PARTICIPATION: The Student Advisory Meeting encourages Poly students to participate in homecoming activities and keep the campus clean.
By Martina Krakora, Staff Writer
Last year Principal Dr. Michael Roe created the student advisory, a leadership group on campus consisting of individuals elected by their fourth period classmates, in order to encourage student involvement. The group helped create the new P.R.I.D.E. acronym as well as decide whether or not students should be awarded varsity letters for activities or academics. On Friday, September 26, the first student advisory meeting of the 2014-2015 school year was held.
At this meeting, the advisory was assigned the task of helping the Associated Student Body (ASB) decide the theme of each homecoming dress-up day. ASB President Mae Johnson (12) introduced the homecoming theme as “A Haunted Homecoming,” and proposed a few dress-up day ideas: Evil Twin Day, Dress Like a Villian Day, Pumpkin Day, Mad Scientist Day and Candy for Costume Day. Student advisors were told to report these dress-up day ideas back to their fourth period classes and explain them to their classmates. Students were then asked to vote for their favorite homecoming dress-up themes on Voting4schools.com from September 26 to October 1. The fourth period class with the most participation will earn a pizza party. This perquisite, as well as the option for students to vote for the dress-up days, was designed to “get more people to dress up on those days,” Johnson said. “If students vote for the days, then they are more likely to dress up for those days,” she explained.
Another issue addressed at the student advisory meeting was the amount of trash on Poly’s campus. Link Crew Coordinator Mrs. Cynthia Wilson and Renaissance Advisor Mr. Thomas Podgorski spoke to the student advisors about this problem. Wilson clarified that although many students believe that it is the custodian’s job to pick up after the students, it is not. “The custodians on our campus are human beings just like everyone else, and it is not in their occupational description to pick up after students. Custodians are at Poly to keep the campus clean,” Wilson explained. In an attempt to prove this point, Wilson introduced Poly High School Plant Supervisor Mr. Tony Inzinga in order to put a face of Poly’s custodial in staff in the minds of the advisors. She asked student advisors to remember Inzinga’s name and encourage their classmates to keep the campus clean. After Wilson finished speaking, Podgorski took the stage and introduced another aspect of campus tidiness. Podgorski showed the advisors a video on random acts of kindness. He encouraged advisors to perform their own random acts of kindness and encourage their classmates to do so as well. The advisors’ roaring applause indicated their approval of this discussion. Proof of how successful this meeting was will show in time.