This year, all senate elections for the upcoming school year took place on Thursday and Friday, May 21 and 22. Each class elects its own senate. Each senate helps plan events for each class and collaborates with the administration to voice each class’s concerns and opinions. The general goal is to act as a bridge between students and administrators. This year, many campaigners believed they could take on the task.
The campaigning picked up a week before the elections. Students used social media campaigns on Instagram to promote themselves as the best candidates. State High’s broadcast was filled with campaign videos over the course of multiple days. Campaign posters were scattered throughout State High’s hallways.
The campaigns began with a bang, but why do students care? Is it just a big popularity contest? Or do campaigners actually have a vision for next school year? Being well known before a campaign can help build traction, but having a good plan for the next school year could secure a win, along with past leadership experience, especially in the senate.
“This year nobody ran against me, but if somebody were to have run against me, I feel like I also would have gotten it because of my past experience in the senate,” current Sophomore Senate President Jennie Varrassa said.
This year, the most competitive race was for the Senior Senate. In general, the Senior Senate gets to plan more events such as Senior Sunrise, prom, Senior Sunset, and other activities to celebrate the last year of high school.
“This year, it did get a little bit more competitive than past years just because senior year is a little bit more competitive anyway. Everyone wants to be a part of it,” current Junior Senate Vice President Natalie Branstetter said.
For Senior Senate campaigns, some candidates made shirts, pins, stickers and more to promote themselves. Many campaigners ran in groups to create a brand for themselves. For example, “The Super Senate” was a combination of juniors Tyler Lippincott, Nate Brown, Joey Martin, and MJ Stockdale.
“The four of us have a ton of drive and energy, so we decided to run together,” junior Tyler Lippincott said.
The senate election results were released at the end of the school day on May 22. The class officers for the 2026-2027 school year are listed below.
Class of 2029
President – Anna Chen
Vice President- Brynn Pezalski
Secretary – Nina Bao
Treasurer – Suhnjun Choi
Class of 2028
President – Jennie Varrassa
Vice President- Uli Gal
Secretary – Sophia Andrzhievsky
Treasurer – Sergei Zhdanov
Class of 2027
President – Ryan Stapleton
Vice President – Natalie Branstetter
Secretary – Nate Brown
Treasurer – Tyler Lippincott
“I think one thing that definitely helped us out is [that] Ryan and I have been on the Senate for the past few years, so I think just name recognition at this point is a big thing,” Branstetter said.
The Senate works together to create events that impact each class. “It’s really what brings the community and morale up in our school,” Branstetter said. “It’s really awesome to see how big of an impact the small things the Senate does make.”
The Senate can help shape the class communities at State High. As the 2025-2026 school year is coming to a close, the 2026-2027 class Senate takes the lead on what the next school year has in store.
