As we approach closer and closer to the end of the school year, it is that time of the year when Ayala holds their annual class officer elections for upcoming sophomores, juniors, and seniors. However, on Friday March 17th, candidates for the class officer elections were informed that campaign week would be postponed to April 3rd-April 6th due to unexpected weather conditions. With rain being the prime enemy to poster paper and painters tape, the initial campaign week from March 20th-24th would be pushed until after spring break for there to be a longer campaigning period. 

“The objective of candidate campaigning is to promote and increase student support for all candidates; all candidates are urged to make an all-out effort in their campaigns,” the candidate campaigning procedure stated.

However, with rain and inconvenient weather creeping up at the start of the initial campaign week, candidates were informed that physical posters were to be put up for only a span of two days between Thursday and Friday. With all of this effort being put into posters, the announcement of this led many of the candidates to feel as though the effort they were putting into their campaign wouldn’t be able to be seen within such a short amount of time.

“Personally, I think it’s unfair that posters that we will end up spending hours on will only be up for a small portion of campaign week, and it defeats the purpose of campaigning at school,” Class of 2025 presidential candidate, Katie Trinh said. 

In addition to this, the timing of class elections, Spring Break, and preparation for state testing made pushing back campaign week seem unlikely to happen. However, with the collected effort of United Student Body (USB) Vice President Jordyn Campbell, and current Junior Class President Amy Youk, the candidates were notified that the campaign period would be held after spring break before state and Advance Placement testing.

“I agreed with postponing campaign week,” candidate Addison Tan (9) said. “I thought of it as unfair that the other candidates and I worked so hard on our posters only for them to get ruined by the rain or to only be hung up for a day.”

Regardless of the delay, the flawless posters and passed-out items that the student body looks forward to seeing during this season is anything but effortless with the stress and struggle behind the scenes. From hours of painting posters to the process of gaining supporters through online campaigns, the single week of campaigning can bring mixed feelings of stress and success at the same time.

“The work process is definitely a big load of stuff to do on top of having homework and extracurricular activities,” Tan said. “It was something that took a lot of dedication.”

Nonetheless, campaign week is still fun and eventful for both the candidates and voters. From the passed out items to the feeling of being a voter, there is a sense of excitement as each candidate campaigns differently. Especially with real presidential elections being a few years away to vote in, school elections allow students to get a feel for how they may be when they are eligible to vote. 

“[School elcections] prepare students to learn to make important decisions like to find out who they want to vote for and why, which would be useful for real life voting,” Elizabeth Dang (10) said.