The Senior Council is undergoing quite some structural changes. The two Sixth-Form Representative positions are being removed from the Senior Council, and two additional Dorm Prefect roles will be added in their place. Additionally, there will now be four Sixth-Form Reps elected at the start of the new school year instead of in the spring term.

According to Mr. Reinhardt, the overall number of the SC will remain the same. “Senior councils, at least as long as I’ve been here, have been 22 students,” he said. In previous years, some changes were already made, like replacing library prefects and dining hall prefects, and adding community life stewards. However, with these changes, the total number has not changed.

“Traditionally, the 6th form representatives were the last 2 selected to join the Senior Council. And they would make it 22. What we decided to do was change that role. So there’ll still be 22 students, but those will be 2 additional dorm prefect roles.”

So what will happen to the sixth form representatives? Mr. Reinhardt explained that the 6th form will now operate just like every other form. “They’ll select their 6th form reps in the fall— just like our 5th, 4th, and 3rd form does. They won’t be a part of the senior council, but they will report directly to the 6th form dean, Mr. Provost. They will be very intentionally focused on 6 form initiative schools as opposed to being pulled in a lot of different directions.”

This change did not come out of nowhere. As Mr. Reinhardt says, it has been discussed for years. “I think there are pros and cons to both sides. But something that we’ve kind of gotten to formally feel like the pros heavily outweigh the cons, and it’s the right thing for the school. So, we decided that this was the right direction to go.” Before officially making the decision, they got perspectives from all the deans, the Head of School, as well as the current Senior Council. In the end, “it seemed like everyone was on board with it and thought it would be a good thing.”

The reasoning behind adding two more dorm prefects is to balance residential life support across campus. Currently, there are five male dorm prefects and five female dorm prefects, but there are six dorms. Mr. Reinhardt noted that “inevitably, at least one dorm didn’t have the same number of prefects… This will help us to balance it, so every dorm will get 2.”

The timing of the elections of the sixth form representatives was also changed to align with other forms and to include new 6th formers and postgraduate students. “We thought would be helpful in our pursuit of helping create opportunities for leadership for those students,” Mr. Reinhardt said. “We have some great postgraduates who don’t really get any opportunity to apply for senior council or leadership positions on campus. So this provides an opportunity for one-year students who want to get involved in leadership opportunities on campus.”

These changes are already officially in effect for the class of 2027. The application process for next year’s SC is currently open until April 27.