State of the School

by Ilan Ben-Meir, Senior Class President.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the state of our school is rising. Last year was a year of transition, with an incoming principal, and outgoing ASB advisor, and a less-than-perfect student government. Now that things have begun to settle, I can report with confidence that, while this year will have its challenges, it is sure to be better for us and our school than the year past.
First, I would like to share with you my impressions of my first week as a part of Samohi leadership. This year's leadership is not like the leadership of years gone by. While past years were distant and isolated, this year's ASB is approachable, inspired, and eager to hear ideas other than their own. Any feelings you may hold about ASB ought to be reconsidered. I am not saying that leadership is fixed, only that in my opinion it finally has the potential to live up to its promises and responsibilities. Whether or not it does depends on you getting involved and making your voices heard. I assure you that as long as I am around, you will have at least one advocate, and based on my impressions of the rest of the class, I believe you will always have many more. In short, I'm asking that you give leadership a chance this year, and in turn, I promise that I will always be honest with you about what I see. For now, though, things actually look pretty good.
So the good news is that your government may finally do what you want it to. The bad news, as I'm sure you've heard, is that Samohi has lost its public parking. On Tuesday, the city council voted to make the streets south of Pico and west of Lincoln permit only during the school day. While this may sound like terrible news, enough students came to the meeting to protest this turn of events that the mayor has instructed the city to look into solving our parking problem, possibly by opening the new parking structure on 4th Street to students. This is an ongoing process, and if we want the best results, we all need to make sure the city knows how we feel. I'll keep you all posted on this as it develops.
As its only the 5th day of school, not much else has happened. We're already planning the first pep rally, which you can be sure will be the first of many. We're also going to have a magazine drive, which is a great way to get people you know to give the school money. It turns out dinner for prom was bought five years ago, but we're trying to find other ways to make tickets less expensive. As always, your thoughts are appreciated, and you can always email me at ibenmeir@gmail.com or call at (310) 909-3739. Until then, stay funky.