Student Council

 

10th grade:

BRIAN: Makena, Dillon, Hayden

SAM: Myra, Andrew R.

 

11th grade:

KELLIE: Makale

SOPHIA: Isaac S.

 

12th grade:

ALISON: Lea, Owen, Carlos

JILLIAN: Eva'Maree

BOB: Jomie, Kai

 

Advisors: Erin Wirtz and Hannah Hardt

 

Last updated: October 17, 2025

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

Made a prom survey

Presidents met with district staff about the garden

Participated in a discussion about attendance

Conducted our first student led interviews for new members
 

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.