One of the many festivities that come with the new Camas High School (CHS) year is the annual homecoming dance. This year, the homecoming court royalty has everyone on the edge of their seats.
The Associated Student Body (ABS) team at CHS made a decision that caught the attention of many students this year. Recent changes to the homecoming court voting system made it so students could elect themselves for the royalty.
Previously, students could only nominate their peers in their grades. This is the traditional system that high schools across the U.S. use, but it has some flaws; one of which being that it made homecoming court something that was only achievable for students who were popular enough to get votes.
This year, Our ASB team strived to make it so the election was even for everyone.
“So instead of nominating other people, you can nominate yourself,” Valerie Parbon, the CHS ASB Advisor said.
The changes also aimed to solve another problem the traditional homecoming voting system poses. Previously, many students would get voted in who did not actually want to run in the elections. The new changes allow for students who want to vote to be able to step in, and give the students who do not want to run, but would be voted in anyway, a chance to step back.
Students around Camas are enthusiastic about the new approach to the voting changes, too. It gives students who, prior to the changes, would not have had the opportunity to run.
“I think it’s pretty cool…it’s fun that people can nominate themselves this year and actually run for it.” CHS junior Cade Lukens said.
Some students this year were still able to nominate their friends, which was not the purpose of the new system.
“You can only nominate yourself. …the reason for that is that in the last couple of years, there’ve been a couple of different things that have happened. People will get nominated that don’t want to be nominated, you’ll get people who nominate people as a joke …we don’t want people who don’t want to do it,” Parbon explained.
The ASB team is off to a rolling start working hard to make the 2024-2025 school year the best it can be.
