Associated Student Body (ASB) President Cody Clark and Vice President Noah Greenslit delivered the second annual State of the School Address to the journalism class on Friday, addressing first quarter and ASB’s plans for the future.
Associated Student Body (ASB) President Cody Clark and Vice President Noah Greenslit delivered the second annual quarter one State of the School Address to the journalism class on Friday, addressing first quarter and ASB’s plans for the future.
Clark delivered a speech covering ASB affairs such as Every 15 Minutes, the Axxess book fundraiser and creating new ways to reward academic and athletic achievements. After Clark delivered his speech, Greenslit talked about Renaissance at Foothill.
In his campaign last year, Clark stated that two of his top priorities were transparency and unification.
One way Clark hopes to achieve transparency between ASB and Foothill students is by having ASB continue to host open business meetings and publicly post the minutes from the meetings.
Unifying students will “result in a safe culture at Foothill,” Clark said. One way he hoped to accomplish this was through Home Week, which was introduced this year.
Clark also hopes to create a new program similar to Renaissance that will solely focus on recognizing student athletes.
He acknowledges that Foothill is an academic-based school and wants to uphold that, but, being an athlete himself, he also understands the challenges students face in balancing academics and sports. Through this program, he potentially hopes to recognize the accomplishments these athletes have worked hard for in their sports.
Next, Clark discussed the senior class budget, which is about $6,500 less than expected. One reason for this is due to the fact that ASB typically receives around $18,000 in senior donations. However, this year only $10,000 was collected. This has resulted in budget cuts, including the cancellation of senior pride lunches and the senior barbeque.
Clark explained that “ASB has been faced with the task of coming up with more creative ways to promote academic and, newly, athletic excellence on our campus. We are constantly formulating new ideas and have increased our efforts to reward the students.”
In an effort to raise more money for rallies and other rewarding activities, ASB launched the revamped Axxess book fundraiser.
“Using Axxess books is way easier to raise money due to the fact that they are simpler for the seller and the buyer,” Clark said.
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Through this fundraiser, ASB made $4,000 more than last year, but didn’t reach their goal of $8,000, according to Clark. Clark remains optimistic due to the improvement of student participation in the fundraiser from last year.
Clark then moved on to discuss the reintroduced Every 15 Minutes program. It typically takes place every two years, but was canceled last year due to the extensive amount of preparation needed.
According to Clark, this year it will take place Nov. 23-24, prior to Thanksgiving break, because “there’s a lot of crazy, hectic stuff going on” so these dates will “make it a little easier on the teachers.”
Clark wrapped up his speech by congratulating Journalism and the Speech and Debate team for “working hard and representing Foothill well.”
He then recognized staff and students at Foothill.
“I would like to thank all the amazing staff and faculty, working so diligently to provide for our students and give them the tools they need to succeed after high school,” Clark said.
“I would also like to thank my fellow ‘Foothillians’ for helping create a culture that contains passion, a sense of community and a drive to succeed.”
Once Clark finished his address, Greenslit gave a speech about Foothill’s Renaissance program.
Greenslit said that he has two goals for Renaissance: to have a “great environment” around Foothill and to have 87 percent of Foothill’s students make Renaissance.
Greenslit said that ASB achieved the positive atmosphere that he set in his first goal. He reflected on the first quarter’s Hawaiian-themed Renaissance Rally.
“Everyone loved the food, they loved the decorations, everyone loved the clever games that tied into the rally theme as well,” he said. ”The rally was a huge success for Renaissance.”
After talking about Foothill’s positive environment, Greenslit talked about the trip to Magic Mountain that could replace Foothill’s spring Renaissance Rally. Greenslit said that requirement for students going to Magic Mountain is at least 87 percent of students achieving Renaissance.
Even if fewer than 87 percent of students make Renaissance, Foothill will still have a Renaissance Rally, according to Greenslit. That said, Greenslit remains optimistic about Foothill’s chances of reaching 87 percent. The official numbers for first quarter Renaissance have not been released.
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“I really feel that our campus is doing really well academically,” Greenslit said.
Greenslit also talked about other ways ASB was improving Renaissance. Recently, ASB went to a California Association of Renaissance of Educators (CARE) conference. ASB students went to different workshops at the conference so that they could bring back different ideas that we could be implemented into our Renaissance program. Greenslit brought up ASB advisor Melanie “Captain” Lindsey’s recent induction into CARE’s Hall of Fame.
Greenslit finished his speech by talking about Every 15 Minutes. Greenslit stated that Every 15 Minutes will be replacing last year’s CALTRANS week. CALTRANS week was a week last year dedicated to drunk driving awareness.
Greenslit also wrapped up the speech with a thank you to Foothill’s faculty.
“I really want to thank all the teachers and staff for giving a positive attitude and doing a stellar job at teaching and running this school,” Greenslit said.
