Grace Prep Introduces New Student Senate

Grace Prep has recently introduced a new governing body of students, called the Student Senate.

This body of Senators plus a President, Vice President, and Secretary, will take the place of the current Student Council and the Class Officers positions beginning in the Fall of 2019.

“The Student Senate will assume many of the roles and responsibilities that our class officers once assumed, as well as work on new initiatives to better our school,” says Mr. Harper, who is overseeing the Senate. While the exact nature of each senator’s duties is still being decided and is still somewhat unknown, it is known that they will have 2 monthly meetings where school policies and issues will be discussed as well as leadership training and principles in ethics.

Students will plan the proposed activities during one meeting, while the other meeting will be a mentorship program with Mr. Harper going through several leadership books. His goal is to “disciple and train the Student Senate in how to lead themselves and others.”

As this is a Senate, all of the votes will be driven by a majority of the Senate body. Some people are wondering why there is a reduction in positions; however, Mr. Harper seems to think that previously there were too many positions in both Student Council and Class Officer roles, “Many of our positions were superfluous, they sometimes went unattended and there were no clear avenues for our students to exercise authority and leadership…”   

Candidates will be voted on by each class (8th-11th) for next year’s high school body. Each class senator will be voted on by his class while the President, Vice President, and Secretary are determined by the entire high school body.