. Since it’s not a school requirement, SA admitted to having a difficult time acquiring runners. “It forces people on their own self-initiative to get involved.”
Last year, Goodgame formed a committee through SA that sent materials to Iraq. He “encourages people individually to think of their own ideas and use SA to sponsor their campaigns.” After the success of his initiative, he plans to continue sending money and materials to Iraq.
Secretary Courtney Garzone ’11 hopes to “be more available to the students that aren’t on the assembly.” People can easily become involved, even if they are not official members of the group itself.
The board plans to build a stronger bond with the student population. “We hope to get the entire student body involved with SA, and have more people care about what we do,” said Goodgame. “It’s going to be hard, but we are trying to reach out to the people.”
Goodgame and Vice President Spencer Adler ’11 venture to collaborative team meetings, which is the governing body at Staples, including administrators, department leaders, and elected members, as student representatives. “The faculty is such a distant concept, but they share many of the same goals as the students. We hope to close the divide between students and administrators to make a difference in the Staples community,” said Goodgame.
Adler continued to explain how imperative participating in the collaborative team meetings truly is. “It’s a great opportunity to represent my fellow students in making important decisions for the future of our school.”
If students have ideas that they would like to share with SA, there is a suggestion box in the library where they can share their own ideas. The club meets every Tuesday in room 2033 at 6:30 with approximately 40 members; all students are welcome to attend.
