Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2005-2006

Moderator Peter Lubershane, Assistant Moderator Sam Kafrissen, Secretary Peter Kim

Minutes from Meeting: 2-15-06

I. Call to Order: Meeting is called to order at 7:50 by Moderator Lubershane

II. Approval of Minutes: Minutes approved.

III. Approval of Agenda: Agenda approved.

IV. Announcements: 1) Come to Town Selectman / School Committee meeting Tuesday after vacation

from 3-4:30 in Commons II. Also, community service hours are available for anyone who would like to be time keepers.

V. Open Comments: 1) French exchange program will be selling a container of oranges, apples and grapefruit for $20.

2) Have we decided how to resolve the Voting Records bill?

VI. Committee Reports: 1) Oversight met and discussed having faculty representation from each building.

2) Policy met and is trying to come up with new stuff.

3) Climate met and made posters for the Talent Show.

4) Senate Website is awesome. Can the oversight looking into parking proposals? Community Service Committee seems like it's doing a great job.

VIII. Median Grade 1) After median grades are out, it will be difficult to convince students to take reasonably challenging classes than easy classes. Also, some teachers who teach a particular course by themselves feel that it's unfair. The grades can easily be tagged onto a particular teacher and make it more unlikely that students will take that course.

2) Since the information will be out in the world, people looking would be encouraged to take more difficult classes to try to differentiate themselves. Also, an email was sent out to the faculty regarding this bill but a few responded. When a median grade for the school was calculated, it turned out to be very high. We can't handle the truth.

3) Bill fails to pass 1-33-3.*

IX. Informal Discussion 1) Many senators seem to be dissuaded from voting yes because they were intimidated by the roll call.

2) Secretary Kim shouldn't say things like "I hope the vote comes out unanimous".

3) Why don't we have paper voting?

4) The secretary seemed to lose some rhythm during the roll call.

5) Let's stick to ballots rather than craft a new bill.

6) It is interesting to see how people vote. We lose something if we write it down.

7) Senators should not be discouraged from stating their opinion.

8) Roll call shouldn't be alphabetical so that there is a build up of pressure near the bottom.

9) Moderator Lubershane tells an anecdote about his voting experience as a freshmen senator.

10) Why don't we do a hand count and then see if people say no?

11) It is difficult to tell a controversial vote from a non controversial one. If we do a hand count first, people will be influenced by the majority during the roll call.

12) People should publicly state their opinion because this is a representative body. "Put up or shut up".

13) Maybe faculty senators can be called last. The roll call order doesn't have to be the same every time.

14) Senior class can influence younger senators.

15) Roll call can be based on the timidity test.

16) Senators should write down how they will vote before voting.

List of Senators Absent from Senate meeting: *Denotes excused/notified absence.

Gao* Collins Gillmor Gokhale Chaulet Lane Shen Jhe*

Finch Buttaro Harper Sherburne*

*Median Grade Reporting Bill passes with 33 No &endash; 1 Y &endash; 3 Abstentions

Senator Park says Yay.