This article is not intended to have bias towards any candidates. All photos submitted by officers.
As yet another school year rapidly comes to an end, there are a few loose ends that still need to be tied. One of those loose ends includes re-election for the class of ‘24, re-election for the class of ‘25, and first-time elections for the class of ‘26. For the rising seniors of the class of ‘24, this was their last run for office.
Student Council, sometimes referred to as StuCo, holds a few important roles for students. From planning for prom, JVs, and graduation to fundraising for any and all events, StuCo relies on the work of students to be successful. While the official titles may vary by class, for the CO’24’s senior year, they were looking for eight students to step up into leadership roles.
The most prestigious role to aim for is President. For their senior year, candidates included Ryan Coggswell (Reporter for The Blue and Gold), Abigail Morrison, and incumbent Meklit Abel. For their final year in high school, Meklit Abel will remain President.
Second in command is Vice President, with only Colby Parker running for the role. Incumbent Makeila Scott did not re-run for her role. Despite running unopposed, though, Parker ran a large campaign. With his running mate Presidential-candidate Morrison, the two put up posters around the school in several languages and with different adjectives about their goals as officers.
Although the VP role was unopposed, the role of Treasurer had a few more bites: Vincent Thai and incumbent Larissa Retamero Granja. Retamero Granja was able to hold her place in the council for her senior year. She explained, “I’m not very much worried about anything in the upcoming year. It’s our last year, so I’m more excited.” Since she is replicating her role from last year, she believes it will go as smoothly as possible. “I am very grateful to have the council. The officers and advisors are just such amazing people,” she concluded.
Secretary had three candidates: Arnisbish Ray, Emma Spignese-Smolinsky, and incumbent Abdullah Khan. Following the trend of incumbents, Khan was able to resecure his victory. He proclaimed that he had used trial-and-error to find the best possible method in his role: “Before I completely got the hang of things, I’d experiment with different note formats and what worked best for our council, but now that I’ve spent over a year in the role I feel quite confident in my ability to maintain organization in the council.” Even though he was in this role last year. He was not confident before the elections that he would re-secure his place. He noted, “I was extremely surprised that I won considering I had major competition this year and I wasn’t completely transparent about my efforts in council, meaning people weren’t aware of the work I’d done.” Despite this, he was able to win enough votes to hold his title.
Event Coordinator is a modified version of this year’s JV coordinators roles. This job allows two people to take on the role. Applicants included Alexandra Rodrigues and incumbents Tyler Edmond and Erika Macharia. Edmond and Macharia were able to smoothly transition from their previous roles into their new roles as Event Coordinators. Edmond expounded: “The duty I had to coordinate JVs was the distinction between my current position and my previous one.” Now that he has settled into his altered role, he’s “most interested in planning prom with the rest of the council and wrapping out the year with the rest of the class.” Alongside Edmond, Macharia added: “I’m most worried about balancing all my senior year responsibilities on top of the council, but I know although it would be difficult, it will still be fun.”
Finally, the most popular role is Social Media Coordinator. Just like Event Coordinator, this role is given to two students. While four students ran, they ran in sets of two. Running together means campaigning together, but students not running together can both win. These four students were Elina Yang and Yuxin Zeng, and incumbents Shuyi Chen and Kiera Lin. For this last role, the incumbents were able to hold their titles yet again. Chen joked that her biggest worry for the upcoming year was “getting booted out of office,” but pushed that she “decided to run again this year” because she “liked the experience and it was really enjoyable.”
Although only one position was changed from the previous year, and only one role changed, the CO’24 StuCo proclaims that they are ready to take on their senior year.
