Lexington (MA) High School Senate

LEXINGTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-FACULTY SENATE

2000-2001

Moderator Marcus Catsouphes, Assistant Moderator Michael Fiveash, Secretary Tingting Peng

Agenda

For the March 1, 2001 meeting:

1. Announcements

2. Committee Reports

3. Course Recommendation Resolution

4. New Business

Minutes

From the February 15, 2001 meeting:

[Quorum not met]

Informal Discussion of Course Recommendation Resolution

Burson: When we meet quorum, I suggest we remove the last sentence of the second paragraph.

Shavit: In response to that, I feel that sentence was one of the main points. The point of a resolution is to try and change the mindset.

Burson: Question to Shavit &endash;What is the point of the resolution?

Shavit: We're trying to tell students what to do by legislation and rules. Students resent that kind of legislation and get annoyed by it. A resolution is the best way to get our message across.

Kafrissen: I have trouble with the last sentence of the resolution.

Shavit: I think students have certain limitations but having legislation that arbitrarily decides things for us is not good.

[Quorum met]

Minutes approved.

Agenda approved.

Announcements

Shavit: Senator K. Girondel and I set up the Senate Discussion Board at http://lhs.lexington.ma.org/senate.

Blauer: There's a petition going around about the Report Card Bill.

Committee Reports

Kieft: Policy met and revised the Course Recommendation Bill. GPA Committee has tabulated results of surveys. We're going to send out letters to colleges about how they view GPA's in the admissions process.

S. Girondel: Social Action met and talked about the Recycling Bill.

Kessler: Oversight met and discussed the bill about each committee to compile relevant bills.

Saldana: Communications met. We're thinking about starting a poster campaign to get more people to come to Senate.

Ris: Climate met and began to prepare for the mural competition.

Kessler: Where is the mural going to go?

Ris: The set of stairs in the main building where a big window used to be.

Course Recommendation Resolution

Burson: Move to amend in the second paragraph of Rationale to: "This is detrimental because it puts too much stress on students and because it may water down these courses." I think "bad" sounds uneducated, and at the same time, we're not saying it has to be that way.

Saldana: Friendly amendment &endash; add "situation" after "this". [Accepted]

Enders: If we're steering into more formal language, we should change "watered down" to "lower the standards of." [Accepted as a Friendly Amendment]

Bogart: We're getting carried away with trying to sound educated.

[Amendment passes]

Huang: There's so much discussion on wording. It might be good to send this to an Ad-Hoc committee.

Kessler: Move to create an Ad-Hoc committee to revise wording and report back to Senate within three weeks.

Farrar: Teachers have to make recommendations within two weeks of returning to school.

Bogart: I think we should just solve this now.

Kafrissen: I would like to point out that this is a resolution. It would be nice to get it to teachers before recommendations happen.

Huang: Is it possible to limit time to two weeks?

S. Girondel: Friendly amendment &endash; change time frame to two weeks instead of three. [Accepted]

Moon: Instead of a committee, how about send the resolution back to Senator Shavit. He can reword it and return it to Senate to be approved right after vacation.

Ris: With the Course Recommendation Bill and this resolution, are we repeating ourselves?

Catsouphes: Both will go into effect, one doesn't disappear. It's fine to pass both.

Blauer: Move to call to question. [Motion passes]

[Amendment fails]

Shavit: The last sentence of the resolution might be a little confusing. The increasing of standards can't be done all at once, but it shouldn't take ten years for the change.

Kafrissen: We all have to be in agreement of this. When we pass something, it has to have full Senate backing.

Burson: Move to amend the last two sentences of the second paragraph of Rationale: "Restricting how many honors courses a student may take will put unnecessary restrictions on students. Therefore, students will not learn their own limitations. [Motion not seconded]

Saldana: I disagree with Senator Moon's point. It didn't make much of a difference the first time Senator Shavit revised the wording.

Bogart: Friendly amendment &endash; Under Rationale, first sentence, remove the first "too." [Accepted]

Kessler: Move to change the second sentence of Resolution: "This resolution acknowledges the impracticality of suddenly raising the standards of honors courses, but it encourages teachers not to make changes to gradually as well."

Burson: That's still ambiguous.

Kafrissen: This resolution focuses entirely on Honors courses. We should make the resolution more generic.

Huang: I'm not sure of how we could gradually tighten the standards versus suddenly doing so.

Bernstein: We could slowly lessen the number of people going to Honors courses.

Burson: Does a resolution stay in affect forever?

Catsouphes: It will remain until it is revised.

Saldana: Move to call to question. [Motion passes]

[Amendment fails]

Kafrissen: Move to amend the second sentence of Resolution to: "…courses cannot be implemented immediately, but teachers are encouraged to make a concerted effort to do so in an expeditious manner." [Amendment passes]