Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2005-2006

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

Agenda 3-15-06:

Announcements
Open Comments
Committee Reports
Detention Bill
New Business

Minutes from Meeting: 3-8-06

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

II. Approval of Minutes: 1) Senator Ghazarian was here.

III. Approval of Agenda: 1) Motion to insert Detention Bill before the Faculty Election Constitutional Amendment.

2) Motion passes 17-15.

IV. Announcements: 1) Come to see "A Drowning", a Globefest production, on Thursday at 7:30.

2) Supreme Court ruled 8-0 recently on the issue of military recruiters on universities. One can protest, but one cannot ban because it deals with federal funding. Issue might be dead for us.

V. Open Comments: 1) The Supreme Court ruling dealt with Solomon amendment. LHS is not a university. No Child Left Behind Act is not consistent with LHS nondiscriminatory policy. Senate's unanimous passage of the Military Recruiters Resolution was an important gesture. Senator Eid-Reiner ends his remarks by encouraging everyone to research and discuss policies, write letters to lawmakers and the media, and engage in discussion with members of the armed forces.

2) Senator Park was here.

3) Spanish Club will host the Salsatecha on Friday. Admission price is $10.

VI. Committee Reports: 1) Policy committee met. We would ask that a policy go through the policy committee before going to the executive.

2) Oversight met to edit the constitutional amendment regarding elections. We have drafted a new policy.

3) Climate met and finalized the Detention Bill.

VII. Faculty Elections 1) Motion to consider the Detention bill.

a) We should advise deans to discuss this with the Senate and delay the formal discussion for another week.

b) We should not delay the Elections amendment because it affects students and faculty. It is also time sensitive.

c) Students do not care about faculty elections.

d) Senator Collins supports the 1 week delay.

e) We should not delay the discussion of the Detention Bill.

f) If delayed, then the administration will be more happy to accept the bill.

g) Motion fails.

(In discussion of the add METCO amendment)

2) METCO staff are not certified teachers. We also forgot to include Health.

3) Motion to consider the new proposed constitutional amendment.

4) Motion passes.

5) Friendly amendment to replace "History" with "Social Studies" passes

6) Of the ~200 professional staff here, ~192 are full-time employees. Therefore, about a dozen are part-time workers.

7) Are instructional assistants counted? If they are certified, yes.

8) Certified staff includes any of the staff. Senator Colarusso makes the analogy that students who drop courses are still whole students, not 3/5th students.

9) We will need 6 more to fill the 19 spots open for faculty.

10) Any reason why we have more senators is a good thing.

11) In this new amendment, a sentence was taken out of Section 2 that contradicted with the rest of the Constitution. We will now get 10 student senators per class next year.

12) What about the not represented? It's in section 4.

13) Constitutional Amendment passes unanimously with 2 abstentions.*

VIII. CSC Extension 1) Community Service Committee is not done.

2) The words "indefinite extensions" seem troublesome.

3) Why is there a time limit? Do we have a deadline?

4) School wants a definite community service proposal before next year. Senate also needs to discuss the committee's work and the principal needs to consider it.

5) We don't like indefinite extension. We may lose momentum.

6) We should them time until April break.

7) We don't have to get it running. There is no need to rush.

8) We need 2 weeks before April vacation.

9) We want it before the new Senate takes over.

10) We should give the committee time until after the vacation so that it has a chance to modify and clarify their stuff.

11) Motion to set the deadline to April 12th (the week before vacation) for the Community Service Committee .

12) Motion passes.

IX. New Business 1) Motion to discuss the Detention Bill.

2) Motion fails.

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

Savariano Jhe Gao Metzger-Traber Cullen Buttaro* Harper* Kresser

*Constitutional Amendment passes unanimously with 2 abstentions in addition to those who are absent.

Senator Eid-Reiner abstains.

Senator Kafrisson abstains.