Student Gov’t Increases Class Representation with ‘City Council’
The student government sees City Council as a way to get more students into leadership roles. Photo Credit: Lawrence Kolotkin
By SAMANTHA FLANNERY
The student government is returning this year with six re-elected members and four new members.
The student government is back and working on bigger and better things for the new school year. One major concept being introduced this year is the City Council.
Senior President Jonathan Li ’20 said, “City Council was an idea that came about to increase representation for each grade and open up the possibility of having new insights on what we could do together to benefit the school.”
Having only ten official positions on the student government makes representation tricky, considering Midwood’s population has over 4,000 students. The concept of a City Council would allow more people to get involved in the school community.
“We recognized that many candidates are deserving of leadership roles,” said Mayor Tanisa Rahman ’20. “We wanted to hold interviews to assess applicants’ character for ourselves.”
The City Council will be composed of two representatives from each grade, who will be chosen by interview. They will work in collaboration with executive leaders to attend and organize events, offer improvements and ideas, and maintain social media.
However, the implementation of City Council isn’t the only thing the student government has in store for this year.
“We’re looking to renovate the locker rooms,” said Rahman. “We’re trying to add additional storage lockers as many students end up having to share lockers with other people, especially in the girl’s locker room.”
Getting the school community involved is a major goal that the Student Government tries to work on each year. One way they work on this is by using social media.
“The student government tries our best to keep the student body aware of upcoming events and new information,” said Comptroller Zyhra Casero ’20. “We have both an Instagram and Facebook page for the council as well as for each individual grade. It would be great if more people from each grade follow the social media platforms we’ve created.”
Rahman said, “We want future cohorts to look at pages like these and think, ‘Wow, I want to do that too.’ We want it to be inspiring.”
Casero said the platform student government officials have gives them a different perspective when it comes to changes in the school.
“The satisfying feeling of watching both small and large changes happen in the school, not only from our ideas but from the ideas we cultivate as a group,” is worth the challenge, she said.