According to ASB Vice President and senior Owain Waszak, Inglemoor was the only high school in the Northshore School District that didn’t have a Student Senate. Out of a desire to increase communication, the ASB Executive Board is working to implement one, with Waszak taking the lead.
“A Student Senate is basically a collection of students that are either elected by a homeroom class or appointed. It would give us students a direct line to admin through ASB to exactly tell us what’s going on [and vice versa]. It’s just a way to create more dialogue, which we don’t have at all,” Waszak said.
Waszak’s personal desire for a Student Senate comes from pep and general assemblies— his first experience as a sophomore at an assembly left a lasting impression.
“Even then, I don’t know why… I felt like [the ASB] was extremely out of touch and just didn’t know what people wanted,” Waszak said.
Waszak’s experience prompted him to think about how he could make a change. On a small scale, he said he thought ASB could send more surveys to increase the amount of direct feedback from the student body.
“If you don’t know who they are and what they want, and it’s simple stuff like what sort of music do you want at an assembly— how are you supposed to represent people?”
Principal Adam Desautels said he supports the implementation of a Student Senate and thinks the student body can go a step further.
“I think there are a lot of different ways in which we can have student voice, but I think we’re not hearing from everybody. So I think having a representative from each classroom will make it a lot easier to do that,” Desautels said. “I think that we actually need to go beyond that too, and have another viable way for students to give feedback to ASB and administration.”
The present Student Climate Board targets a much smaller demographic of students, leading to more in-depth discussions.
“I think they both achieve a similar goal of making sure that we understand how students are feeling in the school and what changes can bring about to make things better,” Desautels said.
ASB urges for volunteers — representatives — from every fourth period class to come to the first Student Senate meeting on Jan. 24.
Junior Marianne Villamil volunteered to represent her fourth period class in the future Student Senate meetings. She said she doesn’t know what to expect.
“…There’s a lot of people and a lot of fourth periods— I just hope they pay attention to every single person’s opinion,” Villamil said.
