Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2005-2006

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

DATE: 4-26-06

Today's Agenda: Announcements

Open Comments

Committee Reports

Community Service Report

New Business

Minutes from Meeting: 4-12-06

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) Day of Silence will be on Wednesday, April 26th.

V. Open Comments: 1) Assistant Moderator Kafrissen talks about his recent experience with canceled classes. When he asked to cancel class, he was asked to leave productive stuff for the class, which could only be done outside the classroom. The school still just hired a substitute and refused to allow kids to go to the library.

2) "Men are strange beasts I will never understand."

VI. Committee Reports: 1) Oversight met and discussed the enforcement of Odd/Even testing policy.

VII. Community Service: 1) The requirements are a tremendous burden on homeroom teachers. Also, if the committee was created because of lack of consistency, then why should we adopt a policy that decreases consistency?

2) When the faculty voted on the mission statement, they voted to have the value of community service included in there. The problem is that we have a program with no one in charge. Imagine the kind of abuse that resulted from this lack of oversight. School gets no credit for the "good" kids since they were going to do the service anyways. The other majority of kids has no connections in the community, and no open campus. Because it is a graduation requirement, some of these kids, 19% according to the survey, cheat on community service. They do not reflect on their behavior. The only way to fix the problem is to get more involved. We thought about bringing the entire program in-house, but that idea was shut down because lot of good community service happens outside of school. We all should take a bit of responsibility. Teachers should have some kind of a bond with the kids. This responsibility also falls upon organizations like NHS. When you vote for the resolution, you are voting that you will take a piece of the responsibility. We should all support it or kill the program that is easily abused.

3) Senators should read the report. It suggests that homeroom teachers should do something. In homeroom, there is not a ton of interaction, there is a lack of consistency, and there is not enough time for group discussions. What will the process of this look like? It is premature to have a new program using old definitions of community service.

4) On page 4, section 3 regarding failure, we question the logic of those statements. In section 4, it is extremely judgmental. Legislating attitude is not an option. In section 5, sentence 3 is unclear. What does it recommend? Who does the defining? On the page regarding Requirements, can this be met looking at the attendance of kids now? We also do not know what is expected in homeroom. The stipend is unlikely. Under the 1st bullet in Rules, it leaves too much discretion and might cause great inequality.

5) Every question can be addressed. The document lays out the process. Regarding homeroom and teacher involvement, the committee has 2 suggestions. Whether or not the procedure is outlined, it can still start. The document has a list of suggestions, not another duty. The main thing that concerns us is the lack of reflection. Kids should ask more questions like "Why is it that we're doing what we're doing?". Regarding students in need, we do not need a new system .We just need to focus more on them. Regarding the issue of inadequate set of structures, Social Action will continue to deal with this issue. We support the Narrow Path model. It is a lot harder to give to homeroom teachers, who the kids know well, a piece of forgery. Regarding the issue of it not happening in homeroom now, that is why we need to make efforts to improve. "Less crap" is better than "crap".

6) There is a rumor that the stipend position is possible.

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

Burnett Shuster Kalsow-Ramos* Miake-Lye Saveriano Buttaro*