Speech and Debate is being offered as a class at Central this year. 19 students currently participate in the new class taught by Molly Mahannah. Although this is Central’s first year having a Speech and Debate class, it has been a club for two years. Since her first year, it has been Mahannah’s goal to form a Speech and Debate class at Central. She started the club after her first year and got the class approved this year. As a former member of a Speech and Debate team, Mahannah was quick to make sure Speech and Debate was an opportunity at Central.  

“I remember competing here, Central used to host, I was surprised there wasn’t a team.” Mahannah thought it was about time for this class to be offered to students. 

 The objective of this club is for students to sharpen their public speaking skills. Within the class, students write for warm-ups, watch and critique old speech competitions and practice performing for the class. As of right now, there is no honors option for the class but Mahannah hopes to change that soon. The class and club are offered to students in any grade in an effort to get as many students involved as possible.  

 Although Speech and Debate is now a class, one does not have to be enrolled to participate in the club. If one chooses to join the club still, there will be options to practice outside of class. Non-enrolled students would miss preparation for competition and homework, but they could still participate in competitions if they come to the club on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

Competitions for Speech and Debate are on certain Fridays and Saturdays and Central competes against other Class A schools. Students prepare for this competition each day in class.  

“We go over basic public speaking skills and then they have time to work on individual parts of competition,” Mahannah said.  

Even though it is their first year, Mahannah has entered them for districts with hopes of making it to state. Any students in the class or club can make it to state if they compete well in districts. Speech and Debate may be a new class, but there is a lot of optimism for its future success.