Rethinking Student Council in the Middle School

By Michael Jedrey

Like so many schools across the country, Rocky Hill has a long tradition of having a student government made up of representatives from each grade level. These students work together to organize social events, create and run our community meetings, and facilitate service learning initiatives that help the community. Historically, interested students would run for student government in September and be elected by their classmates to serve for the year. Often, those selected were the same students who had served in previous years or were chosen as much through popularity as commitment. That all changed this ‘21-’22 school year when the Middle School instituted a lottery system where any student interested in participating on the student council had an equal chance to be randomly chosen to serve for a six-week term.

This idea came from a Middle School parent who shared a posting by a group called Democracy in Practice which promotes civic education and developing leadership skills with students. Each new lottery produces a fresh slate of representatives, allowing many more students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and to use their voices to shape our community. Students who would never have put their names forward to be leaders in the past have stepped up to serve in the student government, and we have been excited to see new faces and fresh ideas making a difference.