Each year we elect our student officials. Students take into careful consideration what is important to them: be it the parking lot, a school dance, or a club. Each year we fall into a mania as we deliberate which candidates we’ll vote for. A buzz fills the school with a hushed question to friends: “Who will you vote for?” Well, the votes are in and so are the officials. We take a look into what they’ve been up to and how the year’s going. 

Our student council is composed of many people, from a president and vice president representing each grade. We also have a student body president (Scott Voight) and vice president (Laszlo Baumgardner), a spirit leader (Finn Chumbler), a treasurer (Casen Ripple), and many more positions. 

Overall, our representatives do a variety of things that range from setting up pep rallies to dances; however,  one of their more pressing matters is funding clubs and activities. It’s less known that our student council is given a budget to help fund activities. While access to the budget is not public, so there is no exact number, student body treasurer Casen Ripple states that, “We have a very generous budget.” But why does this matter to the Gallatin High School student body?

Ripple explains that the student council budget is used for a variety of purposes, which include giving grants to clubs, funding school events such as the senior sunrise breakfast, and rewarding homeroom hallway contest winners. Most notably, Ripple explains that a lot of the budget goes to funding Homecoming and the Winter Formal dances. They pay for the things that make a dance, such as decor and a DJ. 

Ripple states that very little of the student council’s budget goes to the group as a club. Outside of sometimes celebrating large events with a pizza party, the budget, in general, is being put back into the student body. 

So when the student body chooses who they vote for, in reality, they are voting for themselves as well. The student council of Gallatin High School uses the budget to benefit the school and promote community. A group of balanced students voted by the students, who use money to help the people who voted them in, it is evident that the 2024 student council is a group that was chosen well.