“Do band and choir still exist in the school?” school board member Lance Carlson asked of current classes offered at Stanley-Boyd in the age of COVID. Carlson’s question came amidst reports that singing is considered an especially good way to spread the novel coronavirus.

“Yes,” Stanley-Boyd superintendent Jeff Koenig said, before adding that these were operating with modifications and conceding, “It’s kind of hard to get students excited and passionate about something if they can’t do it.”

Along that same trajectory, struggling student organizations came up at the Monday September 28 school board meeting. Among the many challenges these organizations currently face are no contact virtual meetings with less attendance than face-to-face ones, raising needed funding to keep things going smoothly and also travel to competitions, and finally making sure that potential new members are aware of the opportunities that organizational membership offered. To that end, a group of Stanley-Boyd student leaders and their advisors came to the September 28 school board meeting to fill the local board of education in on the current challenges they face in keeping their organizations going. School board president Bob Geist announced the agenda topic to start things out.

“2.1, Career and Student Technical Organization Officers,” he said after the Pledge had been recited. Appearing before the board on either side of the projector screen, six Stanley- Boyd student leaders introduced themselves as their advisors took to the sidelines.

“Good evening,” Monica Derks said introducing herself as president of the Stanley-Boyd FFA chapter, followed by her sister McKenzie Derks introducing herself as the FFA vice president. With Hannah Hause (president of FCCLA), Hannah Hazard and Emily Flaaten (officer team members of FBLA) and Dennis McCloskey (secretary of Skills USA) introducing themselves for their organizations, Monica Derks launched into just why the group of six was there.

“We are going to tell you about CTSO,” she said, “and we will tell you what we do and how you can become a member,” she said.

Saying that CTSO stood for “Career and technical service Organizations,” Derks said that the umbrella acronym included four organizations under it, these being the Future Farmers of America (FFA), Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and Skills USA.

“CTSO is a place to belong,” McKenzie Derks said, which Hause backed up by saying that in CTSO “you learn a lot of leadership skills throughout each club. Hazard highlighted “gaining communication skills” while Flaaten talked up “travel opportunities for members,” and McCloskey closed out the general review by drawing attention to the “many scholarship opportunities for graduating seniors.”

Photo by Joseph Back.