NORTHAMPTON — When Giselle Ohm was in middle school, she enjoyed reading stories about the adventures and exploits of high school student councils, and she aspired to be on one someday. But when she began the transition to Northampton High School, Ohm discovered there were actually two different kinds of student councils that she could join.

“We have class government, like the class president, and they fundraise for prom mostly. And I was like, that sounds fun,” recalled Ohm, now a junior at NHS. “But then I found out about the student union, which is more working with the students and for the students. And that was something that was really appealing to me.”

Ohm now serves as vice president of the Northampton Student Union, which since its founding in 2017 (by former NHS student Elena Frogameni, a current Rhodes Scholar at Oxford) has acted as a bridge between the school administration and the students of the high school. Consisting of 16 members (four for each grade level) and various subcommittees, the union meets with school administration officials twice a month to share concerns and goals it has for the school as well as how to realize those goals. The union also helps fundraise for grants to give out to other student organizations and to support capstone projects for seniors.

Sabrina Hopkins, the union’s current president, said that she was inspired to join to have a voice in advocating issues of racial justice in her local community.

“I was just starting to realize a lot about the racial issues in Northampton and had a lot of rage about that and didn’t really know what to do,” she said. “And then I kind of heard about this group that is supposed to be creating change at NHS, and I was like, ‘Let’s do it and see what could happen.’ ”

Last year, the student union’s anti-racism and bias subcommittee worked to increase the number of courses offered in the school’s curriculum that were more representative of the school’s diverse student population. After examining all courses offered in the school, the union found that only six met its definition for covering the history or language of people who have been historically marginalized.

“Part of the idea when this was first being made was that it’s not that those histories are not included in our history and English classes,” Hopkins said. “This is not an attack on the teaching of those classes, but it’s that there’s not a real focus. And the idea is that NHS students cannot graduate ready to be members of society and vote without having the full narrative.”

The union originally wanted to ensure that such classes were required for students to graduate, but after realizing some of the logistic difficulties involved in this, chose instead to promote the classes to students through presentations and pamphlets.

The student union also sends a representative to Northampton School Committee meetings to share concerns about the district from the student perspective. Zara Usman, the union’s current representative, said she’s been speaking her mind to the committee even before she entered high school.

“I’ve always been very outgoing and outspoken. Even in eighth grade, I would go to public comment,” Usman said. “So I was already kind of active in the school district and community for change.”

The union also has weighed in on the current budgetary issues of the school, submitting a statement warning about the issues that could affect students due to budget cuts, as well as holding fundraisers to provide some student services like feminine hygiene products for student bathrooms.

“The budget cut and the deficit overall just really brings out the failures of the city and the school system to its students,” said Frankie Adams-Sternal, the treasurer for the student union. “That is especially visible to us in the union, when we can pick up a teeny tiny bit of its slack at the school.”

In the statement, the union decries the current state of the school’s budget, saying Northampton risks losing competitiveness with nearby school districts, and urged the city to find alternatives to funding the district, such as expanding payment-in-lieu-of-tax programs for local nonprofits.

“Northampton High School is already underfunded and understaffed in comparison to similar surrounding schools. With a tight budget to begin with, making reductions to offered electives and increasing class size will not allow our school district to maintain its competitive edge,” the statement reads.

Usman said a reduction in teachers also would limit access to student bathrooms, a major concern amid much of the student population.

“You can ask [any NHS student] about the bathroom situation and they will all tell you that because of understaffing or substance abuse within the bathrooms, they’re closed often,” Usman said. “Sometimes you have to look around for one.”

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.