Spring 2003 - Top-Notch Student Council

Top-Notch Student Council
Lake Placid High stands out statewide

By Risa Merl, senior editorial assistant

Homecoming? Check. Prom? Check. Most any high school student council can easily cross these off their to-do lists. But how about an administrative breakfast, animal food drive, “Prom Promise,” a visit from the “grim reaper,” or a teacher team-building workshop? The Student Government Association at Lake Placid High School can proudly put a check by each of these and 80 other activities they sponsor annually besides homecoming. Creativity is at the heart of them all. “We try to meet the needs of our diverse student population,” says Melissa Sohn, SGA advisor. “We endeavor to sponsor activities that involve all students.”

Lake Placid’s SGA thinks up unique projects so they can earn Medallion Council status in the Florida Association of Student Councils competition (see sidebar on "Councils of Excellence" page). These categories, which include community service, environment, and faculty/staff relations, challenge the SGA to go beyond school-related issues. “We do over 87 projects a year, and that qualifies us for gold medallion status,” says Jennifer Jernigan, SGA vice president. This honor is nothing new to Lake Placid’s SGA, which has earned gold medallion status for the past 10 years. SGA also participates in their individual FASC annual state project. Students in the high school’s leadership class volunteer with Lake Placid elementary school where they read to kids, help teachers with grading, or help take the children to the library. This year executive member Lissey Donaldson holds the district office of treasurer and she will host a three-day leadership conference at Lake Placid for 200 high school students.

Lake Placid’s SGA members travel across the state of Florida, and the country, meeting and getting new ideas from students. They also turn to magazines, conferences, web sites, and leadership camps for new projects to add to their already diverse list of activities. Like most high school student governments, they get no formal funding, so they organize fundraisers that surpass the usual carwash fundraiser in both scope and profit. And this year they fulfilled major campaign promises through hard work, dedication, and creative thinking.

The Breakfast Club
A top goal and campaign promise for this year’s SGA was to improve communication between the faculty and students. Once a month, the SGA officers meet with Principal Dr. Ruth Heckman and Assistant Principal Gary Jenkins at a local restaurant for breakfast. This simple meeting in a relaxed setting allows them to go over plans for upcoming SGA projects and analyze projects that already took place. The principals give their advice and help the officers assess how the completed projects went. “We also give our input on the things that Dr. Heckman is planning on doing and answer her questions like, ‘Should we do this again next year?’” says Toni Ford, SGA president.

This relaxed flow of communication introduced at the monthly breakfasts carries over to the relationship back on campus. The SGA keeps in close contact with the administration; practically everything they do passes through the administration first. Likewise, the administration looks to SGA for advice. They often ask the SGA to design student surveys on various topics for the administration to better understand the needs of Lake Placid students. Overall, their working relationship with the administration is one for other SGs to envy. “Not only do we have a lot of input with the administration, but we have a great support team backing all our projects,” says Erica Redmond, SGA secretary.

Open Council Opens Doors
Another campaign promise was to increase student participation in SGA, which now is at 10 percent. This may seem small, but it means that one out of every 10 Lake Placid students is involved, which is far higher than most schools. Lake Placid SGA’s “open council” system helps students get involved: Although officers are elected, elections for representatives aren’t held. Instead, all students can volunteer as SGA representatives. If they want to join, all they have to do is show up for a Saturday workshop where they participate in team-building activities and the SGA has its first official meeting. Even if students don’t join, the general assembly meetings are open forums and any student is welcome. This open council system is something that the SGA feels makes them stand out from other councils in the state. “It’s their school, not just ours, so the more input we get, the better,” Toni Ford says. “With the number of students involved, there are a variety of interests represented,” Heckman says.

Show Me the Money
For an SGA to do great things, it needs proper funding. At Lake Placid, SGA does all its own fundraising and make thousands. No carwashes and bake sales for this council—SGA leaders know that to make the big bucks, they have to be creative. By selling candles for the Yankee Candle Company and receiving 40 percent of the profits, SGA raised more than $2,000. Members who volunteered to sell candles had an incentive to motivate them along. “If the students sold over $1,500, our SGA advisor would have to dye her hair blue,” Jernigan says. “And for every $500 more they sold, an officer would dye their hair, too!” Their fundraising success means that Sohn and Toni Ford will soon be dying their hair after they pose for the Florida Leader cover. Another successful fundraiser at Lake Placid centers around the holiday season when SGA members pre-sell $1,200 worth of poinsettias to give as gifts or use for decorations. “This is a very easy fundraiser that makes great profits,” Sohn says. Sure beats getting all sudsy washing cars for $3 a pop.

Teaching the Teachers
This year, Lake Placid welcomed new teachers, and the SGA wanted make sure that they became a unified force. “We had many new teachers this year, and we wanted them all to be acquainted with each other,” Jernigan says. SGA hosted a teacher team-building workshop a week before school started. The teachers sang songs, went on scavenger hunts, and participated in other team-building activities. In one activity, “muscle-man,” the teachers blew up balloons and competed to see who could stuff the most into the oversized T-shirts they were wearing. “SGA planning, organizing, and running the activities made it easier for the administration to participate,” Heckman says. “It also enabled the teachers to see the students as leaders.”

Lake Placid knows that teachers help create the environment of the school, so showing appreciation to the teachers helps the school climate. Once school year, the SGA worked hard to remind the teachers how much they’re appreciated by doing something nice for them twice a month. “This past month, we gave a brownie to every teacher and staff member with a note that said, ‘You’re the sweets of the school,’” Redmond says. “We want to thank them for all that they do.”

Community Counts
Lake Placid’s SGA also focuses on school projects, including lunchtime games in which students participate in limbo competitions and other fun activities to get their minds off academics. “We want them to take a break and have fun with their classmates,” says Allie Ford, treasurer. The SGA knows the importance of building community on campus, but more so, they know the importance of reaching out to the community beyond the high school.

SGA’s new “Chamber of Commerce Luncheon” shows its desire to connect with the Lake Placid community. Chamber members come to the high school and eat lunch with SGA officers. “We tell them about what’s going on in the high school and ask for their opinions about projects that we’re doing,” Jernigan says.

One of their largest community service projects is a canned food drive-- for animals. “We have a competition among the classes to see who can bring in the most animal supplies for the Lake Placid Humane Society,” Toni Ford says. Students bring in 2,000 pounds of food, leashes, blankets, toys, and other animal accessories to donate, and the class with the most pounds donated wins. SGA also took on a phone book recycling. This project won them third in the state last year through the FASC community-service-project competition.

Awareness is in the Air
Lake Placid SGA also works hard for causes beyond their community. They raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation by letting teachers wear jeans to school on Friday if they make a $5 donation. SGA raised $185 from this simple but effective fundraiser.

SGA tries to make awareness more than a fund-raising event for national organizations. One of these activities is red ribbon week, during which students learn about the dangers of abusing drugs and alcohol. SGA passes out ribbons, hangs up statistics on walls, and brings in guest speakers. SGA also “scares” fellow students with the “Grim Reaper,” with students from every class wearing statistics on their shirts the entire week such as “I have emphysema from smoking.” At the week’s end, there’s a mock death scene during which a student dressed as the Reaper comes into each class and takes the students, leaving carnation to symbolize their deaths. When other students walk into the common area to leave school, they see those who “died” wrapped in sheets. In addition, to focus on drunk driving, SGA parks two wrecked cars outside with the story of how the teenage passengers inside died or killed others.

SGA also passes out red ribbons, the national AIDS symbol, among students and teachers and asks them to wear them on national AIDS awareness day, which is December 1^st. Leading up to this date the SGA shows video on AIDS education and hangs an AIDS quilt.

Power of Promise
One of the SGA’s most successful projects is Prom Promise, which tries to keep students safe on prom night. Prior to prom week SGA members visit the Lake Placid Elementary school. “We ask teachers to get their kids to draw pictures and write notes to seniors telling them not to drink and drive on prom night,” Redmond says. “All the seniors get one and they really love it to know the kids are thinking about them.”

A Better Place
Sohn says she’s proud of her SGA for all the hard work put in both during and after school. “They come in before school, after school, on weekends, over vacations, and even over summer break,” she says. During the summer, the SGA has meetings once a week to discuss plans for the upcoming year. This involvement isn’t only with the officers—20 to 30 members come in to help every day that the SGA meets outside of school time. They announce when the summer meetings will be before school is out so all members can be a part of the planning process.

Dr. Heckman praises the SGA for its dedication and excellent job in involving so many students. “I think they’re an organization that not only raises funds to do fun things, but they also do things to make our students better citizens,” she says. “That’s our responsibility to be a part of the community as well as just a part of the school.”

Contact Melissa Sohn at sohnm@highlands.k12.fl.us