Midway Elementary’s Shark Council members willing to lend helping hand, lift up peer spirit
Midway Elementary in the Mead School District has a Shark Council that was recently recognized at a school board meeting for its positive impact on the culture at the school. The student leadership council is composed entirely of fifth-graders.
Teacher Kristen Labrie is one of three Shark Council advisers. She said the group was started during the 2018-19 school year “as a way to get student input.”
The goal was also to create a leadership opportunity for students. At the time the council included fifth- and sixth-graders, but the sixth-graders no longer attend Midway so only the fifth-graders remain. If they want to be on the council, students have to fill out an application and provide references from a teacher and an adult who is not a relative. The applications are scored with a rubric and the top 20 scorers are invited to join the council.
Students can choose to be on one of four teams of five students that make up the council: the production team, which leads assemblies and does videos; the peer mentor team, which does new student tours and monitors the Buddy Bench on the playground; the public relations team, which runs the Shark Store and does the morning announcements; and the fundraising and community service team.
Teacher Suzanne Bofenkamp manages the fundraising and community service team. They do a Popcorn Friday fundraiser once a month and did a food drive last fall. They’ve got a penny driving coming up for Joya, formerly known as the Spokane Guild School.
She also heads up the peer mentor team. “They’re the ones who like to have relationships with kids,” she said. “They bring our kindergarteners in every morning. They’re my go-to team for anything student-related.”
Labrie oversees the production team. “They’re our outgoing kiddos,” she said. “When we have a schoolwide assembly, they help organize them.”
The application process took place last spring, so this year’s Shark Council was able to meet with the outgoing council.
“Last year’s group trained this group on how to do things,” said Bofenkamp.
Though each student is assigned to a team, that doesn’t mean they’re limited to only that area.
“They’re not just part of their team,” Bofenkamp said. “They come in and help with other things.”
The students are always ready and willing to help out, even if it means coming to school early to give a tour to a new student or help with a project.
“I wanted to be more involved in helping people in my school community,” said student Avery Davidson. “I just wanted to help more people, to make them feel more welcome at our school.”
Ensley Breeden said she just wanted to help others.
“I thought it was pretty cool how fifth-graders were helping people younger than us,” Breeden said.
Carson Rupe said he’s always enjoyed helping with fundraisers, so he joined the community service team. He also liked the idea of students running events.
“I felt intrigued by how fifth-graders kind of got to run the school,” he said.
It was the focus on leadership that attracted student Naomi Flann.
“You get to learn how to be a leader,” she said. “It’s really fun to help people.”
It was all about friends for Leighton Emch. “I really like being with my friends and creating new friendships,” she said.
Student Kenzie McComb is on the peer mentor team, which monitors the Buddy Bench. It is bright blue and located on the playground for students to sit on when they need a friend or someone to play with.
The peer mentor team created a presentation that it gave in each of the school’s 27 classrooms to explain the Buddy Bench to their fellow students and ask them to be Buddy Bench ambassadors if they ever saw someone sitting there.
McComb said she doesn’t often see anyone sitting on the bench. She did spot a student there recently during recess and she was getting ready to go to him when a group of students of a similar age beat her to it.
“They came over and asked if he wanted to play, and I thought it was really sweet,” she said.
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