Soldotna High School students on Tuesday were the first to speak to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in a new window for presentations created in June.
Among the first items on the assembly’s agenda on Tuesday — after approval of the agenda but before a series of reports, public hearings and testimony — was a presentation by the Soldotna High School Student Council. President Emma Glassmaker was flanked by members of the council’s executive board, Cammy Kincaid and Will Klein, in reporting to the council about this year’s first semester at SoHi.
They spotlighted their school and council’s activities and efforts for outreach and engagement, including the “SoHi Scoop” newscast published weekly at “Soldotna High School Student Council” on YouTube, homecoming festivities, a food drive and others.
The presentation period was created during the assembly’s June 4 meeting, by unanimous approval of an ordinance that adds a student council presentation, by a Kenai Peninsula Borough School District high school and with prior notice, to their agenda. Only one school can present per assembly meeting and each school can present twice. Priority is given to schools that haven’t presented during the current fiscal year, and both Homer and Seward get priority when the assembly meets in those communities.
The ordinance was sponsored by Tyson Cox and Ryan Tunseth, who wrote in the ordinance that the presentation would create a new opportunity for students to participate in local government and allow them to directly share their school’s interests, concerns and activities with the assembly and public.
Glassmaker said she would return to the assembly at the end of the school year with “more updates.”
Cox on Tuesday commended the students for speaking, saying that Soldotna High School is particularly “dear to me” as the school he attended and where his wife teaches.
He said he was encouraged by the efforts of the council to drive engagement, because he said increasing numbers of students are out for college classes, work release, or other programs.
A full recording of the presentation is available at kpb.legistar.com.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
