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NEW MIAMI — At New Miami High School, there’s not much need — or time — for a heated political season when it comes to electing class officers.
There’s no campaign to speak of, really, except for the whispering kind. No one gives speeches, and neither posters nor fliers clutter the hallways.
“We used to let them have campaigns, but that just takes so much time,” said guidance counselor Kristen Yancey. “We have such a small class, that campaigning is kind of a joke, so we made the decision to just make a ballot and let everyone fill it out in English class.”
But in between settling into all of the academics of her senior year and smacking the winning kill for the volleyball team’s second game, Lacey Harper quietly nudged her classmates to garner votes for class president.
But then again, at New Miami, a school with a 2011 graduating class of 52 (at the moment), a whisper campaign is almost good enough.
“If you just talk loud, everyone will hear you,” Harper said.
Harper served as class president for her freshman and sophomore years, but last year she ended up serving as secretary/treasurer.
“I was disappointed,” she said, “but I still went to help with the float that didn’t happen.”
In another school, her bid for a comeback could escalate into a heated rivalry, but at New Miami, there’s no room for that kind of drama.
“It’s kind of hard to be mean to people here because we’re so close,” said Janisha Lathan, who is sought re-election this year as class president. “People say there’s a lot of drama here, but I don’t see it.”
This year, it was set up so that who came in second in the election for president will be vice president, so it’s important they be able to work together.
“They’re both two of our best and brightest so it’s nice to have both of them step forward, and it’ll work out fine whoever wins,” Yancey said prior to last week’s vote giving Harper the top spot.
Elections not divisive at New Miami
One of the first and biggest challenges of the class president at New Miami High School is to head up the creation of a homecoming float.
But the track record for the class of 2011, this year’s seniors, is not so great on that front.
Lacey Harper was class president her freshman year, which was the only year that her class actually had a float, but even that proved to be more work than she anticipated.
“The hardest part was trying to get everything organized because we don’t have much time to do it,” she said. “We designed the float, had to figure out what materials we needed, but it’s not as easy as it looks.”
Kristen Yancey, guidance counselor, said, “I think they have a concept in mind from watching the Macy’s parade and such on television and get too ambitious. But seeing it as a spectator is a lot different than making one.”
That year, the class came up with the theme “Burn 'Em Up,” and designed a float to look like a castle with two towers, one of them in bright orange and yellow tissue paper flames.
There were many challenges, from coming up with a trailer and figuring out how to frame a castle out of chicken wire and lumber to rounding up the labor and making sure everyone used proper tissue paper application techniques.
“It’s the time of year when everybody’s schedule is crazy,” Harper said. “Our classes are so small it’s hard to get people to help out.
“We also had some tissue paper issues. Some of them weren’t putting the paper in and fanning it out, but just sticking it in the chicken wire, so we had pieces of tissue paper floating around everywhere on the football field when we came out.
“Everybody else made fun of it, but I thought it was awesome at the time,” she said. “And I had fun.”
And that was the last time the class of 2011 had a homecoming float. Harper was also class president her sophomore year, but couldn’t muster up the manpower to get a float going, and their junior year, when Janisha Lathan was president, they didn’t get any further than a theme and painting some poles.
“We have good ideas,” Harper said, “but they just didn’t work out.”
“It was madness,” Lathan said.
While it wasn’t exactly a big campaign issue , both Harper and Lathan, the candidates for class president, felt the pressure.
“This is our senior year and we’ve got to have a float,” Harper said. “We’ve had more people running for office this year, so we may have the manpower to get one built.”
Lathan and Harper have been friends since middle school, and in addition to running against each other for class president, they’re also both in running for valedictorian and salutatorian.
“We’ve always gone back and forth,” Lathan said. “It’s not going to be that big a deal whether I’m president or vice president. We’ve already been talking about it,” she said last week before the results were announced.
“We’re winning this year,” Harper said. “Definitely.”
Bobby’s Senior Year
Meanwhile, over at Butler Tech, Bobby King enjoyed dual success last week winning two elected positions in his information technology class, even though he didn’t really want one of the jobs.
But since he had experience as secretary of his 4-H club and no one else seemed interested in the same position for the IT classes at Butler Tech, he figured he was the best person for the job anyway.
“To be brutally honest, I didn’t want it,” he said. “But we had to have somebody do it and I figured I could take meeting notes on my laptop, no big deal.”
King is more enthusiastic for the other job as class representative, the person who greets people who come to visit their classroom and to conduct tours for prospective students.
“That job I actually did want,” he said. “I was doing all that stuff anyway, so why not have the title?”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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