This school year marks a new beginning for the Student Council and how its President and Vice President are elected. The election has changed to a more realistic style this year, having all students vote for their President and Vice President before the next school year starts; voting begins on May 1st. Many people see the student council as the group who make the big decisions for school events and innovative ideas that students can see here at Central. The Student Council election will be especially important, and all are encouraged to vote for the candidates that will be the ideal choice for each student. There will be a lot of duties for each presidential candidate and vice-presidential candidate, with the first pair of juniors being President Samantha Winchell and Vice President Kaitlyn Foster, and the second pair being President Bowman Seitz and Vice President Alex Johnson. These two pairs will compete against each other for next year’s leadership roles, and they will do so by preparing with activities such as making posters, posting on social media, and making political ads. There are some new and unique additions to each candidate’s campaigns, including a potential podcast where each candidate will be asked questions by a moderator. This video will be posted on the Student Life Instagram. There will also be podcasts here at Central featuring each of the candidates in their own episode. Each of the candidates will have their own different ideas and plans for the future of the student council.

The first pair running for President and Vice President are Samantha Winchell and Kaitlyn Foster. The two want to work on having students get more involved in school and school-related activities. Kaitlyn Foster said, “I feel like there’s a small population

of the student body that actually wants to participate in school events like homecoming and stuff like that. We want to get everyone involved in that.” Kaitlyn explains how she and Samantha see too many students not included in school spirit, and they want to fix that issue and get more students getting involved here at Central. Samantha and Kaitlyn are both looking to be leaders here at the school, and they have always been involved in the Student Council. There are many plans that Samantha and Kaitlyn have produced, and when asked about their plans, Samantha Winchell said, “I would say more Sip Central, dodgeball, and dances are obviously fun. I think that’s my favorite part of student council is planning them and making up the themes. And I think there’s ways we can make it even better, getting more attention or more people to join.” Winchell explains how they want to see some continuity in the school and in Student Council with activities that have shown strong support from students here at Central. They also have some new plans for their campaign, most notably a senior assassin for the next school year, an activity that has not been done at Central before. They also support the new style for the student council election, and Sam Winchell stated, “There’s nothing really wrong with the last process, but getting more people to know who actually runs Student Council and who the President and Vice President are will definitely get more attention to Student Council.” Winchell shows how the new election style will bring light to the situation and have students become more aware of what is happening at their school. The two also believe in making the future brighter for the student council. Kaitlyn Foster stated, “I think we’ve had good leadership in the past, for sure. I think sometimes though, we could have done more as Student Council, and I think we could have been more involved.” Foster shows how she believes that more could have been done in the past, how she and Samantha want to make student council more involved, and have the student council do more than what they have done in the past. Overall, Samantha and Kaitlyn want to see more involvement from everyone at Central and create more involvement in students’ lives.

Next up, we have President and Vice President Bowman Seitz and Alex Johnson. They also want to see more student body inclusion here at Central, and they want to make some changes. Presidential candidate Bowman Seitz stated, “I feel in the past years, there hasn’t been as much inclusion in the student body. And I feel like Student Council has been focusing more on dances than actual events that include the students in more stuff than just dances.” Bowman and Alex are looking to find more inclusion beyond just school dances, and they are looking for more events to have instead of focusing primarily on dances. Vice Presidential candidate Alex Johnson added, “We’re still going to spend a lot of time and a big priority on dances, but it shouldn’t be the only thing that Student Council is doing.” Alex Johnson backs up Bowman’s comment on how they want to expand more into competitions and activities other than dances primarily. Dances will still be planned, but Seitz and Johnson believe that there will be more inclusion of the student body by adding other competitive events for students. Alex Johnson also stated, “There’s a social events committee right now in Student Council, and they do already a ton of the planning for the dances alongside the the executive officer, so we can still have a lot of people who are solely focused and devoted to planning the best dances, planning the best events in that regard.” Bowman Seitz and Alex Johnson are also feeling confident in their campaign. Bowman Seitz, speaking on his and Alex’s ideas, states, “I think we’re quite the dynamic duo you know. I think our personalities and ideas really match well with each other. They kind of contrast a little bit, but I think it helps make it stronger and like two people that you can really look up to and say, ‘Yeah, those people, I want those people to change our school.'” Seitz shows how he and Alex are confident because of how well they work together, and that they believe that students can look up to them for ideas in the school. Along with Sam Winchell and Kaitlyn Foster, Bowman and Alex have been a part of Student Council, so they believe that they are a trusted duo as well. Alex Johnson actually proposed the idea of changing up the voting system to an electoral college system, with each grade having a certain number of electoral votes. Alex did this so that, as he said, “Student Councils’ voices are elevated, but they’re not the only voices counted.”

Overall, we are in for an intense election this year like no other, and we also will see clashing opinions between the two duos, as Sam and Kaitlyn are more on the side of focusing a lot on school dances, while Bowman and Alex are focused more on having more activities take precedence in addition to dances here at Central. We will see many changes to this more traditional election this school year. Every student will be included in this year’s election, making it an intense week for the school while these two pairs run for president and vice president, as the vote will happen on May 1st.