Starting this year, the PHS Student Council will consist not only of elected members, but also of a general body, which will be open for all students to join. This move, made by both the advisors as well as elected members, hopes to create a more inclusive and engaging environment in the student council. The general body will attend weekly meetings along with the current Student Council members, allowing its members to have a prominent voice.

Student Council has been an organization at PHS for a long time; however, for most of the time that it has existed, it has been significantly influenced by the leadership of its advisors. Due to the limited number of students in the council, it has struggled to put on all of its normal events, including the Homecoming and Prom dances, and relied on advisors as a result. Jennifer Li, PHS Mathematics Teacher, took the role of advisor for the council just over a year ago, and since then, she has made it one of her primary goals to make the student council more student-led.

“During my first four years at PHS, I saw that the group was very advisor-led,” said Li. “There were a lot of meetings that the student body president ended up running. I’m trying to make that happen more for this school year and having the presidents create the agenda and also run meetings rather than the advisor.”

Li hopes that the creation of a general body for the Student Council will help aid the council in the planning of their events. This would mean that with the addition of the general body, a decreased workload will allow student council members to exhibit more leadership skills and rely less on the advisors.

“It’s a lot of work for only 20-something students and then the four or five advisors to create, plan, and execute all these events alone. So I thought that we should allow students to join the Student Council, to just have more students, really, for all these events,” Li said.

The existence of the general body will also provide a way for students who wouldn’t normally participate in the council to get involved in school events. Additionally, as not every student who runs is able to win their election, the existence of the general body will ensure that all are now able to participate in the council regardless.

"The general body will allow us to get more ideas from students who might not feel like they want to have an elected position with the Student Council, and to have the full responsibility of being an elected member,” said Li. “This means that they can still be a part of the group and have ideas heard.”

Along with helping put on planning-intensive events, the creation of a general body for the Student Council is also hoped to help the Student Council improve their outreach efforts. It will achieve this by making it easier for students to get involved in Student Council-related activities if they want to.

“I think that the general body will allow the community to be more involved, and learn more about what the Student Council actually does, because not very many people are on it. So with general body members, we can hopefully have a wider outreach,” said Ashlena Brown ’24, president of her class.While the Student Council general body has only had a couple meetings since its creation, it already has been successful at achieving its goal of building a greater connection between the student body and the student council. “I thought it was cool taking part in student council decisions, as someone outside of the council,” said Finn Neuneier ’24, a member of the general body. “I’m excited to work with them to help plan events in the future.