Out of the many student organizations at Old Rochester Regional High School, the ORR Student Government may be one of the most active groups. Made up of members of all four grades, the peer-elected members tend to be some of the busiest and most dedicated students.
Each grade has a student council made up of a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and several senators. This group, along with their staff advisors, is responsible for planning and running events and fundraisers for their class.
For instance, the senior class held a “Drive 4 Ur School” fundraiser two weeks ago. Members of the community were asked to spend a few minutes of their time test driving a brand new vehicle and filling out a survey afterwards. The large turnout raised over $5,000 for future class expenses.
Currently, the councils are leading their respective classes in their traditional Homecoming skits. The members were responsible for organizing the grade vote for the skit themes, which are performed in front of the whole school on the day of the Homecoming game. Grades will be practicing after school four times before their final performance.
The combined elected members of all four grades make up the school’s student government as a whole. This larger group is managed by the Executive Board, which can be members of any grade and fill positions of president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer for the entire government.
“Executive Board is made up of four officers that oversee the rest of the student government,” said Executive Board Vice President Lindsey Merolla. “They manage the activities of the class officers and also listen to the students’ ideas and consider if and how to apply them.” She continued, “We start initiatives that will better the school community. Right now one of our initiatives is installing new water bottle stations around the school so students can access clean filtered water to fill their water bottles.”
Treasurer Ryu Huynh-Aoyama said, “It’s busy, but it’s worth it becauses we make an actual difference in the school. We are focused on Homecoming for the timebeing, but the water filters for our next project should be coming in soon.”
The Student Government spentits last meeting creating posters promoting this year’s Homecoming and its theme “City of Lights.” Ten-foot-long banners were also painted to inform the student body of the outfit themes for Homecoming Week, including Pajama Day, Twin Day, and America Day.
Student Government will also be setting up the venue for the Homecoming dance, and the council members for the Class of 2021 will raise funds for their grade through refreshment sales.
By Jo Caynon