Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2004-2005

Moderator Ben Skier, Assistant Moderator Jim Williams, Secretary Lexy Smith

<http://lhs.lexingtonma.org/senate>

Today's Agenda:

Announcements, Committee Reports, Open Comments, Tsunami Relief Fund Raiser, United Voices' petition for Senate Seat, Discussion of Communications Committee's HR announcements request, Meet in Committees

Minutes from Meeting: 12-22-04

I. Call to Order

Meeting is called to order at 7:51 by Moderator Skier

II. Approval of Minutes

Motion Approved Motion by Chair to approve Minutes of last meeting

III. Approval of Agenda

Motion Approved Motion by Chair to approve Agenda

IV. Announcements

a. Oversight's leftover Munchkins are going around

V. Committee Reports

Policy 1. Discussed seat petitions and Military Recruitment

Climate 1. Moved Wall of Rejection & monitoring Free Board

Oversight 1. Met but had bad attendance

Executive 1. Met to discuss SLUJ petition

VI. Open Comments

a. Senator Richardson says that two members of the

Maine National Guard were killed in Iraq and that

they thought these people would be the last to go to

VII. Discussion of SLUJ petition

a. Executive Address: "Over the past few weeks, the

Senate has engaged in a heated debate of what

qualifies as an `underrepresented group.' After the last

meeting, the Executive Committee reviewed the

Constitution in the hopes of finding some clarification.

To our surprise, the Constitution describes the groups

as "NOT represented," rather than "underrepresented."

The Executive Committee takes responsibility for this

error; it should have looked into the Constitution

before soliciting petitions for seats."

b. SLUJ should not be admitted because Ass't

Moderator Williams, SLUJ's advisor, is on senate

Motion Motion by Senator Collins to call to Question

Vote: Motion Passes

Question is called: Motion Fails

VIII. Discussion of Substitute Bills

a. Most substitutes are not excellent but every student,

especially upperclassmen, needs to ask himself whether

he is contributing to the messy substitute situation

b. Is senate discussing a bill?; No, it is just a discussion

IX. Discussion of Communications' Request

a. Communications requests that only LHS-sponsored

activities can advertise on the announcements

b. Non-LHS activities waste HR announcement time

c. The poster discussion last year determined that these

activities can poster in the Free Poster area

d. Is the senate in an informal discussion?; Yes, it is

e. Are HR announcements separated into different

groups for the separate grades?; Senator Kim does this

f. The restrictions are lenient enough that any activity

that interests LHS students/faculty can poster

g. The labor required to post the announcements is

increasing; the senate should publicly follow specific

guidelines to lessen the workload

h. Club advisors should filter their own announcements

before sending them to Senator Kim

i. LHS activities should only be able to announce

j. When and where does Communications meet?; On

Tuesdays at 2:30 in Math Offices

k. Put everyone on First Class and end the first period

three minutes later so that announcements can be read

l. If a group posters around the school, can it still poster

on the Free Board?; Yes, it can

m. How many senators are not hearing HR

announcements?; Only about six are not hearing them

n. LHS has a problem with informing its students

o. Some want Social Action to announce community

service opportunities but it would be too much work

p. Students should be informed of how to use the

Electronic Bulletin Board when joining First Class

q. What issue are we discussing?; We are discussing the

fact that the announcements should follow the Free

Poster Rules

r. Reading the announcements can be cumbersome

s. Why doesn't the principal read the announcements?

t. We need more entertaining student announcers

u. Hearing announcements on the P.A. is not as effective

as hearing them in HR

v. Senate should remember that communications hired

two student announcers two years ago and got rid of

them after treating them rather badly

List of Senators Absent from Senate meeting

*Denotes excused/notified absence.

Counihan Savage Chung Hsieh Nardella Bogdanow Igoe