Election season is underway at Berkeley High School, bringing a wave of campaign posters and class visits across campus as candidates share their vision, ideas, and goals for leadership at BHS. The school’s 17th annual Election Convention was held on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. This year featured nearly 40 candidates for a variety of positions, including ASB president and vice president, chiefs of publicity, school board representative, class presidents, and more.
During the convention, candidates presented their platforms and answered questions from delegates sent by various classes.
Class delegates are selected from classes around campus to attend the convention. There, delegates listen to candidate speeches, ask questions, and take notes on each candidate. After the convention, the delegates are expected to return to their classes to report on what they learned, helping to inform their peers about each candidate and their platform. This helps the class become informed voters and make decisions based on what they want to see implemented at school.
“The purpose of the election convention is to have delegates interacting with the candidates, and they essentially go and report back to their classes on their findings or their impressions of the candidates. It also gives a chance for voters to listen to some ideas that candidates have pertaining to how they would add onto the role and what they would do to improve the school,” Commissioner of Elections Elena Trebbi said.
Another opportunity for students to engage with candidates came on Thursday, March 12, 2026, during a “Meet the Candidates” event held at lunch. The event allowed students to speak directly with those running for positions and ask questions about their platforms, goals for the upcoming school year, and plans for improving BHS. By allowing students to communicate openly with candidates, the event gave students the chance to better understand the priorities of each campaign, communicate what changes they want to see made, and become more informed voters.
For many, campaign season, speeches, and events have brought a sense of energy to BHS’s atmosphere. “It feels a lot more lively … We have a bunch of posters everywhere and people are talking about the candidates, so it makes the school feel a lot more energetic,” BHS freshman Shoshana Brilliant said, “It’s exciting to see everyone getting involved and supporting each other, and it kind of makes school more fun because of all the campaigning excitement and all the sort of energy it brings.”
Despite the excitement surrounding the campaigning and elections, encouraging students to vote has consistently been an issue in the past. Despite the large student population at BHS, voter turnout has been historically low, with only 65 percent of students participating in last year’s elections.
Last year, turnout among some of BHS’s small learning communities (SLCs) was especially low, with only 49 percent voter turnout for Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS), 65 percent for Academy of Medicine and Public Service (AMPS), and 39 percent for Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA). “This is an ongoing issue that we’re attempting to tackle class by class and by just trying to make the most good ‘talk’ around the election season,” Trebbi said, “I have done a couple presentations to SLC classrooms and non-SLC classrooms to convince smaller learning communities to run for candidacy at (BHS), which is just another way to try and increase participation for elections.”
Voting for the BHS student government elections will open on Monday, March 23, 2026 and close on Thursday, March 26, with results scheduled to be announced on Friday, March 27. As campaigning continues and students prepare to vote for candidates, election season remains a lively tradition that brings the school community together and gives students a voice in shaping what they want to at BHS in the upcoming school year.
“It’s a little hard to tell how voters are going to turn out this year since it highly depends on if it’s going to be a successful election season or not,” Trebbi said, “But with regards to the candidates, I feel all of them are very engaged, very thoughtful in their campaigning, so I think they’re going to be a very interesting process this year.”