Given the opportunity to serve as one of the voices for the student body, freshman Casey Rockel was excited to meet Superintendent Patrick Mapes. For him, it was the most memorable moment of being in the student leadership group.

“That’s when I was like, ‘This is the real deal,’” Rockel said. “(The group members) all made a great impression and (Mapes) was really proud.”

In addition to receiving visits from teachers and administrators, like Mapes, the student leadership group meets monthly to discuss school issues, make decisions and offer student input. Rockel describes it as “Student Council 2.0,” meaning that it’s all about diverse student leaders from SHS coming together.

The members come from a variety of school activities, according to Assistant Principal Amy Boone. When they meet, they’re expected not to be afraid to share their opinion, even if it’s negative.

Boone, who often observes the group’s meetings, finds the negative and positive student feedback helpful because it lets administration know if its decisions are moving in the right direction. She says each meeting is a dialogue between student members and administration, rather than the students being told what to do. It offers a chance for both sides to share their opinions.

“Often times, I think students are the voice in (school) decisions that can easily be left out,” Boone said. “It’s important to continually get perspective of students to make sure that what we’re doing is on the right track.”

Junior Amy Norris, another member of the group, enjoys hearing the different opinions and points of view that she comes into contact with during meetings. She says that the members represent the student body well, considering they come from different activities all around the school. To her, the leadership group is important because administration receives ideas from students who walk the halls of SHS each day.

“The students are the ones that are actually affected by the decisions (administrators) make,” Norris said. “They can see, from our input, if the rules that they made or the things that they put in place are working or not.”