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: 10-12-05

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) People should attend the talent show for Katrina

on the 20th.

V. Open Comments: 1) Lubershane needs coffee.

VI. Committee Reports:

1) Oversight met and we encourage Senators to go to the Senate website

to see the bill list. A bill mandates that each senator have a

complete bill list.

2) Elections committee met. Senator Shuster and Senator Kim helped.

3) Faculty seats on Senate seem to be fully filled.

4) Climate met to plan for Katrina relief talent show.

5) Policy met and discussed community service bill. We also are

developing a bill that would allow for open ballot elections.

VII. Community Service

1) Motion to adjourn to committees fails 11 to 16.

2) Senator Weiser speaks about the last proposal. He quotes an expert

on the subject of "moral intelligence" that is lacking in many

students.

3) We would like to see 1 bill for discussion.

4) Senate is polled on each proposal. Proposal 1 &endash; 7 votes. Proposal 2

&endash; 11 votes. Proposal 2 &endash; 20 votes. Proposal 4 &endash; 3 votes. Proposal 5 &endash;

24 votes.

5) Fifth proposal is missing but it says Class Council and Social

Action committee must collaborate on an administrative project on

community service.

6) Dr. Seasholes was interested in improving "moral intelligence".

Interfering with academics may not be in Senate's purview.

7) Page 6 of the packet is missing. List of acceptable community

service options would streamline the process.

8) We can merge the proposals. For example, we can have Community

Service Day and change the number of required hours.

9) Concern expressed about community service and 990 hours.

10) We could have it so that people must explicitly do what is on the

approved list of community service.

11) Class council is currently doing proposal 5 now.

12) 1989 Class Service bill says each class much sponsor one event

approved by community service coordinator and Senate should monitor.

This bill is ambiguous.

13) Suggestion about cap on discussion for each proposal.

14) Community service and charity distinction brought up by Senator

Bonnet. A proposal to have a range of hours for kids to meet proposed.

Community service would be things such as elected position, CRUD

leadership, recycling, library help. Some charity overlaps. LABBB help

and Lexplorations are examples. I'm willing to work for this proposal.

15) Senator Zagaeski says community service has been used as a

prerequisite for open campus. We can have it so that kids get open

service in the first place, but if their grades drop, community

service can be taken away. We can also require certain hours of

service to be done on open campus. One could be exempt from junior

year because of workload.

16) School lawyers told us we cannot exclude religious service.

17) Definition of community service has failed. Best is to focus on

who the service is done for. Creativity kill is mentioned. Separation

of church just says state cannot establish a religion.

18) Because of the ambiguity of community service, preapproval forms

exist. Also, proposal to have a range of hours would be very

cumbersome.

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

Ghazarian Sewell Chalet Kalsaw-Ramos Pathan Wilson

Bogart* Normile* Richardson Sher Serrano Sherburne

Tall