Every April at Francis Parker, the Upper School and Eighth Grade halls are filled with a flurry of posters and graphics advertising students’ candidacy for Student Government positions and committees. In addition to the campaign posters that engulf the school, candidates write platforms that outline goals and agendas that they plan to carry out the following year, should they be elected. As the first quarter of the year has passed, Student Government officers and committee heads have been busy working to meet their agendas and implement change at Parker.

“The point is embryonic democracy. That is the mission of the school,” Student Government Faculty Advisor Jeanne Barr said. “Parker’s Student Government is our Upper School’s most vibrant and direct implementation of that mission.”

The election process consists of declaring candidacy in April through obtaining 25 signatures from peers in order to have a spot on the ballot, similar to the process of gaining signatures should one want to run for public office. Students then campaign for around a month while debates occur in Student Senate Meetings and Student Government Plenary sessions.

Finally, the Wednesday before the election, all candidates are given the opportunity to campaign in-person at “Democrafest” with their student peers to share their ideas and platforms. At Democrafest, students from 8th grade through 12th grade make their final decisions on who to vote for.

This year’s elected Student Senate Heads –– Matthew Turk, Lauren Hughes, Alex Ori, and Lindsay Carlin –– ran on the promises to “ensure that Senate topics are reflective of the needs of the student body,” “remain in constant communication with the student body and administration,” and “hold additional pop-up Senate meetings.”

“So far this year, we have talked to Mr. Brandon about the portal and that people don’t know how to use it, ” Hughes said. “He talked to CTC and set up graderoom teach-ins about the portal. We have had a lot of teach in’s and groups come in.”

When asked about pop-up senates that have occured this year, Hughes was unsure of its success. “We did a pop-up senate at the beginning of the year for freshman who didn’t really know what Senate was,” she said, “but we didn’t really have a great turn out, so we didn’t know how effective it was.”

“The Senate Heads are doing an awesome job so far.” Sophomore Carter Wagner said. “As someone who attends every week, I see that they put in lots of thought and time into making sure that the meetings are run effectively.”

The Director of Committee Affairs (DCA), senior Chad White, wrote that he would “push for more combined committee events,” “increase committee member participation,” and that he would have “bi-semester face to face meetings with committee heads” in his platform.

“So far this year everything is going well,” White said, “and I am trying to get the first events off the ground. I have met with all the committees one-on-one and I am planning on meeting with them again.”

Last year the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) committee was the only one that had a failing grade at the end of first semester due to them not meeting the minimum requirement of hosting two events each semester. White has one main goal for this year which, “is to make sure that no one fails.”

“I think he is doing a great job,” senior Film and Pride Committee head Olivia Garg said. “It’s nine weeks in and not that many committees have had events so it’s kinda hard. I like how he has us lay out what we want to do, to him. He’s prepared and he wants people to succeed. He doesn’t want to fail anyone.”

The Treasurer for this year, senior Jack Maling, campaigned with the goal to “increase student interaction with the budget,” Increasing “emphasis on the use of student government funding for a diverse range of initiatives,” and to “engage students through effective use of the student government budget.”

“This year I have facilitated participatory budgeting, I have helped set a budget for the year,” Maling said, “and I have facilitated the day to day payments for certain things for committees, Senate, and other organizations.”

The first participatory budgeting (PB) did not happen this year during the originally planned time. “The issue was that we only had five proposals, which is not a lot,” Maling said. “There were certain proposals that were not feasible, and other proposals that were automatically given money due to the nature of the request.”

“I think Jack is doing pretty good,” senior Zen Lynch said, “and he is doing all he can. Putting out participatory budgeting which everyone needs. He is also telling people what everything means, and informing the freshman who will be taking over after us.”

The Student Government President, senior Annette Njei, promised that she would work on “building a community,” “fostering empathy,” and on “increasing transparency & communication.”

“I think I have done a better job of communicating with the student body about what Plenary will be on Friday,” Njei said, “and just making sure that all the things are set in stone prior to…Senate meetings.

Njei is additionally excited about the successes seen from an advisory standpoint. “Ratifying Ms. Elliot and making her a new faculty advisor for student government was a big success on our part,” she said.

Njei is excited for the year to come. “I think just making a stronger connection with the Administration with continuing to have our weekly Friday meetings with Mr. Brandon,” Njei said. “Seeing how the Administration wants to continue to build the relationship with the student body is something that I am continually working on improving.”

“I think Annette is doing a really, really great job,” senior Hannah Kershner said. “She really keeps people in check when they are being disrespectful in Student Government, and I think that is especially what we need in a president. She also brings up really great ideas to Student Government, and it has been really really fun so far, and I am enjoying her work.”

Wagner is optimistic about the direction of this year’s Student Government. “Overall I think people have done pretty solid,” Wagner said. “It’s disappointing that participatory budgeting isn’t going as well as in past years, however that is not because of Jack, but because of a lack of proposals. I really think that it’s too early to make any real judgments.”