Miss Natalie Wright has been involved with Student Council (STUCO) since August of this year and so far, she thinks it is doing decently.
Wright Said, “So far, so good. I have been overall pleased with the number of students that participated, and each time we have a meeting or an opportunity for feedback, we are gaining, even though they are small gains, a gain is a gain. I cannot speak to last year or previous years. Those would be those sponsors that do still work here. That would be Miss Norris, Miss Gallagher, Miss Kiser, and this year, we are in a building year.”
With the recent gain of students at student council meetings, the structure of STUCO was considered, since STUCO is still in building itself back up again, Miss Wright clarifies.
“So, STUCO the organization, student council across America, has all sorts of initiatives and ideas. None of the sponsors are required to follow that procedure, but it is encouraged. This year because I took over in August, I feel like we are not at a place where I cannot use that structure yet. What we are doing is we are hoping to build towards a place where some of those structures are easier for us to maintain and manage in ways that are not always build something then it falls apart. So, what we are wanting to do, whether it is me or anybody in the future, I want to build sustainable systems at West. Things that are not about the person but are about the position. We are trying to build towards what other schools are doing, but maybe not really the way they are using them.”
Many students at West noticed how information for events and Spirit Week not being shared in time, to plan how they are going to get it or what they are going to do to participate. This year Miss Wright shared that she is looking for the best way to get the news to everyone. She does not know the best way to do so, wanting feedback from students.
“Every student got that information directly to their outlook from me beforehand.” Then we mentioned that most students do not ever open their school emails. “So how best do we get information out? In the past, I have seen things like posters that people do not read. Maybe the adults are not always aware of the best ways to get information to students, and when we see a poster in the hallway that no one is looking at, and then I send that information to students ahead, and then teachers went over it on that Monday, I tried to send that ahead, because sometimes students are saying that their teachers are not going over that information. So, I wanted to give students a chance to have it then that following Monday, teachers would have gone over it. That was a full week before we even started spirit week. So, I am not laying blame anywhere, but we are looking for how do we do that better in 2024 when information is everywhere, where do we go look for it?”
While having this problem with information being released homecoming’s date this year made It very inconvenient for a lot of students to be there. There was a lot of talk about how it was a poor decision on STUCO’s part. Miss Wright tries to clear the air explaining.
“Last year HOCO was on Friday as well. The change made this year was made by the athletics director, Mr. Womacks, and Ms. Smith, I inherited all the dates but didn’t set them. The reason our school is moving towards Friday dances is not a happy reason, the truth is, it’s a financial situation. When we ran the security gate at the football game, that gate costed $500 to run, and so every time we have a home game, that gate costs us that money.” Wright also Said, “When we have the dance on a Friday, we get to double book that same gate for the same cost, we are getting two events, as opposed to paying the $500 for them to come back on that Saturday. And then there is the staffing reality, you know, we have a limited number of staff that must sign up for events, and we tend to get more staff sign up for Friday night events than we do Saturday events. I do think there are options here, but it’s a plan ahead situation.”
STUCO is determined to improve and has many plans for improving the way they run as well as the events they plan in the future. They want to get specific feedback on how they can improve from students wanting people to be honest.
“I will say, I think we would like to know from students who are interested. Would we want a game night and or a carousel skate party? What do we want? Do we plan to get better? Yes. I know some people are just gonna say, “Oh yeah, that’s trash.” Great. That doesn’t help me know what kind of trash it is. Is it recyclable? Should it get fixed? Or just shredding that idea and moving on? When I talked in the first STUCO meeting, I talked about the difference between change like being binary or change being a process. If this conversation were as simple as we want West high on more spirit, we would have already fixed this. And so, the only way I know to grow it is to try things and have some failures so that people will be mad. I am not trying to make people mad with that, but I do want that feedback. I want people to go to their friends and have opinions and then have an opinion that gives me some information back. If you are not happy with it, I want to hear, and I want it to be something you are happier with.”
Miss. Wright has created a STUCO feedback quiz where you can tell her the specifics on what needs to improve and what students want from STUCO.