Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2001-2002

Moderator Ilana Kessler, Assistant Moderator Michael Fiveash, Secretary Sara Enders

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

Agenda

For the April 3, 2003 meeting

1. Announcements

2. Committee Reports

3. Student Announcements Bill

4. New Business

Minutes

>From the March 27, 2003 meeting:

[Quorum reached, 7:55 AM]

[Minutes Approved, 7:55 AM]

[Agenda Approved, 7:55 AM]

Announcements

Dhanani: I am seeing from today that Senators are lacking in coming to Senate on time. Please ameliorate this.

Vachani: At the School Council we discussed the Resolution, and the School Council felt that it was unfortunate that we were unhappy, and will write a paragraph clarifying the relationship between our bodies.

Committee Reports

David: Policy Committee met. We have no substance. We suggest that those working on bills get them to us. We hear rumors about some type of recycling bill, and we would like to work on it grammatically and stylistically. We remind this body that we are the clearinghouse for all policy but that we are not supposed to be the wellspring of all policy.

Dhanani: The Executive Committee met with Dr. Seasholes. He had a five point agenda, many of whose points coincided with our own. We are somewhat backlogged vis ĂÝ vis our agenda, that is to say our agenda but not your agenda, and we need to do those agenda before we start on his agenda. [Nature of Dr. Seasholes Agenda queried by Senator Kafrissen.] The last point was about the honor code, and updating it. One of the points was the need for the discussion of points that the school does not really take about, and he wants Senate to come up with ideas. The third point was about the old distribution of the grades on the back of the report card. The Stress Committee wished to discuss that. He also wanted to address the concept of having Senate and Class Council both during X-Block, which would require a bill that [among other things] would restrict the holding of two offices. He also is worried about posters that are not club related and he wants an open board to be established, so that non-club related posters would not be widely dispersed.

Voter Education Bill

Scarry: There are two points against Senator Harper's amendment. Firstly, it would require that the individual in charge of announcements take it upon himself to type all the announcements up. Secondly, it would require that they be distributed into the folders, which I know from experience with the survey is a long and laborious process.

Gingrande: I am against this ting as a waste of paper. Every room does not need a copy. There is always someone in the class who is listening intently, and my experience is usually that someone can answer any questions. This is unnecessary, hard to manage, and hard to facilitate. I am not in favor.

Williams: Although I do not like wasting paper, we already use twenty-five sheets per student per day. As far as typing it up, one person has to type it up, and one person has to put it through in a pile for teachers to pick up. It is well worth doing.

Catsouphes: To Senator Williams, if it is a concern that students are not going to hear announcements, we should just ask teachers to have students be quiet during the announcements.

Halperin: I do not know if they do this anymore, but in past years they have typed up announcements, and there is a typed up list or there could be again. We have never had serious announcements over the loudspeaker in homeroom. There is not always someone listening, and in my classes it is not the case [that someone is always listening]. If we did it with homeroom teachers reading the announcements, it would save time.

Colarusso: To comment on the statement about logistical concerns, that onus could be shifted to the people asking for announcements, and it could be required that they be typed and emailed to a certain address.

Bogart: There are two things that I would like to say. First, I do not see why faculty, the homeroom teachers, cannot simply ask for quiet. Also, could we just post these on the school website?

Lubershane: Does everyone get a hard copy, or just the teacher?

Dhanani: Yes.

Murphy: I would find it hard for them to tell them to be quiet, because listening to the announcements is hard. The only viable way to do it is to make the announcements louder. Students might then compensate by being louder. You cannot win.

Coughlin: In my room, you cannot hear the announcements, and you cannot make them any louder. They cannot be understood unless your ear is right up there to the speaker.

Dhanani: I really like the idea of having a standard question emailed to a standard address. In the glorious days of my freshman youth, TV screens filled the main hallways, providing a live feed of announcements and late breaking news over and over again. Obviously they were typed up then, and we can investigate how to have them typed up now.

Zach Griffiths: I remember the TV screen, but no paper.

Girondel: I emailed Wendy Wilson, who was in charge of those televisions and whatnot.

During renovation, those were dismantled. I have looked for electronic bulletin boards. This year's senior class should make a gift of an electronic bulletin board to the school. That would be a really good solution to this problem. I urge voting against this, as it would logistically be a nightmare, which are connected to whom, go around physically and find the secretaries, et caetera.

Hsieh: I like the idea of passing out hard copies, but in reality I do not think that it will run as smoothly as we say that it will. If every singl teacher reads announcements to their class, what is the point of having a Public Address System?

Inouye: Logistically it sounds difficult, but we need to do something that is proactive and extra. As a question to the chair; is there a possibility of a student listserv? Does anyone know anything about that?

Hsieh: I am on the PTSA listserv, and we only get the monthly newsletter.

Bogart: I just want to point out, and I am not laughing at Senator Murphy, what absurdity we seem to find ourselves in when teachers cannot make students pay attention. I am against this amendment, as it adds more bureaucracy. The website is a possibility and the listserv is a possibility.

Kafrissen: To comment on the listserv, relative to the announcements; some adult had to approve them. I would be careful about a listserv, as an announcement would be read without any supervision. I would support the amendment if we found that it was feasible. Several did not want the announcements, or did not listen nor want to read the announcemetns. This splits the difference. A hard copy would be available. It would be redundant, but on the other hand it would be available for later, to get a date or do a back check. I appreciate the concern that we have for saving paper, which is laughable coming from people on the debate team, but if you saw all the [paper waste at the] department heads' office‚Ä¶ this might not be a good idea, but if it is feasible it turns into a feasibility issue and I would suggest that we do not do this.

Catsouphes: I was going to call the question, but I remind people that the amendment is about getting hard copies of the announcements out. I would encourage calling the question. Once we do that we can further explore other avenues.

Jehle: I wanted to echo Senator Girondel's idea about having an electronic bulletin board. Perhaps an LEF grant could be used?

David: I am going to speak in favor. It is a question of redundancy. Several issues have come up, and one of the big things that comes up with Dr. Seasholes, is that announcements pertinent to freshmen are heard by all, that those addressed to juniors are heard by all. Maybe there should be a second amendment vis the pertinence of an announcement to a class. Another issue that is a problem, with having a bulletin board, an electronic bulletin board, what have you, is the lack of a central space for students. If we have all these things, combined, they would be bad. We are asking people to actively seek out information. We actively seek out people to vote on the trumpeted Election Day, but still only 65% to 70% of the student body does so. We are not going to get that everyday with the announcements. The lowest common denominator is not going to go looking for these. It is a tough behavior to ingrain.

Choi: I just realized that using paper that we could just post up on a bulletin board could go to the debate team or some academic use. Using more paper for something that we do not need to do is a waste. It is possible to put them in the main hallway, or in the bulletin boards in different buildings. It is not difficult, as opposed to organizing them all together and whatnot.

Halperin: If it is such a logistical nightmare, maybe it would be better to have a paper copy of the announcements in the library, the cafeteria, guidance for the rest of the week. Plenty of people get the Musket. How is it a logistical nightmare? All seniors got parking sheets, so I surmise that this is not so complicated. Maybe I do not understand. If this would really work it is a great idea.

Kafrissen: I would like to amend the amendment, to place a clause in front of "hard copies of announcements" that states "if it is determined to be practical." We are bogged down, and we should move this debate along. If we put this in the bill investigation of it is possible. We can discuss it with Dr. Seasholes, discuss it with the secretaries, and not stop the bill. We are getting side tracked.

David: I like this, but let us move this along. I point out that we also have email. Good amendment, also.

Inouye: Adding that makes it pointless. It would be easier if we added "if it is practical" to the start of every bill. We must figure it out for ourselves. It is already vague; adding that makes it more vague. When it is vague, it is not implemented.

Williams: We are moving towards a solution upon which we can act. A hard copy is good, and the screen is the solution to the problem.

[Senate Adjourns with the Bell]

Senate Absences, March 27, 2003 (* denotes excused)

J. Harper T. Kresser

J. Ludwig* A. Robertson

T. Shen* A. Shield*

A. Vogelzang*