Minutes 1/24/14

Agenda 1/31/14

1) Approval of minutes

2) Reports

3) Restorative justice presentation

4) Council accountability motion

6) Notes & new business

Council Minutes 1/24/14

11)    Approval of minutes

22)    Reports

(DSB) Will be presenting restorative justice next week to the council.

(SA) Need help with winter carnival signups. There will be a table next week.

33)    Technology motion

2^nd Amendment : “In addition, al homework that will be available solely electronically must be placed on the teacher’s website by 5pm the night it is assigned.”

            • Gives flexible room for the teachers

            • Is 5pm too late for a teacher to update the website?

            • Beneficial to the students

            • Could be over legislating

            • Students need to become independent and take responsibility

Debate closes.

2^nd Amendment passes.

1^st and 2^nd amendments: “All teachers must keep a website that has an up to date assignment calendar. In addition, al homework that will be available solely electronically must be placed on the teacher’s website by 5pm the night it is assigned.”

Debate closes.

1^st and 2^nd amendments pass.

Amendment: “…Starting the 2014-2015 school year”

            • It takes time to set these things up

            • Would more likely to be vetoed if it is rushed

Debate closes.

Amendment passes.

Amendment: Change the time to read 4pm instead of 5pm.

            •Homework should be assigned in class

            • The digital presence would be at 4pm

            • 4pm is unrealistic for teachers. Especially on Wednesdays when there are staff meetings.

            •There would be more resistance if the time was changed to 4pm

            • The time constraint would take away from other things (e.i. helping individual students)

Debate closes.

Amendment fails.

Motion: “All teachers must keep a website that has an up to date assignment calendar. In addition, al homework that will be available solely electronically must be placed on the teacher’s website by 5pm the night it is assigned.”

Debate closes.

Motion passes.

44)    Council Accountability and Transparency Motion

“Item 1: All main motions require a roll call vote and the record of the vote will be reported in Common Ground (CG) and posted on the Council bulletin board.

Item 2: Committee attendance will be posted on the Council Bulletin board three weeks prior to Council elections.

Item 3: Every council member is evaluated each semester by their Common Ground on the following items:

            •attendance

            •timeliness and thoroughness of reporting about happenings in council

            •openness and willingness to engage all members of the CG and seek out feedback.

Reports are available in the school library for review.

Council members have the opportunity to respond and explain any negative evaluation in writing. The written response to the CG evaluation is kept with the evaluation. “

•Members are held more accountable.

•Will make students think more about whom they are voting for (will be less about popularity).

•People need to be aware of what council is doing.

•*A main motion is the end result motion.

•This motion will take effect as soon as possible.

•The secretary will be put largely in charge of this. The committees would be required to report back as well.

•You still have the opportunity to respond to the feedback.

•Make an effort- at times it may be subjective.

Amendment: “Strike the 3^rd item”

•Every CG is different. This could be difficult for the CG’s who do not want to talk about council and it would not necessarily reflect on the member of council.

•CG is the most direct connection to school.

The amendment stops—it is not in the spirit of the motion.

Debate on the motion:

•This will help improve the image of council

•We should take the time to craft a form correctly and universal for everyone.

Meeting Adjourns.

Minutes 1/10/14

Agenda 1/24/14

11)    Approval of minutes

22)    Reports

33)    Technology motion

44)    Council accountability motion

55)    3-test motion

66)    Notes & new business

Council Minutes 1/10/14

1) Approval of minutes

2) Reports

(DSB)- Budget meeting are going on at the moment

(SA)- Will need help with winter carnival signups

(OEC)- Continuing to look at the Jcomm bylaw revision

(Curric)- Will be bringing back restorative justice very soon to council and then it will go to the staff

(Condom Motion)- If you are interested in being a part of this please contact Ben or Chris.

3) Technology motion:

·      Some people have bad internet – point c should be handled on individual basis

·      All assignments should also be made available in class on paper

·      Amendment of point c: a student’s internet connection being poor is not a reason for not doing an assignment that has been handed out in class

o   Solves this issue with few flaws

o   Parent’s opinion: this policy will become obsolete very soon

o   Daniel: unless the assignment is purely digital and the kid has signed note

o   People are usually able to work these things out with teachers

o   This doesn’t save paper

o   We go through the bylaws every year so the advance of technology is not a problem

Amendment fails

·      This is within our jurisdiction. The staff is not ready for this

o   Some teachers don’t even have websites yet

o   This could be first step

o   Not all assignments should be digital

o   1/3 of staff will be in violation of this if it’s passed

·      Response: this isn’t trying to completely revolutionize the school and bring it 100% into the digital age, this is just a back-up for students

     • Students will always be distracted in some way or another. I don’t think this will influence this much.

     • This is a problem with personal responsibility.

     • We already have problems with students checking their school email

     • This would be a tool for the students. We shouldn’t take away this opportunity.

     • This would help students pace themselves and not have confusion on assignments and help prepare them for college.

Amendment:  “All teachers must keep a website that has an up to date assignment calendar.”

-All other things would be scratched.

-Still in the spirit of the motion.

-Still a helpful tool for the students.

-Allows space and flexibility for the teachers.

-Have not define “up-to-date”

-No excuse for teachers to say they don’t want to ever use technology. This is the time to learn and be welcome to change and get on board.

Meeting Adjourns.

Minutes 12/20/13

Agenda 1/10/14

1) Approval of Minutes

2) Reports

3) Technology Motion

4) Council Accountability Motion

5) Notes & New Business

Council Minutes 12/20/13

11)    Approval of minutes

22)    Reports

(Mod)- I am creating an Adhoc committee to investigate more into having condoms in the bathroom. Ben C and Chris with co-chair.

(DSB)- Mike Lepene is the new principle at RMS.

(PR)- Make sure to check out the broadside! There has been a council update.

(Curric)- We are working on editing the format of restorative justice. We are also working on scheduling with the staff to present the revisions to them and then we will present to the council.

(SL)- We have a comment box now for council.

(SA)- Will need help with winter carnival signups (this will happen after break).

(Restorative Records Committee)- We had our first meeting. We found reports on the original condom motion, which was overturned by the NH school board.

33)    Summary of the Headphone Motion

Motion: “I move to require the use of headphones in the atrium.”

• This is an imposition of taste- you’re assuming everyone around you likes your music

•There is a power struggle between staff and students

•Any sound wouldn’t be allowed unless with the use of headphones.

•If people want a quiet place they should find another area in the school (Library, silent study, resource rooms)

•The real issue is the loud speakers being played – these speakers shouldn’t be allowed

•Teachers should be able to stand up to students

•We shouldn’t have another rule

•As council members we need to make this aware to the student body and hopefully they will respond well and be more reasonable about the loudness of their music.

•The atrium is a unique gathering place (different from other schools)- a place for people to talk and socialize. Sharing music and videos is often involved with this.

***The motion did fail.

44)    OEC bylaw revision

Motion: I move to change Article 6, Section F, Point 1 Purpose,

Sub-point A to read

“To review administrative decisions in discipline cases when a student

or a group of students believe they have been treated unfairly. A

group of students may be seen together, at the discretion of the

chair, but each student will be tried as an individual. In its review

process, the Judiciary Committee will:

i. Determine whether each student is innocent or guilty.

ii. Decide whether the administration’s decision is appropriate or inappropriate.”

                  •Nothing dramatic is changing

                  •It will still vary individual to individual

                  •Jcomm is not a trial- Jcomm is a hearing

                  •An individual has the right to come alone

                  •This puts a lot of pressure on the chair of Jcomm

                  •Restorative Justice plays an important role in this

                  •There are time limits set up for Jcomm

                  •You’re already allowed to bring an advocate to Jcomm- is this necessary?

                  •Could this be a FERPA violation?

“I move to postpone this motion until bylaws are written for a group hearing for Jcomm”.

                  •We need to look into this more

                  •The spirit of the motion is good but we need clear details

                  •Bylaws need to be written about how to govern a group of people

                  •We should speak to people with experience on Jcomm

                  •OEC struggles to come up with new wording because we were all for this motion. We would love it if people who aren’t in favor would come to a meeting of ours to talk about this and help with new ideas and wording.                  

Debate closes.

Motion is postponed.

55)    Homework Technology Motion:

“All current homework and worksheets must be made available by every teacher online daily. (this does not need to include textbooks or class notes)

a. A student is not responsible for an assignment (and its referenced worksheet) if it hasn’t been placed online before 5:00pm the previous evening.

b. Any file posted online must be posted as an image, a PDF, or in RTF format or else the post is invalid.

c. A student’s internet connection being poor is not a reason for not doing an assignment.”

                  •This allows students and staff to both stay organized

                  •This would prevent confusion about what is due

                  •This would prevent teachers from mentioning more assignments last minute

                  •The homework assignment would be posted online at 5pm the day before the assignment is due

                  •Assignment worksheets would be attached online as well. 

Meeting Adjourns.