The young voters of CedarBridge Academy have spoken: reviving an annual tradition, the school has just elected its 15-member Student Government.Friday’s elections, deliberately timed to underscore the importance of today’s national general election, drew a healthy student turnout.“They want the students’ voices to be heard, and they want to increase the school spirit,” said supervising teacher Khandice Williams of the students who ran for school office. “That seemed to be pretty much the goal that everyone had.”Ms Williams said she’d taught previously in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where “I lived and breathed student government as a student and as a teacher and advisor”.CedarBridge principal Kalmar Richards “immediately wanted to get it going again”, she said.Yearly elections required teacher supervision, and in recent years the staff at CedarBridge have been too busy to maintain them — but as of this year, they’re back.“The children have been encouraged to vote for the past two weeks. We’ve had e-mails and flyers, and the candidates had to attend meetings and go through an application process, getting teacher recommendations and answering a series of questions on their interests and goals,” Ms Williams said.Students cast their votes just after 8am and during their advisory period, said student government advisor and maths teacher Maxine Webb, who was still helping to count ballots when she spoke to The Royal Gazette.Meeting schedules have yet to be arranged. The groups will take students’ concerns to the school administration vice versa — as will the representatives chosen for each of the school years.According to Friday night’s results, the new Student Government comprises: President, Jasmyne Kristoff; Vice President, Kjeld Conyers-Steede; Treasurer, Taahira Butterfield; Secretary, Tahirah Smith; Assistant Secretary, Shamir Williams; Historian, Kashantae Smith, and Publicist Maya Palacio.Representatives for year S1: Aminah Simmons, head; Kashantae Smith, and Tyriq Pitts.Representatives for S2: Toiya Smith, head, and Kiantae Smith.Miesha Greaves is head representative for S3, and S4 representatives are head Shaddon Davis, Arisha Butterfield and Kaisha Burch Waldron.