Paly’s Associated Student Body is proposing to modify its current class representative system by moving it from fourth period to advisory and by implementing an online communication system, according to Student Activities Director Allison Mullins.

ASB is looking to resolve several problems in its current representative system, including lack of representative participation and communication difficulties, according to Mullins.

Currently, one student from each fourth period class is chosen as an ASB representative. These representatives are required to attend all ASB meetings, and give regular reports of the meetings to their classes during fourth period. Fourth period classes are currently five minutes longer than other periods so that students can read the daily bulletin and representatives have ample time to give reports.

However, the extra five minutes in fourth period are typically used to view InFocus, Paly’s broadcast journalism publication. In addition, many teachers are generally reluctant to use class time to discuss campus issues, which interferes with the representative process, according to ASB President Erik Klingbeil.

“Most teachers never elect a fourth period rep or want to give up time to have the rep talk,” Klingbeil said. “Seldom do they allow the rep to discuss issues with the class, the reason primarily being because class time is too precious.”

Without reports, students are unable to learn about important issues happening on campus, Klingbeil says.

“Most commonly discussed are upcoming events and activities that will be happening on the Paly campus, as well as major projects and changes [such as] new bulletin boards or reconstruction to the senior deck,” Klingbeil said. “[Representative] meetings are also used to gather student input on specific issues [such as] breathalyzing at student dances.”

Club officers suffer most from the failed representative system, as they rely on ASB for funds and activities, Klingbeil said. In addition, freshmen, who are not yet familiar with annual Paly events, would benefit from an improvement of the representative system, according to Klingbeil.

Another issue hindering the current representative system is the lack of communication between ASB members and fourth period teachers. There are roughly 70 fourth period teachers, who were notified about selecting ASB representatives last school year via e-mail only, according to Mullins. Keeping track of such a large amount of people has proven to be difficult and as a result, representatives are rarely chosen and meetings are not attended regularly, according to Mullins.

“The system last year literally failed 100 percent,” Mullins said. “Maybe five representatives from fourth period classes [attended], and three of them were the TEAM [representatives].”

By picking representatives from advisories rather than fourth period classes, ASB hopes to increase representative attendance to ASB meetings because of the potential for improved communication between ASB and teacher advisers.

“The [teacher adviser] meetings are fairly regular, so I’d be able to remind advisers to pick representatives and send them to meetings,” Mullins said.

One potential problem with an advisory representative system is the inconsistency of meeting times for advisories per grade, which makes it difficult for representatives to give regular reports to their advisory classes. Rather than meeting at regular intervals throughout the entire school year, advisories for each grade meet at incongruous intervals ranging from weekly to monthly meetings, according to Mullins.

“The advisories by grade meet sporadically,” Mullins said. “Sometimes, [advisories from] one grade will meet several weeks in a row.”

To resolve this issue, ASB is also proposing to require representatives to create an e-mail list or Facebook group for notifying their respective advisory classes about information from ASB meetings. This online notification system would help to ensure that students learn about topics discussed at ASB meetings directly afterwards, according to Mullins.

This solution would be beneficial whether representatives are chosen from advisories or fourth period classes, Mullins said.

“Right now, the extra five minutes in fourth period for announcements are mostly used by InFocus,” Mullins said. “With an email list or Facebook group, reps can send out monthly updates and classes won’t be disturbed.”

However, an email system may not prove to be beneficial immediately, according to Klingbeil.

“[The] only problem is finding students dedicated enough to take the time needed to send e-mails to all their peers,” Klingbeil said.

ASB plans to bring its proposal to Teacher Advisor co-coordinators Susan Shultz and Ann Deggelman, who oversee the overall management and organization of the TA system. ASB will then seek approval from Assistant Principal Kim Diorio to finalize the proposal, according to Mullins.

Klingbeil hopes that these two proposals help ASB achieve its original purpose for implementing the representative system.

“Overall, it is a system of uniformly collecting ideas straight from the student body,” Klingbeil said. “Essentially, it’s easier for both the student body and ASB if we know what the students want and if the students know what we’re doing to meet those needs.”

Editor’s note: This version correctly states that fourth period teachers were notified about selecting ASB representatives, not ASB meetings.