Mayor hopes to increase collaboration with students

As part of its recent plan to increase civic awareness among students, the officers of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) have been inviting members of the local government to speak at the club’s lunch meetings.

Saratoga’s new mayor, Mary-Lynne Bernald, attended a club meeting on Feb. 12, introducing her work on the council and the idea of a mock student council with more than 30 students. She discussed the city government makeup, the difference between the public’s perception of politicians and occurrences in a local government, ups and down in each council member’s career and opportunities for the city and the school to work together to build a partnership.

“I firmly believe it will be an exercise beneficial to all of us,” Bernald wrote in an email. “Now, more than ever, it is essential that our students have an understanding of how government works. Government works best when its constituents are engaged. Decisions should never be made in a vacuum.”

To achieve her goal, Bernald has proposed several ideas and discussed them with city manager James Lindsay, regarding ways to engage students in possible programs. Ideas she proposed  included the following:

• The opportunity to tour City Hall to learn about the professions which take place there, which would be followed up with a Q&A session, bringing life to a civics of political science course

• Being Mayor for a day, which would involve students shadowing Bernald part of the day and later taking the reins during a city council meeting that evening, which would be broadcast live on Saratoga’s local KSAR TV station.

• The chance to be part of mock situations in which students would review the various components of a government and then determine a spending budget to address priorities for the city.

This last suggestion would take place during the summer or a school break in order to take into account students’ schedules that consist of “heavy-duty academic, sports and community commitments.” By offering different options that could fit their schedules, the mayor hopes to still give them a hands-on chance to engage in “an enjoyable way to learn how government works.”

FBLA secretary junior Angeli Huang thinks that any of the suggestions would be a great learning experience for club members.

“It’s a good idea. We need to get more people involved to make it work,” Huang said.

Bernald looks to develop the collaboration into a long-term relationship going forward. While her four-year elected term on the City Council is coming to an end in December 2018 and she would need to be re-elected to continue her work on the council, she knows that once established, this project will continue beyond “any one Council Member’s term” with full staff support.

“Policies made today will surely affect our youth in the future,” she said. “The better informed an individual is, the better the voter, the better the government!”

FBLA held a second meeting with council member Rishi Kumar on Feb. 27.