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>

1-26-05

Today's Agenda: Announcements, Committee Reports, Open Comments, Sophomore

Open Campus Bill, Military Recruitment Bill

Minutes from Meeting: 1-19-05

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. First sounds ever heard from a planet just came from "Titan"

b. Communications needs a student to join First Class Committee

c. Communications looking for suggestions to improve LHS

announcements system

V. Committee Reports

Oversight 1. Created survey to distribute to selected juniors and

seniors

regarding substitutes and currently forming a faculty survey

Policy 1. Brought the Recruitment Bill forward

Climate 1. Overseeing the Free Poster Board

Executive 1. Did not meet due to the half-day

VI. Open Comments

a. Senator Kafrissen would like to thank SLUJ for showing "The

Battle of Algiers" last Wednesday

VII. Sophomore Open Campus Bill

a. Support expressed for bill's intention but rationale needs work

b. Extending open campus to sophomores would be a bad idea

because it would create more chaos at LHS

c. Sophomores having open campus is not unprecedented;

sophomores could obtain it by maintaining a certain GPA

d. Open campus is a privilege and not a right

e. Several juniors and seniors without open campus do not show

up to studies

f. Some administrators keep records of students who skip studies

g. Releasing more kids throughout the school without allowing

them to leave campus would create too much chaos

h. Support expressed for bill but there should be a minimum

GPA that sophomores must maintain in order to receive this

i. Deans should be informed of the bill and the work teachers

do to oversee study halls is not too onerous

j. It will not help the town's cause for an override if even more

students start hanging out in Lexington center

k. We must keep in mind that the school's opinion of senate may

go down if we do not pass this bill

l. Passing this bill would require even more monitors; this would

really increase the workload at LHS

m. Because sophomores will not be able to leave campus, the

majority of students would just go to the library, creating

even

more of a traffic jam

n. If kids could go somewhere else other than a study and still be

productive, then they should be able to

o. Staffing will be seriously impacted if many studies are emptied

Motion Motion by Senator Kafrissen

Amendment: "sophomores will be eligible for open campus

after the first semester only if they maintain a 3.0 unweighted

GPA and complete ten hours of community service"

Vote: Motion Passes

p. If passed, the amendment will create even more

overcrowding in the library

q. If we extend open campus to sophomores, then it should be

something that they earn

r. Proposed Friendly Amendment: raise unweighted GPA to

3.5; not accepted as friendly

s. There should be some incentive for sophomores to work for

open campus

t. It is already tough to obtain a computer in the library and

giving open campus to sophomores will make it even harder

Motion Motion by Senator Colarusso to call to question on the

amendment

Vote: Motion Passes

Amendment Passes (26-14)

u. The number of sophomores that could be released, without

taking into account GPAs and community service, could be

problematic (as many as 130 during one block)

v. If passed, the bill would put even more pressure on the

librarians; because the computer labs are usually empty,

teachers who will no longer have studies could oversee these

labs so that students can come and use the computers

List of Senators Absent from Senate meeting

*Denotes excused/notified absence.

Weiser Bond Hsieh Jenson Paulsen Sherbourne Doran

Atchinson