The speeches are over, the campaigning has wrapped up and the ballots have been counted. Southdown Primary School’s fall election campaign was smooth and students there received a powerful lesson in democracy and civic responsibility.
Vincent Pupillo has been elected president along with the Riley Uvena as vice president and Lexie Balm as secretary. The executive board members are anxious to roll up their sleeves and get down to work on behalf of all students in the building.
The race for president drew an amazing 11 candidates. The positions of vice president and secretary attracted five candidates each, respectively.
“Candidates were required to give a one to three minute speech in front of all fourth grade students and their teachers,” Southdown Principal Scott Oshrin said. “Class representatives will be chosen in the coming weeks. The student council is hard at work preparing for a great school year.”
The organization has several items to discuss, including school spirit days, efforts to make children more physically active throughout the school day, helping to arrange indoor recess activities such as chess and Scrabble and similar worthwhile endeavors.
“The officers will listen to the wants and needs of the school and make plans accordingly,” Mr. Oshrin said. Teachers Lynn Hefele and Pamela Schwarting will be working with the student council.
According to the Learning Community, an online parent resource website, student council organizations provide youngsters with numerous benefits, including:
• The opportunity to participate in decisions that affect them; Students that feel they have a say in school rules, policies and operations are more likely to cooperate and encourage other students to do so as well.
• The ability to understand more about the democratic process; Democracy is one of our country's founding principles. What better way for students to understand the process than to directly participate in it?
• The chance to learn important leadership skills; Colleges and jobs are increasingly looking for candidates with strong leadership skills. Get your child involved early so that these skills are well developed before they reach high school.
