The Student News Site of Newton North High School

The Newtonite

The Newtonite

The Newtonite

Follow Us on Twitter
PRINT SPECIALS

Student elections adapt to COVID-19

Student+elections+adapt+to+COVID-19

All four grades will be having class elections for student body presidents and vice presidents, as well as the student faculty administration (SFA) Monday, Oct. 18.

The setup for this year’s elections must conform to current COVID-19 guidelines set in place by the state. According to math teacher and elections coordinator Rachel Mingos, those guidelines led them to hold elections on Zoom.

“One of the limitations on this year’s elections is we can’t have an assembly in the auditorium with a full grade like we had in the past. We’re not able to meet in the gym for more than 15 minutes. So, we decided we wanted to do it remotely,” she said.

Sophomore ZZ Sayeed, who won her class’s election for president last year and is now running for re-election, said that last year “there wasn’t as much campaigning going around.”

The election “really just relied on your speech, or video, which is why I think I got elected, because of my speech,” Sayeed said. “This year I think it’ll rely a lot more on posters and just having yourself out there and introducing yourself a lot.”

Mingos added that she was glad that the live speeches would be reintegrated into class elections. 

The students running for North’s student government this year are hoping to make up for time lost over the past year of virtual learning by hosting new class events and fundraisers.

“For this year, since we’re all in person, it’d be much better to go out of the box to really be able to show our class what we’re capable of and what we can accomplish together,” said junior Maria Sofronova, who is running for class president.

Last year, the freshman class, now sophomores, were the only class in the school to hold elections, which were entirely virtual.

According to Beals House dean Scott Heslin, the decision to not have elections for any other class was made in order to give the current student government members a chance to finish their term by hosting class events. He also said that class elections weren’t seen as a priority last year.

“We were trying to balance what were the most important things last year,” he added. “To be honest, we knew we weren’t going to have school-wide events. We knew we weren’t gonna be doing fundraising, and we kind of just felt like it wasn’t really a priority.”

Leave a Comment
Donate to The Newtonite
More to Discover
About the Contributor
Jacob Zalis, News managing editor
Jacob Zalis is currently a senior at Newton North High School. Outside of school he runs track and field and cross country. In his free time he likes reading and watching movies. His favorite books are The Martian by Andy Weir and the entirety of the Captain Underpants anthology by Dav Pilkey. His favorite movies are 1917 and Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. In his free time Jacob enjoys biking, hanging out with friends, and listening to music (sometimes all at the same time). Some of his favorite artists include bbno$ and Bruno Mars. His favorite subjects are English and chemistry. He is looking forward to meeting everyone in the coming volume and having a great time writing for The Newtonite!
Donate to The Newtonite

Comments (0)

All The Newtonite Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *