Franklin High School - Oskey Yearbook (Franklin, MA)

Page 28 text:

IV Student Council cont. As they appeared Sckooi. is... Yearbook meetings ' When students are asked if they know what’s happening within the council, the responses range from the negative to vague generalizations. ’’They are trying to improve things in the school.” They are trying to improve the relationships between the students and the faculty,” or just, No! They should publicize their actions.” Ideas for what the student coun¬ cil can and should do, include such things as: They should try to get the kids more interested in the school, and they should try to bring the school, teachers, and students together for communication.” I ran because I wanted to do something about the ideas and complaints the students were dis¬ cussing. I thought by becoming a member of the council, I might be able to possibly try and get some demands, or influence some of their ideas and bring out the complaints and if possible help have them solved.” (Mary Martin, ’74) Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices — just recognize them. — Edward R. Murrow

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”1 don’t think that the Council is functioning to it’s fullest po¬ tential. I think a main func¬ tion of the Council should be to provide a bridge between students and faculty. Hope¬ fully, steps taken such as the student advisory board, will help provide this bridge.” (Bar¬ bara LeBlanc, ’73). Most of the council members are willing to do so, but need a push every now and then! The whole idea is unity, for if the students came directly to us with their griev¬ ances, more could be done for ev¬ eryone.” (Joanne Lewis, Student Council secretary, ’74). Student and faculty alike agree that a communication problem ex¬ ists at F.H.S., one that could be remedied by an effective student council. The council could begin to solve the problem by opening lines of discussion between the student body, the administration, the school committee, the townspeople and other student councils in the area. The council has yet to find an effec¬ tive way of reaching the students and letting them know what’s going on, while on the other hand, the student body’s apathy does not give the council members much incen¬ tive. Don’t the students care to get involved with an organization that could be one of the governing forces of their lives in F.H.S.? Any student who is interested can attend a council meeting and voice his opinions and ideas, or if he is unable to attend a meeting, but wishes to have his views expressed, he can make use of the representatives his class has elected for this purpose. These rep¬ resentatives have a job to do: it’s up to the students to make them work! i School is. tf ' uC ' KiN ' ujrih trills William Galvin

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Class Officers Although such comments arise quite frequently, no one seems to know how these things could be accomplished. Despite it’s shortcomings, the student council is making progress. The minutes of the meetings are posted on the bulletin board, to in¬ form anyone who is interested as to what is going on. Movies are being shown at cheaper prices for the stu¬ dents benefit. The council now has the power to plan the schedule’s social calendar. They also read the morning announcements, and sometimes include a joke of the day. This idea seems to have fiz¬ zled out unfortunately, but at least it was given a try. Although the council has a long way to go, it is paving the way for important im¬ provements. Hopefully councils of the future will go on to bigger and better things. Political figures at F.H.S. expand beyond the realm of teachers, principals, superintendants, and School Committee members. Within the student body, there exists a very obscure group of student officials who are elected to be student leaders, by their peer groups. Public criticism has always been directed towards the wide-ranged political arena. The victorious candidate, whether he is involved in town, city, state or nation-wide elec¬ tion, is he whose public image has been successfully converted into personal and public popularity. Many students at F.H.S. have gripes about elections that are held within the school. They are usually carried out in a very casual manner. It is the general consensus of opinion of most of the students that they want to know who is running for what office and what their qualifications are before the morning of election. When presented with these gripes, the class officers of the four classes responded in a variety of ways. I feel that the way the elections are being handled is a farce. Al l that the elections mean to most students is that it is a large popularity contest. The poor student who is running for office and who wants to do good, may not be elected with the elections this way. Cristine DiLeonardo — Sophomore Class Treasurer. I think that during the freshman year, the way the election is run should be changed. You should have to go in front of your class and tell them why you should be elect¬ ed.” Brett Simon — Freshman Class President. Just having ballots is not sufficient since all the students are not famil¬ iar with the candidates, and most kids won’t cam¬ paign. Yet I don’t feel that speeches are a tre¬ mendous help either. Many times I’ve seen sincere people, with good ideas, speak before the student body and be out-voted by someone with a great figure, or someone who can make words sound nice. Debi Violandi — Senior Class Secretary Most of our class votes for the name they have heard the most, rather than the per¬ son and his qualifications. Donna Pi¬ card — Junior Class Vice President The kids will vote for the person who they think could do the best job, based on their opinion of the person.” Dave LeBlanc — Sophomore Class President The students can vote for whoever they want. Nobody is made to vote for any speical person.” Keith Perron — Senior Class Vice President A lot of kids complain that it’s always a popularity con¬ test, and that it’s always one big clique No matter what happens, there’s always going to be a clique anyway. Kids say that it’s always the same kids that are running for this and that. This might be true, but only because none of the other kids run. Sue Salvucci — Senior Class Treasurer Kids take it seriously, and vote for the person they know will do the best job, because it is for their class, and I know they have pride in their class. Tom Cargill — Senior Class President Along with each office, certain duties are in¬ volved. It is assumed that the first and foremost duty of an officer is to be a class leader, and set good examples for classmates. But president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer are all officers who have specific manifest functions. As president of the freshman class, my most important job is to help the other students be informed on what’s going on. I also must help in all school projects and in student council. Brett Simon — Freshman Class President Really, there isn’t much for the officers to do. Mostly, we help raise money for the class by collecting dues, running the class dance, etc. This year we did a lot of work on class rings. Dave LeBlanc — Sophomore Class President The duties of the officers are to run things for the class, and to plan future activities.” Diane Simmons — Junior Class Secretary School, is. • . u; aitincj an hour ft Lunch