As the snow leaves, hopefully for good, the spring comes along with the 2014-2015 school year in mind. With field day on the horizon, elections have taken place for next year’s community council.

Every Spring, nominations are taken for three important officers: School-wide President, School-wide Vice President, and School-wide Secretary Treasurer. After nominations, the candidates usually give speeches in front of the school supporting their positions and then the entire upper school, faculty, and administration votes on the candidates. The members of the Board of Magistrates are also elected, though they do not give speeches. This year, however, Community Council Advisor Christopher Arnold and a group of other teachers made a change in the voting process, allowing eighth graders to vote instead of seniors. The main reason for this was that the winner of the elections would not represent the seniors, who will have graduated.

During community time on April 11th Upper School faculty, teachers, juniors, sophomores, freshmen, and eighth graders packed into Hackley’s Performing Arts Center to hear the promises of community council hopefuls. After a brief introduction was given to the eighth and ninth graders regarding Upper School election procedures and position responsibilities, the candidates for School-wide Secretary Treasurer, sophomore Brian Schmitt and I gave our speeches.

After a successful Winter Semi-Formal, hosted by the Community Council the council ran short on money. Both Brian and I made the center of out campaigns to have more aggressive fundraising next year in order to create events that boost school spirit like the Snow Ball.

This year, the only uncontested spot was for School-wide Vice President. Despite the position being normally held by a senior, sophomore Ally Petitti, will hold the position next year as a junior. Ally delivered a heavily applauded speech to the students and there was no doubt that she would’ve succeeded even if she ran opposed.

This year’s election had the most amount of candidates running for School-wide President in recent years. Juniors James Firpo, Cate Goldsmith, and Ryan Walker all vied for the position. James began by demanding for more school spirit, followed by Cate who referenced Nelson Mandela, and then Ryan, who offered a better overall community for next year.

Ryan Walker took the position for school-wide president in a runoff election April 21st against his fellow classmate James Firpo, after an additional four days of campaigning following school-wide elections. Ally Petitti will be Vice President, and I will return as Secretary Treasurer.

The students who were elected to the Board of Magistrates are Natalie Gustin, Greer Levin, and Adin Rinzler. After another runoff between her and Max Chen, Julia Stevenson won the bid for clerk.

The winning candidates promise great things for next year. Next year they plan to bring back popular events such as America Day, the Snow Ball, and the bonfire, but they also want to bring new events.

“I want to plan some sort of fun carnival that we could have next year at the end of the year to celebrate the end of the school year,” Ally anxiously said.

They are also planning to either post what the council has done in the Dial, Hackley Online, or the morning announcements in an effort to keep the student body informed.

Ryan is taking the presidential torch from Damis, who one year ago took it from Ryan’s older brother Will.

“It is certainly nice to follow in my brothers footsteps as president, but I am my own person. I ran for council because I believed that I could offer my own skills as a leader not to carry on a legacy.”