Wells Elementary School forms a team to represent fellow students

Post date: Dec 20, 2016 3:2:16 PM

Wells Elementary School administrators and teachers have recently formed a student group called The Student Leadership Team. It is an assembly that is similar in function to a typical high school or junior high student council.

This fall, two students from each of WES’s third and fourth grade classrooms were nominated by their teachers to represent their classmates at monthly meetings scheduled through May. The current group of 18 students will meet with their seven staff advisors to address school spirit and ways to “pay it forward” in the community.

“Teachers were asked to nominate students who could represent the interests/needs of all classmates and would be committed to serve on the team for the entire school year,” stated a letter from school to parents and guardians explaining the Student Leadership Team, one of the initiatives administrators hope to focus on for the 2016-2017 school year.

Pam Lear and Mirna Davila are advisors to the team. However, they believe that they are more facilitator than advisor since all students in the group have demonstrated leadership skills. According to the two educators, these students will likely grow as leaders as they pass through the higher grades.

“They are an impressive group of students,” said Lear, a fourth grade teacher. “They are a really strong group working well together,”

“Leadership is a skill that should be taught at an early age,” commented Davila, an ed tech. “Not only is the Student Leadership Team learning to work as a team but also…(discovering) the importance of focus, compassion, planning, execution and being a positive impact in their school.”

In recent meetings the Student Leadership Team has been listing ideas on how to increase “school spirit” and how to “pay it forward” to the community. For school spirit, a Flashlight Friday is planned in January. One of the ideas to “pay it forward” includes a bake sale with baked goods to be sold to staff members. Proceeds from this sale will go to the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center. Other ideas that the student team is planning on implementing include an animal shelter drive and a card sale.

At the WOCSD School Committee meeting on December 7th, two Team members, Alex Finn and Hayden Meffert spoke to the Committee and audience about the new Student Leadership Team.