Students at Sacred Heart Catholic High School voted today on May 28 to decide who would become their new co prime minister of student council.
Paul Smith and Jessica Dassanayake (pictured above) will represents students as co-prime ministers during the 2015-2016 school year.
- Braden Garvey
- Daniel Pageau
- Paul Smith
- Jessica Dassanayake
(As the only female running, Dassanayake is thus guaranteed the position of female co-prime minister.)
The current prime ministers, Steve Hickson and Taylor Cavanaugh, came out to say a few words. This was disrupted for a few minutes until technical difficulties with the microphone and speaker system could be resolved. Once it was they implored the audience to vote based off who they think has the best platform, instead of “who gave you the most stuff.”
Immediately following the opening, Braden Garvey took the stage to begin his own presentation.
Braden opened his speech with his inspiration for running. He said that one of his friends is Head Boy at Woodroffe High and invited him to the first school dance they held in about four years. Being the first dance the students there had attended, it was “kind of like high school musical.”
Braden then discussed how it was “what Sacred needs” going on to say he wants to make the school a more fun place, if elected. He said he has many ideas on how to do this and raise school spirit. One of the plans he raised was bringing back pep rallies, which according to him have not been done in over four years at Sacred Heart. He closed his speech by saying “let’s do high school like our parents, and let’s do it better.”
Before leaving the stage, he was joined by two campaign assistants to perform a techno dance to “Sandstorm” by Darude.
After Braden Garvey came candidate Daniel Pageau. He began his speech with a brief dance and the words “if you can dream it, you can do it.”
In his presentation, he discussed his active history in the school community, making the point that he shares a cumulative 15 years in the Sacred Heart community with his sisters, and his heavy participation in school sports and activities. He also talked about his activities in school clubs, such as the Tennis club and Science club he co-created.
He went on to his platform, and said that he will work very hard to make the school spectacular, and promised to have a spotless attendance record for all school events, and stated his platform is partially based off of being in touch with students, so they can give feedback and make suggestions. He closed by saying “it has been said great events make great leaders, so let’s make next year a great event.”
Afterwards, Paul Smith took the stage to discuss his campaign, saying his primary concern was students not having a voice, and it seems “school spirit has fallen and can’t get up, but I am here to be your LifeAlert button.”
He continued to say that he will usher in a new student council that is easily reachable by students. He said he “isn’t here to promise anything like having coffee shops in the school, canceling exams, having escalators instead of stairs – althought that would actually be really cool – or having a hype corner at church – although that would be sweet”, adding that he wants to do things that are realistic and actually possible.
He also touched up on bringing back buyouts (an event where classes bring money for charities and “buy out” the period to attend school sporting events) in order to raise school spirit. He closed by saying “no more asking what the school can do for us, but what we can do for our school.”
Following right after, Jessica Dassanayake appeared on stage, and after showing a video montage of people saying her campaign slogan “Yes to Jess” she delivered her speech. In it she touched on her eight years on student council to-date, and her heavy participation in the school community, ranging from peer mentoring, leadership camp and help designing posters for school plays.
She then moved on to her platform, also discussing how she will bring better communication to students with student council, reiterating that the “point of student council is to make the things that you, the students, want to happen, actually happen.”
She also said that she wants to usher in better and more engaging advertising for school events, and increase the amount of spirit days (days where students do something like wear pajamas or dress up like a character). She finished by saying she “has a lot of great ideas” and has the work ethic to make them happen for the students.
After her presentation students were released back to class, and voting took place shortly after 2:00pm on a class by class basis. Results were announced the next morning.
(Devyn Barrie is a student at Sacred Heart High School