4/24/13

Agenda 4/24/13
    1. Approval of Minutes
    2. Reports
    3. Tom Hanlon Cup
    4. Committee Vote Motion
    5. Notes & New Business

4/12

Agenda 4/12/13
   1. Approval of Minutes
   2. Reports
   3. NEASC signups
   4.Tom Hanlon Cup Nominations
   5. Notes & New Business

Note**

Tom Hanlon Cup

In 1971 Tom Hanlon came to Hanover High School as a parent volunteer with an idea and a commitment to develop real participation and democracy in the governing of the high school.  He was instrumental in form the Council and in reforming the way we make decisions at Hanover High School. Tom died suddenly in 1982, just as many of his ideas were bearing fruit, but the Council continues to feel a great debt to Tom and a responsibility to carry on his ideals in its work.

Therefore each year on class day or at the underclass awards assembly, the Council, by vote of its members, gives the Tom Hanlon Council Award, in the form of an engraved bowl, to a person who by their commitment and activity has increased the sharing spirit of our school, enhanced the processes of governance and promoted the involvement of everyone in our school community.  

Past recipients:

1983    Ford Daley
1986    Skip Bean
1993    Margaret Caldwell
1998    Council Leadership
2002    Linda Addante
2012    Deb Gillespie

4/5

Agenda 4/5/13

   1. Approval of Minutes

   2. Reports

   3. Council Table Motion

   4. Notes & New Business

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!” -Audrey Hepburn

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Council Minutes 3/30/13

1. Approval of Minutes

2. Reports

[DSB] I brought up the discussion on Jcomm elections at the last DSB meeting. I also brought up the academic integrity policy. A couple members found it to be reasonable––no official response yet.

[PR] Please spread the word about Elections!

[Curric] Dr. Gamble has accepted the position as facilitator in the Restitution Pilot Program.

[OEC] We are conducting interviews for the Council kick-off video. Stay after if you want to be in it.

[Admin] We talked about the Skip Bean award.

[SL] We talked about the survey that Student Life conducts every year. We want to try to include the Golden ticket in the survey. We also talked about the Council Table Motion.

[SA] We are working on finding a date for the Senior’s pizza party. Next Monday we will start going around to clubs to get a sense of the budget.

[Sec] I saw a clock in the locker room :)

[Berube] The CG cup is holding a ping pong tournament. If you want to help run the competition please talk to myself or Mr. Murphy.

3. Reconsidering Bourne Ultimatum

Motion: I move that in the Handbook, pg. 47, at the bottom of the academic integrity policy, the motion strikes base consequence of the notification of student’s guidance counselor for first offense and moves it to additional, multiple, or more serious offenses.

• I agree with the spirit of this motion, but this is a ultimately a school board decision. Also, as the rule stands, Guidance counselors don’t have to report first offense cheating unless there has been disciplinary action. The difference is between a disciplinary action and a consequence. A consequence is the result of breaking the academic policy.
• If the first time an offense occurs the student has a meeting with a teacher, it could create a meaningful conversation where the student and teacher learn something about their own styles of learning and teaching, respectfully. I think if the teacher doesn’t report first offenses, then that human connection between teacher and student could have a meaningful impact on the student’s integrity.
• I am mainly looking to increase the number of reportings. I think that it would be easier for a teacher to have a conversation with a student about academic integrity if there is no pressure on the teacher to report the incident.
• Maybe if the student does commit a first offense, we can implement the Restitution plan, and help facilitate the meaningful conversations between the student and the teacher, the student and his/her parents, and the student and the dean of students.
• We should consider transferring the 5-week schedule-up punishment to “More serious offenses”. This way no disciplinary action will occur for first offenses.  Also while the notification of the guidance counselor could occur, the guidance counselor doesn’t  have to report it to schools since there was no disciplinary action taken.

Amendment: I move to refer the Bourne Ultimatum to Curric, so that they can work on it in conjunction with the restitution plan.

• Even though Curric has a lot on their plates, this academic policy is right up their ally with the restitution motion. I think we need to be thorough on this motion and make sure we cover the details of the motion in depth.
• What this comes down to is: what is in the best interest of the student? I’ve been researching restorative services for two years and restorative justice fits more with our school’s goals and interests.  We are talking about how to help a student learn from their mistakes, as well as realizing how their actions can impact a whole community. I see this as progressive, so I’m really in favor as coupling this with the restorative justice plan.
• I think we have a good discussion going on right now here. I don’t think we should lose the energy we have now on this motion by referring it to committee.
• I don’t think we can include this into the restorative justice program, but after we have it set we can look to include this. We have a lot on our plate.
• I think there’s a lot of information gathering, so it could be greater than curric. We can bring in other people to be involved in  the motion.

Debate Closes.

Motion Passes.

4. Motion: I move to instate a Council table in the Atrium in the hope of increasing Council’s involvement with the school community.

• One of the important goals of Council is to reach out to the school and get rid of the stereotype that we are unapproachable. The point of this motion is to create  a physical place where students can approach Council members to bring up new ideas, talk about current issues, and ask questions about various Council topics. We could hold informal polls there or provide an ideas box. In this way Council will be much more accessible to the school.
• Creating a table for Council members to interact with non-Council members seems too separate. I think we should be spreading the word about Council with our friends
• Have you talked to building and grounds about this?
• Yes. It would be a folding chair in the atrium.
• Who would be responsible for the table?
• Council members who have a free period. They would try to engage others in conversation. On friday we would have a set number of people at the table during activity period to announce what will be going on in Council, to provide minutes from the last meeting, and to report on current Council issues.
• This forum would be another way for the school to find out about Council going-ons. Lots of Common Grounds don’t get the Council update because they either don’t have a Council member in their CG or the Council member is often absent. This is another outlet for Council to reach out to the community.
• One thing to consider is that a table is a barrier. If you want to connect different groups you have to be careful about what that table is like. If you have a big table, then it becomes adversarial. It would be really cool to have a Council Corner or Council’s Cove where there would be a more casual setting for Council to reach out to the school.
• I think it is the goal of Council members to go out and talk to people about Council. I don’t think that we should sit at a table and wait for people to come to us.

Amendment: I move to amend the motion to replace “table” with “couch”.

• This would create a more inviting atmosphere. A Council lounge would eliminate the distance created by a table.
• I think that this will just turn into a couch that’s in the atrium. A couch is a couch. Kids are kids. Let’s find a way to focus more on Council with this motion.
• The freshmen don’t even use the atrium. We use it to get from the cafe to our class. If there is a Council couch, there is no way a freshman will feel comfortable enough to hang out there.

Meeting Adjourns.