By Jack Maher, Multimedia Journalist, and Devan Crean, Marketing & Communications Specialist, Jeffco Public Schools
Student council members from Vanderhoof Elementary debate the merits of adding better soccer nets to their school’s P.E. equipment, as part of a civics lesson field trip to the Arvada City Council chambers.
There are certain perks to being a student council member at Vanderhoof Elementary. One of them is the chance to spend some away time from school for a close look at the inner workings of local government. For these student council members, a trip to the Arvada City Hall was a living lesson in civics.
Arvada City Council Member At-Large Bob Fifer guided these future leaders, explaining the ins and outs of bills, hearings, and committees, as their principal looked on.
“It’s opportunities like this where the kids can just learn about something in their community … that they don’t know a lot about and maybe get inspired to do more and ask more questions and just find out more about just what makes a community so great,” said Vanderhoof Elementary Principal Zach Martin.
Fifer believes visits like this can also teach students what impact they can make in their own community.
“Their community is Vanderhoof and I think they can now relate to what we do at a macro level for the city to what they can do in their own community, which is the school,” he said.
The students even got to sit in the same seats as Arvada’s Mayor and City Council, and begin the same democratic process of decision making – fifth grade style.
“I think it’s really important to learn how the city functions and I think it will really help us when we go back to school and have some student council meetings to help us make better decisions for the school,” said fifth-grader Tanner Gabel.
It also was an experience they can share with the rest of their school.
“I think it’s actually pretty cool that we got to be here and maybe someday at school we can teach other classes that don’t know about this and we can tell them how everything happens,” said fifth-grader Penelope Dickerson.
Fifer saw some possible future City Council members in these young students, and their excitement reaffirmed how important his work on the council is.
“What I was really excited about was actually see[ing] the kids engage and even though it might be a little discussion … I want to see those children grow up in a safe and warm community. I was excited to see them participate in what we do to make their quality of life just a little bit better,” he said.
Watch the JPS-TV version of this story here.