When ASB President Dutton Rogers was a freshman, he never would have guessed that he would one day lead Sandpoint student council.

“I thought I’d be on Student Council, but I never thought I’d be ASB President,” Rogers said. I thought I’d just be a podunk kid.”

Last year, after a heated race, Rogers earned the popular vote and assumed office. Since then, he’s been busy collaborating with SHS Administration to set goals for the upcoming year.

“The big thing that we’re working on this year is increasing attendance at assemblies and making them more fulfilling for students so that they actually want to come,” Rogers said.

He also plans to focus on intentional assemblies by eliminating extraneous ones.

“We want to make sure there’s never a lapse of communication with the students, and that assemblies are always engaging.”

Tackling the problem of assembly attendance alongside Rogers is new Student council Advisor Mary Imas, who is replacing Kristin Hawkins. While the transition will rework the class structure of StuCo, Rogers said it wouldn’t affect much else for the rest of the student body.

While last year’s StuCo team emphasized sports, this year’s group plans to encourage student involvement in clubs.

“We’re going to introduce all the clubs, because we want people to feel like they know what they’re all about and where they can go so they can find their niche here at Sandpoint High School,” Rogers said.

For anyone interested in running for office here at SHS, Rogers offered a few words of advice: “Build your resume in the sense that you work hard in everything you do so that people will want to vote for you,” he said. “And make sure when election time rolls around, you’re ready to kill it.”