Student Council and Officers in ASB have found it extremely important in the last several months to brainstorm ways to give the Renton High School student body a larger voice in the events and happenings at their school.

As an approach to the disbanding of old habits, members wanted to propose a new set of expectations that would guide the role of ASB and Student Council in the future. This was introduced as the ASB Constitution that students were informed about during the prolonged advisory’s in the morning of both finals days, Thursday, March 21, and Friday, March 22.

On these days, advisory teachers were instructed to show students a power-point with highlights of the new constitution, and in following, advise them to use an online link to access the voting page.

The highlights included creating new purpose, adapting to give Running-Start students a bigger voice, and the elimination of requirements that were keeping more students from pursuing a leadership position.

These lists were pulled from the new RHS Constitution proposal power-point.

Highlights

• New purpose/preamble that more clearly defines the purpose of the ASB organization
• All part-time Running Start students eligible to run for all junior/senior class and ASB officer positions except ASB or class President
• New section outlining officer expectations while they are in office
• Elimination of leadership class requirement for officers
• Very specific responsibility list for each officer position
• Elimination of Vice-President role for both ASB and class officers
• Adds Publicity Director role for all classes

Highlights continued

• Splits Secretary position for ASB into Financial Secretary and Meeting Secretary
• Splits Publicity Director position for ASB into Athletic Publicity Director and Activities Publicity Director
• Removes Ambassador organization from being part of ASB, it is now a completely separate club
• Elections aligned so that both ASB and class officer elections are run the same way (blind elections except for President positions)
• Removes requirement for election speeches from any candidates except Presidents
• Clearly defines how unfilled class and ASB positions shall be filled
• Outlines clear guidelines for clubs

With students’ new ability to vote on the direction of these programs in power at RHS, ASB is already showing an important step towards an increase in student input.

To gain further insight, we spoke with Alicia Ing, ASB’s Junior Class VP. She explained, in her own words, why they decided to give the new constitution up to scrutiny and votes.

“When we were writing the constitution for next year, we were asked to choose a ‘cornerstone word’ to define our goals for Renton’s ASB next year. We chose ‘representation,’ because we wanted to focus on making sure as many voices that haven’t previously been heard at Renton are given opportunity to do so…” explained Ing.

In relation to inclusion, Ing believes the newly formed constitution will be a driving force for change.

“The constitution is our first step in that direction, since it redefines what the purpose of ASB and the rules and guidelines we make our decisions based off of,” Ing shared in closing.

As of Sunday, March 24, the updated constitution passed with 81.1% in favor and 17.9% not in favor. 

Want to get involved? Submit a letter to us at:

https://rhshawkeye.com/sumbit-a-letter/

Want more info on the story? Contact me and give me your feedback!

Austemm20@gmail.com

Want to learn more about the ASB Constitution?

Contact Ms. Neuschwander at christina.neuschwander@rentonschools.us,

Or your ASB Class Representatives.