STUCO rewrites their constitution

willem HUMMEL

The goal of Student Council, or STUCO, is to make MHS a more inclusive environment by increasing school spirit.

“We do that through things like the Homecoming dance,” Kara Zonies, sponsor, said. “We have been doing things like Black History Month. If you notice whenever we have a spirit week, we are the ones that always put out the banners. All kinds of things.”

The club is student-based, and students have to complete volunteer hours doing things within the school community.

Zonies said STUCO collected prom dresses for girls in need, and the people who helped out earned volunteer hours.

Currently, STUCO does not have a structured constitution that clearly lays the foundation for the club, but two weeks ago, the club went to a leadership meeting for area STUCO leaders in Valley Park where they were shown how other student councils are structured.

They found that in other STUCO organizations, the constitution spells out exactly what is required from different positions.

Zonies said they are going to have new chairpeople called “senators” who will be in charge of tasks like outreach.

“So when we do our canned food drive during Homecoming, they are going to be the ones who are going to organize that,” Zonies said. “We are going to have a decorating committee, and they are going to be the ones who are going to do the banners every time we do spirit week. We are going to have someone in charge of diversity.”

Zonies said in the past a lack of a constitution has led to a problem where some officers have not performed duties that were expected of them.

“If the president does not fill what it is that is expected of them, the runner up is the person that then takes over that position,” Zonies said.

The new constitution will also contain the expected amount of hours members must complete and how to record those hours to decrease confusion and to provide a reference to members, Zonies said.

Zonies said a main advocate of the new constitution was actually the student leaders.

Junior Jayla Freeman, president of STUCO, said the constitution they have currently is outdated, and no one really pays attention to it.

“I think it has created an issue of we don’t really have a set of rules to follow, so this year we have been just playing it by ear,” Freeman said. “So we are hoping to rewrite it just to make it more accessible for the members.”

However, despite the lack of a constitution, Freeman said STUCO has done a good job in avoiding the issues that not having a constitution could have caused.

Freeman said a cohesive constitution allows for a central group of ideas and core values.

“It helps us define ourselves and what our mission is going to be throughout the year, and how we are going to go about conducting our business,” Freeman said.

Benjamin Buckallew, sophomore, has been elected as secretary of media for next school year, a position that has been built by the new constitution.

“Last year we only had a president and two secretaries, one person filled both spots,” Buckallew said. “This year we have double the amount of people helping out in the secretary spots, so we are still building our positions with this constitution.”

Buckallew said there are now four positions: secretary of media, secretary of management, vice president and the president.

“It’s going to help straighten out a bunch of stuff in STUCO and it’s going to help us not only in this year, but in many years to come,’’ Buckallew said.