This past Thursday, Rhinebeck had its first in-person questionnaire and election for student council officer positions since before the pandemic. In 2022, officers ran unopposed, and in 2021, elections were held virtually.

Finally, after such a long stretch of time, Rhinebeck came together as an entire school to listen to the goals of the 2024 candidates for student council president and vice president.

Laila Alam and June Nathan are running against each other for student council President, and Anna Savolainen and Olivia Pulver are competing for vice. Alam and Savolainen ran together against Nathan and Pulver.

Rhinebeck Reality members came up with a list of questions that were given to the candidates before election day. During first period on May 25th, a questionnaire assembly was held with the whole school and was run primarily by Rhinebeck reality members Roxanne Clark and Josie Raccuia, who interviewed both teams.

The questions were mainly focused on the main initiatives of the candidates, how they would bring all 4 grades together, and what qualified each candidate to be a good leader.

Alam and Savolainen’s main initiatives were for outdoor classes, a community garden, a more utilized Canvas page, expantion of the hawk’s nest, more speakers, and larger incorperation of therapy dogs into other rooms in the school.

Nathan and Pulver took a more school spirit-focused approach, with ideas for bouncy houses and water slides at hawk day, foosball and air-hockey tables in the cafeteria, class tailgates, more morning announcements with music to wake students up, and the use of the app Remind to keep students involved.

All four candidates seem extremely qualified for their positions. Each of them are active in school sports, clubs, and committees. The fight for Student Council representatives is definitely going to be a tough one.

Principle Ed Davenport thanked Rhinebeck Reality Staff for such a well recieved event and believes that:

“We have established another important tradition in our school. I received a lot of positive feedback from faculty and from students and we will continue this approach in future, and I hope to expand it to all officers positions at the class and student council level.”

The election results for student council and class officer positions will be posted by the end of the day on Wednesday, May 31st. Go Hawks!