Student Council elections are usually little more than popularity contests, at least in the eyes of adviser Patricia Dias.

And to remedy this problem, SCDS is implementing a radical solution: not putting student body officers up for election at all.

Next year’s Student Council officers for the whole of the student body have been selected by Dias and the current seniors on Student Council rather than by the student body.

Applicants for the officer positions were nominated by the senior Student Council members and were interviewed by Dias.

Next year’s positions will be Brandon Mysicka as president, Natalie Polan as vice president, Maddy Mahla as secretary, and Clement Goetzeler as treasurer.

“They’re dedicated and they have done a great job this year and I think that alone will make every single event better,” said Dias.

Class representatives for individual grades will remain elected and in addition to the traditional roles of president and treasurer, each class will also gain a vice president, a secretary and a spirit officer.

Dias said the previous election system often resulted in officers who “just weren’t qualified.”

“The student body doesn’t really know what the positions are,” Dias said. “They’re picking the prettiest or they’re picking their friends (for student-body offices).”

“The problem is that every once in a while (the students) get everything right, but other times it’s the one who promised the most, even if they couldn’t really do it.

I need people who are responsible and motivated and who really know the school,” Dias said. “I’m just not consistently getting that (with the current system).”

Dias said that the additional move of Student Council from an activity to a graded elective will improve the quality of officers.

To receive credit, members will need to accumulate a required number of hours spent on council projects inside and out of school.

However, they will still meet during lunch period on Mondays and outside of school rather than in elective periods.

The current Student Council members decided to eliminate school-wide elections along with Dias, Sue Nellis, head of high school, Brooke Wells, assistant head of high school, and headmaster Stephen Repsher.

According to Nellis, the change will help to make student government more inclusive and will allow students in “who don’t think they’re popular enough to win an election.”

“We are following what The Octagon and The Medallion have always done. Our best people this year (nominated) the people to take over their jobs next year,” Dias said.

Class presidents and treasurers will continue their traditional roles of overseeing class meetings and monitoring class finances, while the new positions of vice president and secretary will deal with dances and communication between students, faculty and the Student Council for that grade.

“As the school is growing and the classes are growing, the Student Council needs to grow too,” Dias said of the new class representatives.

“It means more ideas, more discussion—now it’s not just two or three people making decisions but people from every grade.”

Plans are also underway to incorporate spirit officers for each grade to coordinate planning of Student Council events like Spirit Week.

“I think it will make Student Council more serious,” senior class treasurer Madison Galati said. ”It’s a real commitment, and this (change) reflects that.

“(The change in elections) does make it less democratic, but it’s necessary to keep it from being a popularity contest.”

Some students, however, believe that this goes too far, and others have reservations about a teacher playing such a pivotal role in student government.

“I’m sure we can all agree (the old system) was far from perfect,” senior Richard Whitney said. “But having a teacher help select the representatives completely undermines the concept of student government.”