Council members discuss club approval and using student opinion to implement change.
Led by ASB vice president senior Leon Chen, Legislative Council held its first meeting this semester on Jan. 30 at tutorial in the Leadership room. The council discussed the requirements for passing a club, denied the club New Visions for Tomorrow, introduced the upcoming Challenge Success survey and planned to hold surveys in class about potential changes at MVHS.
Chen introduced parliamentary procedure to the new council members for the semester, including the idea of passing motions.
“The problem with Legislative Council is that because it’s new, it’s hard to enforce these types of things, and it’s hard for teachers to see the immediate benefits,” Chen said. “Students ditch because they don’t think it’s important, but we’re trying to give a voice to those people who don’t have a voice.”
Club Policy
Club Commission lead senior Zereen Kazi then discussed club policy. To pass a club, she said, there are six requirements: It must have an advisor, a purpose and club activities; additionally, it can’t duplicate another club, can’t break the law (such as prejudice against another group) and can’t already exist on campus. In addition, as each club must have a four-month probationary period, the deadline to apply for a new club will be 3 p.m. at Feb. 5, to be ready for the next Legislative Council meeting on Feb. 12. Because of the no-duplicates rule, the council rejected the projected club New Visions of Tomorrow — which planned to increase awareness of the blind and visually impaired and assist the blind community — as there are already multiple service/awareness clubs on campus.
Challenge Success
Assistant Principal Mike White then described Challenge Success, which will kick off from Feb. 10 to 13 at lunch. The kickoff event in the academic court invites students to write their definitions of success on the poster to receive stress-relieving gifts and participate in stress-relieving activities. More details will be released. Additionally, he described an upcoming 40-minute anonymous survey to be sent out through School Loop. Through information collection and analysis by Stanford University on four out of five schools in the district, MVHS plans to pinpoint students’ stress load and activities to help plan for next year.
Survey to make changes on campus
Finally, White gave the council members a homework assignment: to ask their fifth period classes what they would like to see changed at MVHS. Using a compiled list from each council member sent to Chen, Legislative Council will meet again to rank the top 10 concerns they will mention to Principal April Scott by March, as well as to ASB Student Board Representative senior Sriya Srinath to inform the FUHSD Board of Trustees. Potential concerns, he said, should be reasonable (the food in the cafeteria will not change) and improve student life, such as utilizing the recent increase in education funding to reimplement the ability to take two science classes a year. These changes, however, will not be implemented this year.
“You probably won’t make a significant change for yourself, but you will make an impact if you have a little brother or sister,” White said.
With over thirty new members, Legislative Council appeared to leave them with a positive impression.
“These meetings are a really good way for us to really get in what the student body desires,” sophomore Ajay Merchia said. “Today, the introduction of the way new business works started to give us, as reps, a way to influence the student body and be the change to make it better for all of us students.”
Corrections (Feb. 6 at 9:30 a.m.): The final date to apply for a club is Feb. 5 at 3 PM, there is a four-month probationary period, there are more than two service/awareness clubs and Sriya Srinath’s title is “Student Board Representative.”
