Six incoming class officers run unopposed

Six future class officers ran unopposed in this year’s class elections on April 30, making the elections less competitive than those of previous years. Assistant principal Karen Hyde attributes the lack of participation to a general unawareness of the immense amount of work that class officers accomplish.

“The thing about ASB and student government is, it’s a lot of hard work with little glory,” said Hyde. “Not many know what we do, and I feel that if we publicized that more, then more people would run.”

Incoming sophomore president Amin Mirzadegan, one of the six candidates who ran unopposed, is also concerned with the lack of school participation.

“The only way for our school to get better in terms of doing what’s best for the students is for more people to participate [in elections],” said Mirzadegan. “Either that, or I think people were scared to run against me.”

The senior class officers for the 2010-2011 school year are: Michelle Wang as president, Aditya Dev as vice president, Karthik Annaamalai as treasurer, Erin Wong as secretary and Leah Capek, Allison Buchanan, Chris Chung, and Tim Rollinson as class representatives. The senior class is in charge of events such as Senior Prom, the talent show,and senior servant day.

“We’re really excited for next year and we have already started planning the events,” said Wang. “Our class is very unified already and a lot of people help out, but it would be great to see more of our classmates getting involved.”

The junior class will be led by president Anika Jhalani, co-vice presidents Shivani Chadha and Nicole Shadman, secretary Izzy Albert and treasurer Chris Jones.

Because of a ballot-counting error, the winner of the vice president election was unclear. Chadha and Shadman decided to share the position of vice president rather than having another election. Chadha believes that having two vice presidents will actually be beneficial to the class.

“Next year, we’re going to have a lot to plan and so we’re going to need all the help we can get,” said Chadha. “With two co-vice presidents, it will just make everything much less overwhelming.”

The junior officers will, with the help of class representatives Michael Chen and Stephanie Shimizu, look to coordinate Saratoga Idol and Junior Prom.

“My goal for next year, along with my fellow class officers, is to reach into the dark and pull our class into the light,” said Jhalani. “In other words, by showing our class that we really do have much potential to be spirited, we will hopefully be very successful next year.”

Leading the sophomore class along with Mirzadegan are Shireen Kaul as vice president, Joanna Lee as secretary and Evelyn Lee as treasurer, with class representatives Andy Fang and Sasan Saadat.

Kaul, who was president of the freshman class this year, sees this first year as a warm-up for what she and her fellow officers will accomplish next year.

“The past year was our first doing events like Homecoming and Powderpuff,” said Kaul, “so next year we want to build off of this and get better and be more spirited.”

Despite the lack of candidates in this year’s student council election, the incoming class officers display an immense amount of optimism for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year.