Student Voice

The function of Community High School’s Forum Council.

Student+Voice

Room 111 of Community High School was filled as Forum Council waited to hear the results of the recent student election. This was democracy in action. The candidates stated their views for Community High School and then the students voted on who they believed would best represent them.

 The votes were tallied and the results were written on the board. With a vote of 51 for Danny Freiband, 48 for Hannah Rubenstein and Katy Stegemann and 29 for Maggie Mihaylova, Freiband was elected as president. Grace Jensen received more votes than Phoebe Engel and was elected vice president. The room was silent; the results were closer than anyone could have imagined. Now that the election was over the real work could get started.

“[The president’s role] is trying to be some sort of medium of communication between the general student body and whoever needs to hear what they have to say,” Freiband said. According to him, the president’s role has two main parts: keeping the organization and flow of the Forum Council meetings, and being the main form of communication between the students and the administration. Freiband is making sure everyone gets to speak about ideas and issues concerning our school. He wants to make sure the student voice is heard.

“My vision is to not only to show what people are thinking, but to actually turn these ideas into something that [is] tangible and real and makes the school better.”   

Jensen, a junior and in her third year as a Forum Council member, quickly embraced her job as the student government vice president.

“The vice president’s role is to make sure that what Forum Council gets done is communicated,” Jensen said. She believes that her role is mostly behind the scenes. Many vice presidents have interpreted the role in different ways, but as Jensen said, it’s what they make of it that’s important.    

“Communication,” Jensen said. “That’s my key word that I keep saying, because that’s what we need to improve on. What I want is for every student to voice ideas.” She wants to make sure the students are heard.

“I think that we need to get the word out about what is going on,” said junior and Kulka Forum Council representative, Andi Krawcke. She agrees with Jensen’s key focus of communication. She wants to make sure everyone knows exactly what  is going on in our student government.

The system works so students are able to bring up the ideas as well as issues with our school. To do this students need to communicate by talking to their Forum Council representatives or through several other ways laid out by Freiband.

“I’m bringing information from my forum to the council,” said freshman and Mosher Forum Council representative, Julia Sonen. “At the same time, I’m presenting the information of what Forum Council decides back to my forum.” This is the main role of the representatives and why it’s important for every forum to elect at least one. It’s also important to talk with your representatives about any issues or ideas you may have.

“I try and communicate my forums feelings for any topic that we are covering,” Krawcke said. As issues arise, it’s the job of the representatives to gather information on their forums opinions. These opinions are what are used to help formulate solutions.

So far this year much has been discussed in Forum Council and many issues have been resolved. One issue involves the transgender bathroom posters. “A transgender student came to me and said they weren’t feeling comfortable and welcome in the bathroom of the gender they identify with,” Jensen said. As Forum Council should work, this issue was mentioned and dealt with. The solution was the posters stating that everyone has the right to feel safe in the bathroom. These were hung in both the men and women restrooms of Community High School.

“I’ve started putting all the [ideas] people have, whether it’s [through] the idea box or through the Wednesdays at lunch or even just in person,” Freiband said. “I put them all in one place and I’m having [Dean] Marci go through them one by one.” Not all issues can be fixed as easily as this. Many problems, such as the recent decisions on Multi Culti, take longer to fix. Additional time was needed in order to really come to a solution.

“It shouldn’t take a month and half to discuss Multi Culti,” Freiband said. One of his goals for Forum Council is to streamline the decision making process. He hopes that it will eventually be efficient enough that they are able to make it past big issues and get to the more creative ideas. Freiband believes that this school is creative and he wants to be able to see this.

To become more efficient, Forum Council needs to work together. “A lot of times Forum Council consists of people arguing,” said Krawcke. “I think that if we could come together we could actually get things done.” Krawcke believes it is important Forum Council comes- together as a whole in order to get projects completed.

For Jensen, her main goal is to make sure everyone is heard. Forum Council needs people to come and bring their ideas. Without ideas it would not function properly “This year I’m very impressed by what we are doing. We’ve had so much better attendance,” Jensen said. “I really hope that can continue. Everyone needs to be there so they can contribute.” Without ideas and contributions the student body would not have a voice. It’s important that students have a say in what is being done at their school.

An important question to ask is whether Forum Council really has a say in what happens in our school.

“Right now, it has a voice, but I think it could be amplified,” Jensen explained. Forum Council does have some say in what happens at Community. Dean Marci is listening to what Forum Council has to say. However, there isn’t anything for her to hear unless the student body states their opinions. “I want make sure that people know we have a student government in order to make sure the student voices are heard.”