Bria and the Student Counsel

I think this story is too funny not to share. The kid’s school decided to have a student counsel this year. Anyone in grades 3-5 could run. They wanted representatives from each class. Plus the fifth grade (I think) got to have a grade president, etc. This kind of thing is right up Bria’s alley. She is super motivated and loves any kind of project. She was thrilled that they were doing this.

Last week, she brought home two blank posters and said that she needed them done by THE NEXT DAY. I have to tell you, this experience worries me for when she’s in high school. We stayed up late and got those posters done. That was Tuesday and the voting was starting on Thursday.

While we were making her posters, we talked about what it meant to run for office. Bria wrote down a list of things that she wanted to do if she won. Some of them were pretty good, and some of them weren’t. She wrote that she wanted to have the lunchroom serve pizza every Friday. So, we talked about campaigning on things that she actually could change and not something that she couldn’t. In the end, she really had come up with some great ideas! My favorite was having a fun run to raise money that could fix leaky holes in the school roof. She came up with that on her own. I was pretty proud.



(This isn’t the greatest picture, I took it from my phone).

Thursday was parent teacher conference. Her teacher told me that she was really impressed with Bria and the campaign. There were 9 kids in her class running for class representative – more than any other class in the school. That day, her teacher had all of the kids running get up and give an impromptu campaign speech. She said Bria did an outstanding job. She said that Bria had some really solid ideas. Then, she asked Bria if she remembered to vote for herself. Bria said that she felt bad for her friend Regan and decided to vote for her instead. So, during the parent teacher conference, we had a discussion that if you’re running for office, you think you’re the best candidate and should vote for yourself, not someone else.

The kids had a 4 day weekend and went back to school this Tuesday. All of the kids who ran for office were so anxious to find out the results of the election. Bria said that every class was announced over the morning announcements, but her class was asked to go to the principal's office. The election came down to a tie. It was between Bria and another girl. So, the class held another election and the other girl won. Bria was so devastated! She cried the whole drive home from school. This was a day that I’m so glad I drive our kids.

The ironic thing is, Bria would have won by ONE vote if she had voted for herself. She was pretty discouraged, but I talked her into running next election. I sure love my girl!!