Student Council, known for its planning of Homecoming, Turnabout, and more had a major shake-up this year. The biggest pro of the new system is that it encourages and rewards students who take the initiative and lead. In addition to that, the club's meetings are scheduled to be 100% virtual, not only enabling students to attend meetings easier, but also making the club safer, especially at a time when health and wellness are top priorities for the school.

The new system splits participants up into two groups: planners and participants. Participants are nothing new; the sponsors of the club, Mr. Peronto and Ms. Schacht, along with the board have described this as the traditional Student Council experience. The students who choose this route will attend events, which are usually virtual, in order to get credit for being in the club. These students can also be tasked with miscellaneous things like helping the club advertise their events.

Planners are the most exciting addition to the club this year. After they choose the committee they want to be in, these students team up in groups of 4 and are tasked with planning an event for the school. This is the leadership I mentioned earlier: students who want to challenge themselves have the option to do so. It’s important to note that not every event planned actually happens. The board gets the final say on whether or not the event can go through and they decide based on things like the budget, the practicality, the idea itself.

Now, let's talk about the committees. Instead of the several committees the club usually has, there are only 4 this year: Events, Philanthropy, Eagle Talks, and School Issues. The Events Committee plans some of the more major events the school typically has, like the Talent Show, for example. The Philanthropy Committee works on giving back to the community. Things like food drives and charity fundraisers fall into this committee. The Eagle Talks Committee plans out Eagle Talks, which are very similar to TED-Talks; the school will virtually bring in guest speakers who will give a talk to students. Anyone who wants to attend the talk can do so, it’s open to all students.

The School Issues Committee differs from the other ones. While the other committees have permanent members who plan events, School Issues is a general committee that is open to Planners and Participants alike. The goal of the committee is not to plan events, but to gain feedback from the students. Students who attend these meetings will share their opinions, experiences, thoughts, and ideas so that the school can improve. The Executive Board and sponsors meet with Dr. Tyrrell monthly, so the people who share in these meetings have real input about the decisions the school makes.

Speaking as a member of the Executive Board and as a student, I’m very happy about all this. It’s too early in the year to tell how well the system works or how much students benefit from it, but regardless of that, a new precedent has been set for the future of Student Council, something it is generally reluctant to do. All that's left to do is wonder “What’s next?”

Throughout the month of March, signs lined the streets of Orland Park. The two most important names on those signs were Keith Pekau and Dan McLaughlin. Both of these candidates spent their time knocking on over 1,000 doors each and spent thousands of dollars fundraising for their campaigns. It worked well for both of them, but just a bit better for the incumbent mayor, Keith Pekau. He won by just 512 votes, and just over 51% of the 13,000 votes placed. He also added three trustee candidates to the village board, which he already had a majority lead in. McLaughlin conceded on April 7th, saying he was very proud of his committee's work, and will continue to serve the village of Orland Park.

Mayor Pekau’s slogan is “People Over Politics.” The past four years, he has served by that motto. He has done a great job of following through with this motto in his four short years as mayor. One of his major accomplishments was getting Orland out of the “triangle project.” This project drove the village drastically in debt, costing them forty-five million dollars. That money could have been used on many other things that the people of Orland Park needed. Two of those things were the repairment of roads and parks. That is exactly what Pekau did. He made a plan for both of these things, having them repaired and refurbished. Lastly, he was able to manage the coronavirus extremely well. He kept businesses up and running and even created incentives for the people, to keep them coming to Orland, and supporting the businesses. While Pekau did do a great job in his four years, he was still up against tough competition. Dan McLaughin, who was a politician for over thirty-four years, came very close to knocking off the incumbent mayor. Being the mayor of Orland Park for twenty-four years before Pekau, was a major factor in this election. He had many people who were incredibly loyal to him and would not vote for anyone else. His slogan, “#OneOrland”, fit him perfectly. He has always been known as a people’s person. He went to every event in Orland, held festivals and carnivals everyone loved, and always made himself available to the public. Unfortunately for him, his questionable past decisions caused him to just lose this election, but he still put up a great fight against Mayor Pekau.

In a time of great political unrest, this was a great election in Orland. Two good candidates went up against each other to try and improve the village as a whole. While Mayor Pekau ended up edging out Mclaughlin, both would have done a great job making Orland Park a better place. In the next four years Mayor Pekau wants to create high paying jobs, grow revenue for the village while cutting taxes, and lower government spending. If he is able to do this, it will be another successful four years for him.