Eaton High School’s Student Council has been very involved in this year’s community. Beyond organizing school dances, the committee has also planned events such as pickleball tournaments, window painting competitions, and spirit days. 

In past years, the committee has only organized dances. Biology teacher and Student Council sponsor, Justice Aleman, said, “Everybody called the party planning committee, or the homecoming committee, and I just wanted it to be more than just us planning homecoming, and then not having a presence.” She has truly wanted to increase the club’s presence to make it taken more seriously. Aleman elaborated that she wants the students to feel safe coming to the club if there are issues in the building; she hopes that they can rely on the club to make a change. 

Usually, dress-up days are only for a week, which is during homecoming or Prom. However, the principal is incorporating a dress-up month for students and staff to participate in every day in December. “I think that’s more of the principal wanting to kind of have fun with December, to keep everyone engaged and finish out the semester pretty strong and to build the culture and community in our school,” said Aleman. The spirit days are set up to be seen on the TVs around the school, so each student can partake. The committee is organizing a hot cocoa bar during finals week as well to contribute to the spirit.

The new addition to the school’s activities includes the window painting decorations. Mrs. Aleman and Mrs. Cochran were reminiscing about their time at Eaton High School and how their class would paint business windows on Main Street. At the time, Mrs. Cochran had the students painting on her window, which sparked the new idea to bring back the tradition and sense of community in the building. Aleman said, “The reason why I liked high school and the reason I came back here was because of the lot of stuff I experienced. And so I’m hoping that by bringing back some of the stuff I got to do, that kids would love to be here.” 

In past years, it had been difficult to get the students involved in joining the Student Council. Senior Aya Kinoshita said, “Now that [Aleman]’s running it, I think a lot more people are getting interested in it again.” With Aleman taking over Student Council last school year for 2024-2025, she has worked to shape the club to be bigger than just a simple dance in September. 

The Student Council is looking forward to preparing more activities for the students to get involved in throughout the year, as Aleman is working to shape the club into a more serious light.