Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2005-2006

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

DATE: 3-1-06

Agenda:

Announcements

Open Comments

Committee Reports

Faculty Election Constitutional Amendment

New Business

Minutes from Meeting: 3-1-06

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) It should say Median Grade Reporting Bill did NOT pass.

2) Make sure to remind parents of a vote on Monday.

3) We need to get more faculty senators because so far, no one has responded.

V. Open Comments: 1) Freshmen Senator brought up a larger issue on the Voting Records Bill by saying that those last to vote may feel insignificant.

2) Moderator Lubershane laments about his voting rights. This is a reminder that Secretary Kim threatened to make fun of freshmen who did not speak. The new items have to be put on the agenda.

VI. Committee Reports: 1) Oversight met and discussed the proposed amendment to the constitution regarding faculty seats.

2) Social Action still meets Tuesday afterschool. There are few questionable community service forms that need verification.

3) Policy met, and discussed Voting Records Bill and Nondiscrimination Affirmation Bill.

4) Senate is required to approve any mandatory assemblies, but we are just letting the mandatory junior assembly happen because it is during homeroom and does not take up class time.

V. New Business 1) We need a motion and a 2/3 vote to put the Nondiscrimination Affirmation Bill on the agenda.

2) Motion to add Nondiscrimination Affirmation Bill

a) We should discuss amendment to the Constitution regarding faculty seats first. It is not as time consuming, and we really need to get more faculty members on Senate.

b) We should put this off until a higher court rules on this issue. Legal precedent is good.

c) Motion fails.

3) Motion to enter into a formal discussion of Constitutional amendment regarding faculty seats.

a) The amendment updates outdated information.

b) Motion passes.

VI. Constitutional 1) What about departments that have no candidates? We should get what we can.

Amendment 2) What is the difference between department and House? This distinction attempts to raise the number of faculty senators.

3) This will be a long painful process.

4) At the time it was written, departments were not housed together. Feel free to change the amendment. In the future, there may be greater than a 1 per 50 faculty member representation.

5) It will be harder to fill seats. Some who do come attend sporadically. We should elect representatives at large.

6) It is not a long process. The amendment will be put on the bottom of the ballot during next spring elections.

7) We used to have faculty elections, although we do not have it anymore.

8) There are no restrictions currently. Elections at large may cause problems for the future as more faculty wants to join Senate. More serious problem is we can't tell whether we should have 9 or 10 senators per student class.

9) We have not seen a faculty election in a long time.

10) Mathematics was left out in the amendment. The second sentence should be lopped off. Requiring one representation from each department increases discussion and awareness of Senate, and the fact that X-block exists solely for Senate.

11) If department chairs take Senate seriously, their leadership can help. They can report back to the department on a regular basis. It's good for the long run.

12) We have not seen a PE teacher on Senate for at least 4 years.

13) PE and Guidance are in one category because of the ampersand.

14) Nursing should also be included.

15) It is difficult to enforce. We should make it clear what happens if we cannot find members.

16) Motion to include Mathematics, change "Fine & Performing Arts….Guidance" to "Fine & Performing Arts/P.E., and SPED/Nursing/Guidance" and eliminate the second sentence.

a) Friendly amendment accepted to change the order into an alphabetical order.

b) We do not need a separate sentence to cover for what happens if we cannot find members. The final sentence addresses that issue.

c) Why should we combine departments? They need to be grouped so that the numbers are even.

d) They are reasonably grouped and pressured to join Senate.

e) What happened to industrial technology?

f) Motion passes.

17) We should encourage faculty to join Senate for the right reasons, not because they feel pressured. Shouldn't we include METCO somewhere? Can the guidance rotate duties? Is it "from" or "by" each department?

18) It is "from".

19) We should have active senators regardless of where they come from.

20) Do faculty senators know other department members well enough for an election? No.

21) How many faculty are there? 190.

22) A lot faculty members are not Full Time Educators.

23) Motion to add METCO to Guidance…

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

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Ghazarian Shen Park Finch* David