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 January 24, 2002 meeting:

1. Announcements

2. Committee Reports

3. Course Recommendation Bill

4. MCAS Resolution

5. New Business

Minutes

From the January 17, 2002 meeting:

Quorum reached at 7:50 AM.

[Minutes Approved]

David: Move to insert "Department Testing Day Resolution" before "Poster Policy Bill" on the agenda [Seconded]. Although there has been much discussion among the administration about the experimental policy of allowing subjects to test only on certain days at the end of each quarter, students have not been formally asked their opinions of the policy. I think students should be asked in the next available homeroom, and for that reason, I want to fast-track this resolution. [Motion passes.]

[Agenda Approved]

Announcements

Dhanani: Oversight is going to put up a list of all clubs at the school. I ask members of the Senate to take a look at it and fill in any holes they find in it.

K. Girondel: Where is the list posted?

Dhanani: On the bulletin board between the bathrooms by Commons II.

Committee Reports

Collins: Climate met and discussed CRUD, the Senior Finals Bill, and the school's recycling policies. Senator Irvin contacted the DPW to ask for more bins. As they said it would cost $100 to put in a new bin, we're thinking of just getting our own. &endash; If anyone has a spare one, let us know.

K. Girondel: Superintendent Benton had talked about a great new recycling initiative she was spearheading in the school system, but recently we haven't heard boo about it.

Kieft: Policy discussed Conklin's bill regarding violating the school's cheating and plagarism policy. We also discussed issues around the department testing day, and the Ten Minute Rule Bill, which should be returning to the Senate, shortly.

S. Enders: Senator Texin and I put up cartoon-decorated posters advertising the Senate list-serve, in the hopes that students will subscribe to be emailed minutes of our weekly meetings, and thus know what is being discussed.

Kessler: The Executive Committee discussed the current roll of homroom, and possible extensions of that roll that Dr. Seasholes is exploring.

Dhanani: Oversight began its annual bill review.

S. Girondel: Social Action now meets before and after shcool on Mondays. We made condom packets available, and posters to publicise their availability will be going up soon.

Department Testing Day Survey Resolution

David: A committee of a few teachers and Dr. Seasholes has been assessing the testing day policy, but my fellow Senators on that committee and I noticed that there were no plans to assess how successful the policy had been for students, nor to see if it was actually being followed by all teachers. I just whipped this resolution up quickly, and there is not too much here to debate about.

Kafrissen: Senator David didn't mention that certain members of the faculty suggested that such a referendum be instituted to gague the effect of the policy, and were mostly rebuffed. Secondly, faculty should also be surveyed as to how the policy has affected them. Thirdly, we need to think about the logistics of collecting and tabulating the survey results.

Kieft: Move to amend the resolution to read that a "Senate Ad-Hoc committee" will create the survey. [Accepted.]

S. Enders: This sounds like a good idea to me, but we have to remember that it take a good amount of work to administer a survey to the entire school. We found putting together the GPA survey to be a very long process. We may want to flesh out just how this survey will be administered before passing this resolution.

Burson: Like Enders said, when we worked on the GPA survey, it took a long time. the first homeroom after the second quarter may be optimistic.

Jehle: The reason the suggestion to the committee to hold such a referendum was rebuffed is that there was a stress survey administered last spring. This survey may address general questions regarding testing.

Dhanani: Amend the resolution to read "first available home room after the survey is created." [Seconded.] This way, if the survey is completed earlier, it will be administered earlier.

David: I have a draft of the survey ready, and it is only four questions long. I ran it by Alyssa Rossenberg, a member of the Stress Committee who has experience with administering stress surveys, and she thought it fine. We should move quickly on this, as I would like to get it administered in the homeroom in which report cards are distributed, as that is well attended.

Fried: I'm against this amendment. As it is written, there is plenty of time to get a survey out.

Kafrissen: Could someone clarify how this amendment would change the resolution?

Dhanani: The first available homeroom means that the survey would be administered in the first homeroom that is availalbe, after the survey is completed.

Walsh: It is important to choose a homeroom that is likely to be well-attended, and for this reason, I think we should nail-down the homeroom in which report cards are distrbuted.

Burson: It might be better to wait a little longer before gaguing students and faculty opinions. At this point, the policy hasn't been crystalized. Teachers have no had much time to encorporate it into their schedules and it may not be fair to judge it, yet.

Fiveash: I agree that we need to administer it in a well-attended homeroom. However, it is not easy to determine which homeroom the report cards will be passed out in, as they are not always ready on the planned-for date, etc. This amendment gives more wiggle room, which may be needed.

Collins: Move to call to question the amendment. [Seconded] [Amendment passes.]

Kieft: Move to call to question the Resolution. [Seconded] [Resolution passes, 28:5]

Poster Policy Bill

Kessler: I propose an amendment to read "Posters will be removed by the administration for reasons of content only if they violate..." [Seconded.] This was the original intent of this clause &endash; to protect students' freedom of expression, so long as the posters to not violate federal laws, school policies, etc. This wording should make it more clear that posters cannot be taken down for reasons of content, unless that content is inviolation with such laws.

Walsh: I propose a friendly amendment to read "only if the content violates state or federal law." [Accepted]

[Question is called on Kessler's amendment.] [Amendment passes.]

Shield: I move to amend the bill to read "non-office doors, outdoor columns, and available bulletin boards." [Seconded.] Especially now that so many trees have been cut down, the big white columns at the front of the school can be seen from very far away. They bear the remains of old spray painted words that we don't want there, and I think a great solution would be to cover up those words with words we do want &endash; posters for school events, etc. [Amendment passes.]

Kafrissen: As somone who was deeply embroiled in a laborious lawsuit as a result of ambiguity in the clause "school policy regarding prohibited expression," I think someone needs to outline exactly what expression is prohibited. If some organization wanted to cause trouble, they could say that our policy was vague and that we had to post something of theirs. The school is as much a public forum as is the Musket, where the issue arose, and someone needs to write up an explicit policy to address this.

Fried: I thought we had found such an explicit policy in the handbook. [General shaking of heads.]

Ludwig: Yes, a policy should be written down. However, for now the distinctions must be made by the administration as to what follows policy.

[Motion is made and seconded to call to question on the bill. Bill passes, 33:5.]

Shield: When will this bill go into effect?

Kessler: The principal has nine school days after we send it to him during which he may veto it. After that, the policy goes into effect.

Hemond: Move to adjourn.

List of Senators Absent from the January 17, 2002 Meeting

L. Smith T. Shen S. Basu R. Strizhak M. Saldaña M. Inouye