Student Council

Building a student council

Attending our first Student Council Retreat

Creating Student Council guidelines and expectations

Speaking at Student Info Nights

Supporting other student's evening events

Teamed up with 9GS Team

Created a Student feedback form/link

10th grade:

BRIAN: Makena, Hayden, Alex V.

SAM: Myra, Andrew R.

11th grade:

KELLIE: Makale

SOPHIA: Isaac S., Alexis 

12th grade:

ALISON: Owen

JILLIAN: Eva'Maree

Resigned: Dillon, Carlos, Lea

Graduated: Jomie, Kai

Advisors: Erin Wirtz and Hannah Hardt

Last updated: April 8, 2026

The Student Council is asking students to fill out the form below if you have an idea, suggestion, or recommendation on how to improve Community School. You can either fill out a paper form or click the link below.

COMMUNITY SCHOOL SUGGESTION/RECOMMENDATION FORM

The Student Council meets every Wednesday during Focus from 11:10 to 11:55 a.m. in John Stapleton's Room 117.

Members need to check in with their Focus teacher first and then come to the meeting.

Purpose of Student Council:

A group of Community School students who are motivated and dedicated to improving the student experience. Students meet with staff and administrators to share concerns and solutions, as well as bring information back to their Focus classes. The Student Council is new and will develop over the course of this school year.

Students who applied or were nominated should be interested in:

• Collaborating with other students and staff to improve Community School

• Applicants have ideas/plans to improve the school

• Are able/willing to listen to others

• Are able/willing to meet as a group regularly with administrators

The student council has been selected for the 20025/26 year. Applications are not being accepted at this time. 

 STUDENT COUNCIL VOLUNTEER/NOMINATION FORM

Participated in the Metro Fall Leadership Summit at Mountainside

Made a prom survey

Presidents met with district staff about the garden

Hosted two Saturday work parties for the Merlo Garden

Participated in a discussion about attendance

Conducted our first student led interviews for new members

Members continued to present and lead tours at all of our Info Nights 

We started a school-wide recycling program

We did a Hot Chocolate fundraiser for several months

We had our first fundraiser at Pastini

We supported our first Culture Fair

Hosted our first Prom!
 

The Student Council has organized two Saturday work parties to help take back our garden space.

We will be hosting two workdays on Saturday, November 8 and on Saturday, December 6 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The ask: Cutting black berry vines down and hauling them to the dumpster.

The shifts: We are asking for volunteers to work in 2 hour shifts. Volunteers can sign up for as many 2 hour shifts as they want.

What you need: Appropriate clothing (the vines have thorns) so bring clothes that you are okay with getting snagged. Weather appropriate wear. Bring work gloves if you can (we have some but not enough), snacks, and water.

Where: Staff Contact at Merlo: Erin Wirtz, School Social Worker - (541-937-5608 call/text)

Merlo Station Campus 1841 SW Merlo Drive Beaverton, OR 97003 in the field on the back right of the school.

Here is the Google Sign up Merlo Garden Work Party

Creation of the Council

Creation of the Council

1. During the first week of school, advisors will check in with all previous returning student council members to confirm their spot for the current school year.
2. In September an application will be released to the student body. Students then have the opportunity to nominate themselves or be nominated by other students/staff. The application will be open for about 2 weeks. 
3. The council staff advisors will then review the applications and offer interviews. Our current/previous members will be on the interview panel.
4. The goal is to have each grade and Focus class represented on the council. 
5. Interviews will tentatively take place on the fourth Wednesday of the school year.
6. The chosen new members will then be notified and given the option to accept their spot.
7. The new council will ideally meet on the fifth Wednesday of the school year. 
8. Once on the council, all members are eligible to run for elected positions and free to choose the committees that they want to help with.

Elected Positions Voting Process

1. Elected positions include two co-presidents, a secretary, and a treasurer.
2. Once the council is established, members will volunteer for elected positions and ballots will be made. 
3. Prior to voting, all candidates will speak to the council about why they want the position they volunteered for. 
4. Voting members include the council, staff advisors, and admin. Votes will be tallied by another staff member.
5. In the event of a tie, the counseling team will be invited to the following meeting and the candidates will speak again about the position they want and a second vote will be completed. 
6. In the event of a second tie, the voting will be expanded to Community School Teachers. 

Open Positions Mid Year Process

1. When we have student council members that graduate, leave the school or no longer want to be on student council we will reopen the application at the semester mark.
2. We will keep it open for 2 weeks and follow the process of the creation of the council. Aiming to fill the grade level that we need.

1. Each grade & committee has at least two members.
2. Respect other members' bandwidth
3. Council members are respectful, honest, trustworthy, responsible, and open-minded.
4. Council members are expected to represent the school in a positive manner
5. Members must commit to 80% attendance
6. Council members strive to reach a consensus or majority vote.
7. Council members will develop an outline at the beginning of the school year for the main goals to accomplish during the year.
8. Council members should be fully coherent and abstinent from illegal substance consumption.
9. Council members need to be present and prepared for meetings
10.  If a meeting is going to be missed the member is expected to notify the adult advisors and presidents
11. Members serve for the school year.

Student Council Member

1. Attend meetings every Wednesday, notify advisor or co-presidents if you can't make a meeting
2. Be prepared with Chromebook, pencil, etc
3. Actively participate in meetings
4. Complete quarterly self-assessments
5. Contribute to the agenda
6. Co-Facilitate at least one icebreaker or activity per semester
7. Either be in an elected position or be on a committee

Co-President

1. Facilitate Weekly Meetings
2. Finalize agenda
3. Represent Council on occasion

Secretary

1. Take notes at meetings

Treasurer 

1. Manage council budget
2. Estimate costs

Our first meeting of the 25/26 school year!

We discussed elections, adding new members and made a plan for council members to speak in every Focus Class starting tomorrow. We are prioritizing holding our first ever Prom!

Our Student Council was able to participate in the Metro League Fall Leadership Conference. We loved hearing speaker Mike Smith, participating in the workshop and more importantly meeting students at other schools!

We discussed the Metro Leadership Conference and definitely agreed we will attend next year along with our Leadership Students. We prepared a survey for students to fill out about having our first ever prom at the end of the school year.  All focus classes had student council members present about the open application for new members. 

We emailed Jon regarding the new student ID cards not having the crisis lines on the back. We are close to finishing our Google Form/survey regarding a prom. Erin and Hannah will go to Focus classes one more time to remind students to apply for the Student Council by Oct. 9. Moving forward we will not wait until the end of Q1 to bring on new members. We will also be gauging interest in starting an E-Sports team in the future.

Yuliana joined us at our meeting to gather ideas on how to increase attendance at school. We discussed adding some electives, more clubs, more field trips again. Some of the opportunities could have a requirement of attendance/passing grades/work completed. We discussed that a lot of students need an incentive or social outlet to get them to come to school.

We reviewed our Prom survey and hope to have it ready to be sent out later today.

Reminder, applications to join Student Council are due by next Thursday, October 9th. 

After having reached out to admin to voice our concern, Student Council members were able to hand out the newly acquired 988/Mental Health stickers for the back of the new student ID cards.

We discussed concerns regarding the bathroom misuse (vaping, cell phone use, hanging out/class avoidance) and how this is impacting the larger student population i.e. students who are following the expectations and are not able to use the bathroom because a pass is not available and/or bathroom is full of students not going to the bathroom. 

Interviews were held for new Student Council members in The Cube. 

After the interviews we discussed that our group is going to more than double and we will need a new space. We will ask John Stapleton if we can use his room moving forward as he does not have a Focus class this year. 

A special council meeting was scheduled for Friday, October 17 to finalize our recommendations for new members.

A brief meeting was held to review/debrief the recommendations for new members. Erin and Hannah will speak with those being offered a spot this afternoon and the new council member names will be announced at the end of the day.

Today was our first meeting in our new location, John Stapleton's room. We thanked our returning members, welcomed our new members, and then we played "I love my neighbor who." Next week, the real work begins!

In our first official meeting as a new larger council we covered a lot of ground today. We reviewed Student Council (history, job descriptions, website, elections). We assigned volunteers/student speakers for the upcoming info nights. Spoke about the upcoming Garden Work Parties 11/8 and 12/6. We reviewed the Prom Survey results and concluded that students want a second dance with food. A location other than Merlo was not very important. The cost of the ticket was very important and needs to be $15 or less. We ended with completing Self Assessments where we reflected on the skills we are doing well, which we want to work on during Q2 and what our goals are for the council. 

Info night speakers:

Wed, Nov. 19: Myra, Makale, JB, and Isaac.

Wed. Dec. 10: Andrew, Lea, Makena, and Kai

Wed. Jan. 7: Owen, Jomie, Makena, and Isaac.

We started our meeting off with playing "Words for Friends," confirmed who wanted to run for our elected positions, and reviewed the student created guidelines for council members.

We met at the district office for our Student Council Retreat. TOSA Jenna Thoma met with us to lead some connection activities and guide us through a personality assessment to discover our unique qualities and personality styles.

We then held elections for our six elected positions and selected members for our committees:

Elected Positions:

Co-Presidents: Makena and Eva

Secretaries: Jomie and Darius

Treasurers: Myra and Makale

Committees:

Prom/Spring Dance: Myra, Makena, Jomie, Lea, Eva

Radio/Student Announcements: JB, Lunette, Hayden

Merlo Improvement/Community/Club Making: Isaac, Darius, Makale, Carlos

We played a Jenga game and reviewed the info night speakers. The new student speakers/helpers for 12/10: Lea, Makena, JB, Myra, and Isaac. Arrive at 5:15 p.m.

The council reviewed the Student Attendance survey and made some changes. They plan to present the survey to Focus classes soon. 

It's our last meeting of 2025! We developed and finished our Prom theme survey and sent it out today!

First Student Council meeting of the new year! 

We reviewed the initial responses to the Prom survey and agreed to send it out again. Next week we will commit to the date, time, and theme.

Info night is tonight. Myra and Makena will be there. Jomie and JB are hoping to attend. 

We had a discussion regarding bathroom use and problematic behaviors and discussed ideas about how to make using them  more accessible and safe for all. 

We discussed Student Council members will help new students on the first day of second semester. Members should wear Merlo T-Shirts adn meet in the main office to help walk students to their classes.

We discussed our upcoming Hot Chocolate Fundraiser for Prom which will begin next week.

Yuliana attended our meeting as she wanted our perspective on ways to improve attendace.

Today we reviewed our recent Hot Chocolate fundraiser ($141.00) and we got started on making our lists for Prom; what we need to ask for, what we can borrow, etc. We also started to make decisions on our colors, decoration ideas, and food choices. 

We made a sign-up sheet for Focus classes to start sharing the load on picking up recycling on Thursdays. 

Our Pastathon is tomorrow night! Myra will make announcements on the intercom. Erin will make more flyers.

We raised $870.68 at our Pastathon event on 2/12. We spoke about our budget and how we will continue to raise more money.

We will sell Hot Chocolate next week on 2/24, 2/25, and 2/26 before school. Isaac will get us more Hot Chocolate.

We discussed getting classes signed up for our first recycling program pick-up which will happen on Thursdays.

We had members from the ELD class present about hosting a cultural event. We agreed to continue to sell Hot Chocolate.

We reviewed our Hot Chocolate sales over the last two weeks. Moving forward we will sell Hot Chocolate before school Thursday and Friday mornings and Fridays after school through the month of April.

In order to prepare for Prom on May 15th, we will open up our Student Council meetings to anyone wanting to help make Prom decorations during our 5 Wednesday meetings. 

We interviewed one new potential member, Alex and we voted for her to join! The questions were: Why do you want to be on student council and can you give up your Wednesday study hall days and still stay on top of academics.

1. Hot cocoa is going well, Thursday and Friday mornings, anyone want to sign up to help sell on those days…Friday afternoons as well

2. We walked through the space we want for Prom and started to talk about specifics…draw as we go, or talk through and then find the decorations needed for each space.

3. Merlo Info session tonight! Tonight we will have Makena, JB, Myra, and Hayden.

We interviewed a new member, Alexis and Clara spoke with us about a new club she is launching. 

Reviewing Prom Planning.

Merlo Info Night: Tonight we will have Alexis, JB and on 4/22: Makena, Alex, Isaac

We voted on the Prom Posters from Sam's Art Class as well as the menu for Prom.

We are super focused on Prom! We are finalizing our food order, decorations, and timelines. We voted on the Prom posters that Sam's art class made. We also made a script for making an all school announcement about Prom Tickets and Hot Chocolate sales.

We decided we are going to continue to sell Prom tickets on Thursday and Fridays until Prom. We have sold 16 already!

Oshey confirmed she will be here on Prom day before the dance to help students with hair and make-up!

Alison, via Isaac brought up the idea of the whole school Merlo Lap permission slip which would allow teachers/staff to take students outside for much needed movement breaks without have to get permission each time.

We talked about getting more access to Prom clothes.

Prom planning/preparation continued! We talked decorations, music, food, and more.

We did not have our typical meeting. Members met in Kelly's room to cut out trees from Prom which is happening to two days!!!

We held a Prom debrief and wrote thank you cards to Angel for DJing, and to several staff who really helped out! We also talked about how we want to celebrate our last student council meeting next week!

Today was our last meeting of this school year! We spoke about what went well, what we could do differently next year, and what we would like to focus on next year. We think we can do prom and another project now that we know what to expect. Members were given certificates for their participation.

Accepting New Member Applications  from August 25 - September 11

Meetings will be twice monthly on the first and third Wednesdays and back in the Conference room.

Our first meeting will be on Sept 2 and the last meeting will be on May 19. We will host a special Student Council celebration on May 26.