New Po'okela Class A Balancing Act for StuCo Members

This school year, student council members are navigating a new system with a combined poʻokela class, a change that has brought both improved communication and new challenges for students trying to manage their academic workload.

Starting this school year, all student council and ASB members—excluding freshmen—were put into the same poʻokela class, instructed by the Student Activities Coordinator, Auntie Cass Jacinto. This system is relatively new, and class discussions revolve mostly around council priorities.

“It's absolutely different, but I personally enjoy the time to meet together to plan,” says ASB vice president Lake Tavernese. Junior class president Brianne Lagazo has similar feelings and enjoys “having poʻokela with my council.” In poʻokela, she says, “I can communicate better in person rather than online and only having meetings during lunch.”

According to several council members, including sophomore Vice President Grayson Guzman, this change was implemented so that ASB students wouldn’t need to give up a class for leadership. Last year, there was a lack of ASB signups, and Tavernese explained that “people did not have room in their schedule for the leadership class and therefore were not signing up.”

A More Productive Class

Many council members like the new change, as they find it enhances communication and makes planning more efficient. Lagazo likes that the council can “communicate better and get things done in a timely manner.”

Similarly, Mina Nagasako, the junior class Secretary, feels “more productive,” as all the council members together in one po’okela lets everyone “create better ideas and it makes it mandatory for us to be present.”

“We’re all there instead of hosting meetings and having people not show up,” said ASB President, Kelani Gonzalez, who also notices the council getting more involved. She thinks the period helps them plan and organize things easier.

Po’okela helps “keep us on track with our activities and whatever we have planned,” Guzman notes.

A Time Crunch

Reactions aren’t completely positive, however, and some students note that they've lost the opportunity to work on other assignments and other things they need to complete. The entirety of the class, they claim, is taken up with discussions about campus events, assembly plans, and other council activities.

“Our time that we have to do our po’okela work is limited,” Guzman mentions. After StuCo business, he says, “we got around 10 minutes or less to ourselves to do work for po’okela.”

“So far it feels like there’s very little time for it,” said Tavernese about the PTP assignments that students would usually work on during poʻokela period.

PTP, or Personal Transition Plan, requires the completion of certain material for a portfolio—and it’s a requirement needed to graduate. This has a particular impact on seniors, says Tavernese, as many were “unaware of what PTP they had to accomplish and need it all done by the end of the semester.”

Gonzalez agrees: “there’s 3 grade levels and we all have different things to do,” emphasizing that seniors have a lot going on. Especially with senior project, PBA’s, and graduate preparations, she added.

Freshmen Feeling Left Out

“I'd look at my GroupMe, and then I'd look at my HowAbout, which is just a calendar that I'm in with the rest of the student councils,” says Freshman council candidate Harana Peralta. These are the two main resources freshman council members use to stay informed and connected.

Because the freshman council isn’t included in the same po’okela as other council members, they mainly get their information through online communication and occasional lunch meetings. This seems to be going okay so far, though the freshmen do miss out a little since they aren’t involved in council discussions during poʻokela.

“I don't know how much the freshmen are caught up with us. Since they're separate, it might be hard to keep them up to date,” says Nagasako.

When freshman Brielle Ramelb was asked if she felt like she understood what the council was currently working on, she said “I think so—sometimes,” before adding “not really, though, since we're freshman, so I don't get that much information.” She mentioned that it would help her feel more included by “having better communication with the other councils like other than Groupme.”

“While they do miss a lot of important discussions, they are still filled in,” Lagazo asserted.

Monthly meetings show the freshman council what is being planned. Tavernese says this should “hopefully keep them up to date for most of the year.” Guzman notes, however, that “we need to work more on prioritizing the important information” when it comes to those meetings. He explained that in the last meeting with freshmen, they got “sidetracked” with less important plans.

What This Can Accomplish for Student Council

Challenges aside, there is quite a bit of evidence that the new leadership po’okela has given the council more opportunities to be actively engaged with each other. Sophomore Eli Hegrenes has noticed a difference on social media where StuCo has “been a lot more active.”