On Wednesday 2 May, Salesian College held our Term Two Student Congress, which was devoted to the presentation of student proposals. Students were able to present their ideas and proposals to the College Leadership Team on how we could better improve facilities or introduce new features to our school. Throughout the Congress, an array of well thought out and selfless ideas were put forward and presented extremely well, which was vital in persuading students to support our initiative, as well as Mr Brennan, who has the final say.
Ashintha Perera, Kyle Gordon and I proposed to introduce EFTPOS machines at the School Canteen. This EFTPOS machine would be put in between the Year 12 and Staff lines as these groups would be the predominant users and have priority. This being said, younger students who need to purchase something from the Canteen by using their debit cards would have the opportunity to discuss this with Barb, our Canteen Manager. Due to the costs of running the machine, a small surcharge will have to be issued through every transaction to cover costs. This surcharge will be covered by the school for the first month of the machines use, so that we can negotiate the lowest possible charge that would cover costs. We chose to propose this due to the significant increase of students who hold debit cards. After we had presented our idea, Mr Brennan asked all those students involved in Student Leadership to raise their hand if they owned a debit card. As we expected, the majority of students raised their hand. This initiative would not only support students, but would also assist staff, as they would not have to worry about carrying cash around with them in order to purchase food from the Canteen.
Student Congress is valuable to the school community as it empowers students to voice their opinion and ideas on ways we can continue to improve the school in all facets, making our community better tomorrow then it is today. Student Congress enables those students who have been chosen by their peers to voice the needs of their year levels in order to create a sustainable and appealing environment for each and every student.
– Zach Vanderputt, 12E
