Minutiæ

Whud­dup, home skil­lets? New school year means new buds (and duds) on the stu­dent coun­cil. We’ve got the scoop on who’s run­nin’ (and who’s bum­min’) this time around.

TREASURER

Ali­cia Trav­es­t­pot (9th Grade)

Aside from the stan­dard promis­es of per­fect atten­dance and bud­get respon­si­bil­i­ty, Ali­cia says that she’s the one to help make every dol­lar work for stu­dents. “I believe my class­es on the advanced math track will help me bal­ance the bud­get and thus­ly pro­vide more fund­ing for a blowout at the end of the school year come June.” June!? We got­ta wait all the way until then? We’ll see if the kid vot­ers can wait that long…

Gavin Clack­ster (9th Grade)

This is Gav­in’s sec­ond time in ninth grade, which the Clack­ster says all adds up to expe­ri­ence. Even with a built-in nick­name that is sure to ener­gize the vot­ers, Gavin promis­es that he’s gonna make sure every stu­dent coun­cil dol­lar is spent wise­ly. “The salvia stuff is in the past,” says Clack­ster, “and giv­ing me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to man­age the large stu­dent coun­cil bud­get is just the respon­si­bil­i­ty I need to not relapse again.” Here’s hop­ing all that expe­ri­ence means a big win.

SECRETARY

Mostavia Beligra (11th Grade)

In only her sec­ond year at the school, Mostavia Beligra says that she’s the one to take min­utes and sched­ule the meet­ings for stu­dent coun­cil, and don’t we know it! All those signs and posters around her fam­i­ly’s con­ve­nience store makes it all more clear that Mostavia wants this win. “She is smart, con­fi­dent, and has excel­lent pen­man­ship,” says her father, Mr. Beligra, who has been hand­ing out free ice creams to sweet­en her daugh­ter’s chances. But will Mostavi­a’s qui­et voice hurt her come debate time? Rumors are that she bare­ly made a sound dur­ing her final Eng­lish pre­sen­ta­tion last year. She might have to belt it out or break the bank to grab this seat.

Troy­dent (9th Grade*)

Troy­dent, the late trans­fer-stu­dent last year from South Dako­ta, is already a school celebri­ty. Word is his sim­ple coun­try wis­dom has daz­zled many at sum­mer par­ties, while his ever present hel­met-like base­ball cap keeps an air of mys­tery around the boy. “I’m hel­la good at scrawl­in’ ” says the boy of unde­ter­mined age as he skips rocks in the old Sears park­ing lot. It might be his noto­ri­ety and his love of speak­ing to the mass­es that has Troy­dent scrawl­in’ all year long at stu­dent coun­cil meetings.

VICE PRESIDENT

McKen­na Joyce Bradley (12th Grade)

Will this be big win num­ber four for MJB? Hav­ing wowed the stu­dents three years ago grab­bing the vice pres­i­den­tial seat as a fresh­man, she’s con­tin­ued to bring a sense of sta­bil­i­ty to the stu­dent coun­cil. “My expe­ri­ence and ser­vice to the stu­dent coun­cil has not only defined me in high school, but it’s who I’ve become.” But will vot­ers be able to rec­og­nize all the hard work that MJB has done in the past years at the Breezy Ice Cream Social 2010, the Avengers Home­com­ing Spec­tac­u­lar 2012, the Spook­i­est Hal­loween Bash Ever 2010, the Pres­i­den­t’s Day Parade 2011, the Spook­i­est Hal­loween Bash Ever 2011, the Iced Out Win­ter Dance 2010, the Valen­tine’s Day Mix­er 2013, or the Spook­i­est Hal­loween Bash Ever 2012 to snag the seat for her senior year?

Gabriel­la Des­ti­na Fer­nan­do San­ti­a­go (9th Grade)

Could his­to­ry repeat itself this year with new­com­er Gabriel­la Des­ti­na Fer­nan­do San­ti­a­go unseat­ing a senior for the Vice Pres­i­den­t’s seat? Rumor has it that this Lati­na ruled mid­dle school as not only pres­i­dent of her stu­dent coun­cil, but was prom AND home­com­ing queen, and is look­ing to con­tin­ue her reign. “What this school needs is some new ideas. If busi­ness as usu­al means three years of the same tired Hal­loween par­ty, then it’s time for a change,” says the hope­ful chal­lenger sur­round­ed by a crowd of under­class­men at the sum­mer’s end of the year par­ty at Cory Pach­in­co’s house because Cory has a pool and his mom was in Ver­mont with her new husband.

PRESIDENT

Ash­er Roth­stein (12th Grade)

Hop­ing to make the jump from Sec­re­tary to Pres­i­dent this year with two years of stu­dent coun­cil ser­vice under his belt, is Ash­er Roth­stein. While many remem­ber Roth­stein from his fresh­man and sopho­more years as the qui­et, reserved stu­dent, it was the seem­ing­ly embar­rass­ing moment when Roth­stein was “debriefed” in the lock­er room last Octo­ber that led his trans­for­ma­tion from wannabe to wan­na-do! “Dude, what I am focused on is mak­ing this senior year the biggest, most awe­somest time. Vote for me and I promise that the par­ty won’t ever stop.” Roth­stein, now armed with con­fi­dence, a pro­vi­sion­al dri­ver’s license, and his old­er broth­er’s used Nis­san, is ready to take senior year by storm and lead the stu­dent coun­cil into the year 2014.

Lucy Markley (12th Grade) 

Could it be that Markley’s late entrance into the race was fueled by the messy past that she and Roth­stein share? All past romances (or duh-mances) aside, Markley has been speak­ing of her ambi­tions to take the pres­i­den­t’s seat ever since she and Roth­stein had their big split at the prom last year. While Markley keeps on throw­ing fire­balls Roth­stein’s way, pho­tos on the hip new pho­to shar­ing net­work Goebbels reveal that Markley and Roth­stein have had at least one in-per­son meet up over the sum­mer that end­ed with Roth­stein cry­ing. “I want noth­ing to do with that liar,” says Markley. ”We kissed at the start of the school year, then he became super pop­u­lar, and then I thought we had got­ten to know each oth­er when he ruined every­thing at prom!” Rumors point to failed rec­on­cil­i­a­tion ini­ti­at­ed by Roth­stein, with Markley being too hurt to take him back. One can only imag­ine the giant cloud of bro­ken hearts and teen hor­mones that will be swirling around this elec­tion. Is there a giant blow-up at the debates or on elec­tion day in our future? Only time will tell.

Geef Bostafi­ano (10th Grade)

It’s that kid who says he can lev­i­tate stuff, but who has seen him do it? No one, except for sci­ence teacher Mr. Pach­in­co who had a ner­vous break­down in the cafe­te­ria last March so who knows what to believe. ♦