First-year activities director Brent Mattix hopes to lead this year’s Student Government class as a student-driven and feedback-focused classroom. Mattix has made changes from the rearranging the classroom to adding new events.

ASB secretary Alyssa Crawford, who has been enrolled in Student Government for seven semesters, said that her fellow classmates are going through a small culture shock between previous teacher Lindsey Parker and Mattix.

“I feel like he has been doing a good job of getting used to the traditions that has already been there in Student Government, but he is also changing a lot of things which is making it a little difficult for the seniors and the people who have been in Student Government for a long time,” Crawford said. “Slowly we are fixing things together.”

ASB president Parker Crews said the new activities director, classroom setup, and Student Government attitude is a welcome refreshment to the program.

“I think Mr. Mattix is a great addition to the Student Government class,” Crews said. “Having a new flare to the class is definitely something we look forward to.”

Along with the new walls and other changes to the class, Mattix welcomed special needs students to Student Government in an effort to involve more of the student body.

“The special needs kids are definitely an upgrade in the class and I think they are having an amazing time,” Crews said.

Mattix said that inviting special need students to the class adds new perspectives and opportunity for everyone in class. The five special needs students in the class are actively engaged in Student Government’s several different committees.

“What we want in Student Government is a true representation of the school, we want to make sure that we represent what we see in the school,” Mattix said. “It’s outstanding to have special needs students in the classroom because I haven’t been part of that previously, we’re working on designing what’s [the] best fit for the class.”

According to Mattix, he changed the classroom in order to create a more productive work environment. These changes include the students in the class getting to decide what they want to put on the walls to represent themselves and deep cleaning the archives and binders in the classroom.

“The biggest thing that we are focus[ing] on making sure that we have a professional tone to the classroom. Students have done a good job keeping it clean keeping it organized,” Mattix said. “The room needed a little TLC, right now we’re working with ASB to incorporate their fingerprints in the classroom, as far as how we can bring in things that can represent our character and our culture in the classroom.”

Mattix took into account student feedback for not only the wall decoration, but for the dance court changes made last year. The changes included changing the titles of  “king” and “queen” to “top honorees” and discontinuing the consistent five to five ratio.

“We got a lot of negative feedback about the changes,” dance committee chair Kevira Shill said. “The only positive thing that we got back was [students] liked that [students] get to walk with whoever [they] want.”

Nominees will still be able to walk during the rally and the Homecoming football game with someone not also on court, but they will ride in the parade with fellow royalty.