Members of the Mansfield Senior High Student Council and adviser Jen Lepard are ready to welcome the OASC state conference on Thursday.
Mansfield Senior High Student Council will be hard at work on Saturday preparing for the arrival of 325 guests next week.
The 63rd annual state conference of the Ohio Association of Student Councils will convene Thursday evening in the Senior High auditorium. Before student delegates from throughout the state head home around noon on Saturday they will have participated in general sessions, leadership workshops and a gala dinner and dance on Friday evening.
Mansfield’s Disney conference theme is “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
“The community of Mansfield came through for us again by providing housing for 255 students,” said Jen Lepard, student council adviser. “Our host families have been calling student delegates this week to introduce themselves.”
OASC rules prohibit students from staying in hotels. Local families volunteered to host two to four students, just as they did when Mansfield Middle School hosted the state conference three years ago. Hosts will provide transportation to and from Senior High and breakfast on Friday and Saturday. Students will bring their own sleeping bags.
Seventy adult student council advisers also will participate in the conference. They will arrange their own overnight accommodations.
Senior High art and construction trades students have prepared Disney-related decorations for the conference while the culinary arts department has planned the Friday dinner menu.
“Our student council will have a big work day on Saturday to get all of the decorations out and finish last-minute details,” Lepard said.
Connie Miley, OASC executive director, said the annual conference offers delegates an opportunity to grow in their role as school leaders.
“With special presentations, informative small-group discussions and many opportunities to make new friends and share ideas, the 2016 conference promises to be very special,” Miley said. “With the assistance of the community, administration and faculty, the students at Mansfield Senior High are doing a great job in getting ready to welcome our advisers and delegates.”
Senior High culinary arts instructor Linda Golden said Friday’s lunch will be served by the Tyger Booster Club through the concession stand in the commons. Offerings will include quarter-pound hotdogs, coneys, sloppy joes, Tyger tacos, shredded chicken and pizza with chips, drinks and dessert.
“For dinner on Friday evening our culinary arts students will have a pasta bar featuring red marinara sauce, Alfredo sauce, chicken, meatballs and parmesan cheeses,” Golden said. “We also will serve mixed green salad with dressing, Italian rolls with butter and decorated chocolate and white Mickey Mouse cupcakes and drinks.”
Lepard cited support of the Mansfield School Employees Association.
“The MSEA has been one of our biggest supporters this year. They are sponsoring the dinner that culinary arts is preparing,” she said. “We are excited and looking forward to welcoming more than 28 schools from around the state.”
Each year the conference designates a public-service project. This year, delegates will bring toiletries, laundry products and socks to donate to the Harmony House homeless shelter in Mansfield.
Because of the conference Friday will be a waiver day throughout Mansfield City Schools. No schools will be in session.