Waukesha County. What comes to mind when you hear that? For me, I think of the dedication of the people who help to make up this county and how far we have come. Now, as amazing as Waukesha county is, there are some things I would like to address to help make Waukesha an even more perfect place. I would do these things if I were mayor.

First of all, I would like to improve the school systems. To do this, I would require that no school can start before 9:30am. Now as extreme as this seems, in the long run, it will ultimately help students. The Daily Mail states that the Oxford University neuroscientist said teenagers follow different sleep patterns from adults—making them more alert in the afternoon than in the morning (The Daily Mail, p. 3). Technically speaking, students’ brains are not fully ready to learn until around 10 am. Many American schools have changed their starting times to the afternoon, increasing the amount of success in exam taking and decreasing the rates of truancy and depression (The Daily Mail, p. 4). Additionally, due to such early morning starts, students drive to school sleep deprived and distracted, causing more crashes. If the time was pushed back not only would schools excel educationally, but the roads would become safer for everyone.

Along with starting times in schools, I would increase the amount of drug testing and drug safety regulations for schools. Creating a system that requires schools to have a drug talk two times every year with students is very important. Also, if all high schools in this county were drug tested every month, students will be forced to decrease or stop drug use. According to Education Week, students involved in extracurricular activities and subject to in school random drug testing reported less substance use than their peers in high schools that didn’t have drug-testing programs (Education Week, p. 1). Decreasing drug use in schools will help decrease crime rates and will increase grades in schools.

If I were Mayor, I would create more community get-togethers to help connect the community and create a safer environment. Having more public events is beneficial local companies and the people. We can have more concerts, street dances and art fairs that brings people together through volunteer work, and coming to support the community. This will also benefit local companies, such as bands, artists and food companies willing to cater at these public events.

With everyone knowing getting together to know each other, the community can become a safer place and it gives kids a safe environment to go to during weekends instead of big parties and illegal activities. Growing up in this county, I found doing things with friends hard at times to do because we had nowhere to go. So having events for teens to come to would increase the popularity of our town.

These are just some of the many things that I would do to help our community if I became Mayor of Waukesha County.