Allan Appel Photo
The super swears in Columbus Treasurer Aylaya Mack.
Nayeli Tenezaca wants to save animals from extinction, so she ran for president of her middle school — and won.
Superintendent of Schools Garth Harries Tuesday swore in Tenezaca and Vice President Maurice Marks, both seventh graders, and the rest of new middle-school student government officers at the Christopher Columbus Family Academy in Fair Haven.
Nayeli and Maurice with teacher Townes.
Each of the 17 homeroom reps and the leaders, whom they elected, had to have at least a 2.5 grade-point average, as well as receive a sign-off from a teacher, an adviser, the principal, and parent, said the lead student government adviser and social studies teacher, Jackie Townes.
They also had to write an essay about why they want to serve and what they hope to contribute. Nayeli said she has joined student government in part to forward the school’s recycling related programs. Maurice said he sees himself mainly as a communicator of student concerns.
That’s what they told a reporter before marching in to the stirring strains of Handel’s “La Rejouissance”, taking the oath from Harries, and receiving a red-ribbon bound copy of the school’s constitution.
Daisey Lucero’s parents and her baby brother Gael, who hopes to follow in her leadership footsteps.
The ceremony unfolded Tuesday morning at the school in front of 150 kids, staff, and admirers, including the family (pictured) of fourth-grade homeroom rep Daisey Lucero.
Harries has made energizing student governments a priority, with a focus last year on the high schools and this year on the middle schools, said Towne. She has been teaching social studies and organizing kid councils for nine years at Columbus and, before that, at Ross-Woodward, Hill Central, and the Micro-Society Inter-district Magnet School, among others.
Towne has been attending the once-per-quarter meetings of the citywide middle school student governments that Harries has been convening. Those will also be attended this year by Nayeli and Maurice and the elected leaders of the other middle schools.
The best part is that the kids speak directly to the superintendent, Townes said. “It’s awesome.”
This year student reps were expanded to include third and fourth graders at the K-8 school.
Harries said that in addition to complaints about food, one of his major takeaways from these middle-school leaders has been an ongoing concern about bullying and “the eagerness of students to contribute to their community, to mentor younger kids.”
“I say [to them], ‘Run with those ideas. Make them happen.’”
Both Nayeli and Maurice said they believe that decent grades as well as good attendance should also be part of the requirements for the citywide student leader candidates for the Board of Ed. Click here and here for stories about that.
Their own responsibilities as new officers include extra time during the day organizing fundraising and other activities and also chairing a regular Tuesday morning meeting of the reps every week.
Townes added that each homeroom at Columbus elects a rep and an alternate. Having that alternate is because if a student rep’s grades begin to fall or there’s a behavior issue — both have happened— the child might be suspended from student council as a result; that call is up to the principal, she said.
Harries said that the Board of Ed is currently debating whether to have a citywide policy about grade requirements, attendance, behavior and so forth for each of the participants in student governments citywide.
“As of now it’s school by school,” he said.
“The most important thing is that students are leading, and that comes from different parts of the academic spectrum,” he added.
Harries said his interest in student government derives from a general concern for engagement, and in that mix students’ voices, along with a structure for them to be heard, are key.
He also referred to personal experiences that have been significant, including a stint on the student judiciary committee that took up significant issues at the Phillips Exeter Academy, in New Hampshire, the private boarding high school he attended.
“We had voice but no vote, very similar to what our students will have on the Board of Ed. It was still powerful, and sends a powerful signal that students have responsibility and power in the school community.”
Then he went out and consulted with green-sashed fifth-grader Natali Cumbicos (pictured) and other members of the Christopher Columbus safety patrol on a touchy issue: when they have to reprimand their close friends. “It’s not about getting friends in trouble,” he advised.
Nayeli said that one of the items on her agenda for the school is getting special uniforms — not simply the regulation blue school shirt — for discreet service groups within Columbus like the safety patrol.