Minutes 3/28

Agenda 4/4/14

1) Approval of Minutes

2) Reports

3) Senior Exam Motion

4) Lost & Found Motion

5) Bylaw Notification

6) Notes & New Business

Council Minutes 3/28/14

1) Approval of Minutes

2) Reports

• (Treas.) Co-Curricular funds are $1196.25 Council funds are $1798.75

• (DSB) 14-15’ staff have been approved. School will end on June 24 but if the hours have been approved we will be able to get out June 20^th instead.

• (PR)- Council elections are coming up so get ready!

3) Senior Exam Motion

Motion: “I move that seniors are exempt from a final exam if they have an A- or above average in that class. This motion does not exempt seniors from final projects, presentations, or papers. If a senior so wishes, they are able to take the final exam.”

Amendment: “…This will be a one year pilot program that will be evaluated at the end of 2014 by staff and brought back by student life.”

•Courses should be evaluated more numerically than objectively— it’s not just a numerical problem.

•More data is better.

•It is difficult to measure success- we would need more than one year to look into this.

•The spirit of the amendment is good but it should already be expected that we’d review it as a council.

•Exams are meant to evaluate the performance of the staff and the students.

•This is a huge workload to put onto the teachers and expect them to complete it within the next few months.

Amendment: “…trial period will be during the 2014-2015 school year.”

•Teacher’s have designed classes by the beginning of the semester and already have a final assessment in mind.

•Students need to communicate with teachers to find ways for this motion to happen and succeed.

•It is possible that it could be put in place this year.

•This still allows other forms of assessments.

•This is a matter of self-responsibility.

•This is one of the most exciting motions that has been brought to council all year.

Debate closes.

Amendment passes.

Amendment: “This will be a one year pilot program that will be evaluated at the end of the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years by staff and brought back by student life.”

            •We shouldn’t give up on it for this year.

            •This allows us to collect more data.

•I don’t think will be possible to put into place by this year.

•The teachers will still have the same exams; this motion only exempts students with an average of 90% or above.

•We should take the time to get the teachers impute.

•It varies among teachers and subjects.

•For some departments there is a different exam made for the seniors

Debate closes.

Amendment fails.

Motion: “I move that seniors are exempt from a final exam if they have an A- or above average in that class. This motion does not exempt seniors from final projects, presentations, or papers. If a senior so wishes, they are able to take the final exam. This will be a one year pilot program that will be evaluated at the end of 2014-2015 school year by staff and brought back by student life.””

•Only as a group can we move forwards with this motion. We cannot leave it up to the teachers. We need to be respectful of each other.

•People are not afraid of this motion some people do not believe in it.

•Seniors should not be entitled.

•There needs to be clarification on why seniors would not want to take the exam.

•Seniors have said they take classes more seriously if they can get out of the exam.

•Everyone has a different motivation for learning.

•You cannot get a 90% or above by slacking off. I do not think that people realize that.

Debate closes.

Motion passes.

Motion: “I move to reconsider a hasty motion”

•We need to talk about this with the teachers. I do not think we are in a place to vote without talking to more staff.

•The discussion does not end just with council.

•We have talked this through for three weeks. I do not see it as a hasty motion.

•We need to consider political dynamic in this school if we want to make this motion successful. We need to have a plan.

Meeting adjourns.

Minutes 3/27

Agenda 3/27/14

1. 1)  Approval of Minutes
   
2. 2)  Reports
   
3. 3)  Senior Exam Motion
   
4. 4)  Lost & Found Motion
   
5. 5)  Bylaw Notification
   
6. 6)  Notes & New Business
   
   Council Minutes 3/14/14

1. 1)  Approval of Minutes
   
2. 2)  Reports
   • (SA): Senior Ice Cream party will be held on April 10th.
   • Kelsey: Restorative Justice will be pushed back two weeks. 
3. • (OEC)Elections will be held on May 2nd.
   
4. 3)  Senior Exam Motion
   Motion: “I move that seniors are exempt from a final exam if they have an A- or above average in that class. This motion does not exempt seniors from final projects, presentations, or papers. If a senior so wishes, they are able to take the final exam.”
   Amendment: “...This will be a one year pilot program being evaluated at the end of 2014 by staff and brought back by student life.”
   •Courses should be evaluated more numerically than objectively— it’s not just a numerical problem.
   •More data is better.
   •It is difficult to measure success- we would need more than one year to look into this.
   •The spirit of the amendment is good but it should already be expected that we’d review it as a council.
   •Exams are meant to evaluate the performance of the staff and the students. 
5. •This is a huge workload to put onto the teachers and expect them to complete it within the next few months.
   Amendment: “...trial period will be during the 2014-2015 school year.” 
6. •Teachers have designed classes by the beginning of the semester and already have a final assessment in mind.
   •Students need to communicate with teachers to find ways for this motion to happen and succeed.
   •It is possible that it could be put in place this year.
   •This still allows other forms of assessments.
   •This is a matter of self-responsibility.
   •This is one of the most exciting motions that has been brought to council all year.
   Debate closes.
   Amendment passes.
   

Amendment: “...trial period will be during the 2013-2014 and 2014- 2015 school years.”
•We shouldn’t give up on it for this year. 
•This allows us to collect more data.
Meeting adjourns. 

Minutes 3/7

Agenda 3/14/14

1) Approval of minutes

2) Reports

3) Senior exam motion

4) Notes & New business

Council Minutes 3/7

1)   Approval of minutes

2)   Reports

(Mod): We will now be able to start projecting the minutes.

(DSB): Last meeting was 2/25. The administration is planning for next year’s seniors to have a senior class leadership day to work with their peers and teachers. Along with that next year there will no longer be half-days. The next DSB meeting is 3/25.

(SA): Congrats seniors on winning winter carnival! Look forward to an ice cream party!

(Curric): We presented last Wednesday to the staff of restorative justice. We will probably be bringing in back next week as a motion.

(OEC): We are working on election schedules.

(Admin): Working on the online handbook.

(Restorative records committee): Might bring a money allocation soon for the purpose of getting a scanner.

3)   Money allocation for She’s the First club:

“I move to allocate $150 to the She’s the First club.”

•This is a new club created at our high school

•This non-profit organization helps women in undeveloped countries

•The money is a start up for their fundraising

•Council funds are $2,111.25

•After this allocation it would take us to $1,961.25

Debate closes.

Money allocation passes.

4)   Council Accountability motion part III:

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.”

•I like the idea behind this

•We are a small community that we know enough about each other.

•Being a part of common ground is only one of the many responsibilities a council member has. It isn’t totally applicable to how the member performs in general.

•Might still be worth having for the council members to view but it is unlikely that others not on council will look at the reviews.

•Some people may use this information to vote

•We were not elected solely by our common ground

•Our job as council members is to get people interested

Debate closes.

Motion fails.

5) Senior Exam Motion: “I move that seniors are exempt from a final exam if they have an A- or above average in that class. This motion does not exempt seniors from final projects, presentation, or papers. If a senior so wishes, they are able to take the final exam.”

•Second semester exams

•This is within our jurisdiction but the principle can veto.

•This motion would motivate seniors more too keep up their grades. You need to earn the fact that you don’t need to take the final exam.

•Going into the exam your grade must be a A- or above.

•It is possible to put this in effect this year.

•You still have the right to take the exam if you want to

•If this motion passed I think teachers would assign more end of the year projects.

•Students will have to continue taking tests in college.

•We shouldn’t support senioritis

•People view it as slacking off while others view it as a reason to not slack off as a senior.

Meeting adjourns.