A class of nine-year-olds is showing the way forward for local government in Mount Isa after an event hosted by Council on Thursday.
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This morning Council hosted Year 4 students from St. Joseph's Catholic School, Mount Isa who "elected" one of their own to be "Mayor for the Day", with seven candidates in the running for the position.
Mount Isa City Council congratulated Abdu for being chosen by his fellow students and said each of the candidates put forward excellent persuasive arguments for why they should be Mayor for the Day, and even created PowerPoint presentations to accompany their speeches.
Some of the election promises put forward included: a welcome pack for people who are new to Mount Isa, three-day school weeks and four-day weekends, an indoor all-sports centre in the Mount Isa CBD, putting in more pet stores in Mount Isa, building a bigger hospital in Mount Isa, having public transport in Mount Isa for kids going to school and people going to work, free houses for homeless people, a new park with a playground, café, toilets and shade, and a pay rise for all school teachers.
Earlier, Mayor Danielle Slade, Council CEO David Keenan, and Infrastructure Services Director Renee Wallace spoke to the students about what Council and its staff do.
Afterwards, Cr Slade gave the students a tour of the Council Administration building where they met staff from various departments and found out what they do.
Each student was also given a memento of their visit to Council, including Council-branded hand sanitiser, coloured pencils, a pen, and a drink holder.
"It was fantastic having St Joseph's Year 4 here at Council. We hope you all enjoyed your visit and learnt a lot," Council said.
St Joey's year 4 teacher Lisa McCulloch said the exercise began in their English unit where they were looking at persuasive texts.
"We are looking and how we express our opinions and students are looking at local government as well," Ms McCulloch said.
"Students are working hard on a persuasive text as to why they should be the mayor of Mount Isa in class."
Ms McCulloch said after they made their presentation they had a voting activity at school.
"They got to vote on which classmate they thought should by mayor," she said.
"We have some top candidates who will come and present at the council chambers today as to why they think they should be mayor for the day.
"Because our current mayor (Cr Slade) is one of our mums and we also have lots of other mums who work at council as well, it is a great opportunity to see what they do for a living."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
