After a long time not being here at school and wearing masks, Concord High School is finally back and better than ever. It’s even more exciting because of the many cool new things at our school this year. One of them being student government. So… what is it? How is it different from the student council? Well we all had those same questions, so we went and talked to Mrs. Osterhout-Koch, the student council advisor, about what it is and how it works.

In an attempt to get more students involved and have more of a say in things, student government was created. Essentially student government is made up of the student council and class officers. The student council officers and members are the ones that oversee the entire student body. Student council is made up of all grades 9-12, which is why they also make the decisions for all grades. Then you have the class officers (who are separate from the student council) who are in charge of only their class. Each grade has a class advisor that regulates their class. So for example, homecoming is put on by the student government. The student council is in charge of everything that takes place within the school regarding the entire student body during homecoming week. They put on the pep assembly, lunchtime games and spirit week.

We asked Rylee Weeks, the president of student council, to explain to us in her own words what the council is responsible for and what her duties are. “We plan events for the school and community, like homecoming, snowcoming, and then we also do fundraisers. When we plan these we really try to get the school spirit up and bring the students together” Weeks says. According to her, her duties as the president include being at every meeting, making sure members are on track, and making sure people voice their opinions. Then there are the class officers who are in charge of deciding your homecoming float theme, choosing your class flower and anything else that involves your class.

We also talked to the president of the sophomore class, TJ Allen. Allen says he feels as though he is not only the president of his class but a role model for them as well. He also says he likes the role of president because he can motivate the sophomores to participate in spirit week and just be involved. Each class is also responsible for fundraising throughout the year and planning events to build a sense of community.  

So why are we just now bringing in a student government? According to Mrs. Osterhout-Koch, we always had a student council, but because of the lack of leadership, we decided to develop student government, giving students more opportunities to lead and collaborate.  There are now five officer positions for each class besides all the opportunities to be involved with student council.  If you’re not involved with your class or student council, get involved and help make CHS a better school.