Minutes 5/9/14

Agenda 5/16

1) Approval of minutes

2) Reports

3) Scheduling committee discussion

4) Plan M motion (brought from Mme. Doyle)

5) Jcomm report

6) Bylaw revision (council forum)

7) Notes & New business

Council Minutes 5/9/14

1)    Approval of minutes

(Plan M discussion was moved up the agenda after Tom Hanlon cup voting)

2)    Reports

(OEC): Speeches next week on Monday and Tuesday and elections on Thursday!

(Treas): Money allocation ($40 to science club) passes. Co-curricular funds stand at $1,961 after the allocation.

(SA): Working on our “Happy” spring video

3)    Tom Hanlon cup voting

4)    Plan M discussion

• Plan M would change the Wednesday schedule so that all classes would be 45 minutes long, leaving a 40-minute block in the middle of the day for Council and other standing committees to meet. 

• Teachers are more willing to lose 5 minutes of class on Wednesday than they are losing a student every Friday.

•There is weak teacher representation on council due to it being held 4^th period on Fridays.

•This won’t affect the technology department.

•It is hard to make everyone happy when agreeing on a schedule.

•This would allow other clubs to meet on Wednesdays.

•Student weren’t able to observe council unless they had 4^th off, this will them to now.

•This is one of the simpler plans the scheduling committee came up with.

•People would pick other clubs over council

•Other plans have been proposed. I’m not sure why these have not been presented as well.

•Wednesday is already a shortened day (would this lead to more student stress?).

•Wish we could discuss the needs of the people in a schedule with the whole council.

•I don’t see how this plan will change our prior concerns with scheduling.

Discussion is postponed.

5)    Jcomm discussion

Motion:” I move that the Judiciary Committee be composed of elected officials from the general student body for a one year trial period.

1. You may run for Council as well as Jcomm.

2. Elections will take place during the Council elections in the spring.

3. Freshmen  will vote in the fall during orientation.

4. There will be two students from each grade as well as two staff members.

5. Jcomm members will elect a chair from among themselves.

6. Nomination forms are required but other forms of campaign are not required.

Individuals will vote for two members from their grade.”

•We are currently still in the trail period for this – it will soon expire.

•We are bringing it back to set it in stone. Brining it back exactly as it was passed without the trial period.

•If we do not pass it again it will go back to what it used to be. It will just be made up of council members.

•There will still be a reelection cycle every year.

•We will have to have different elections for Jcomm this year if we pass this.

•This motion was created to improve accessibility- I do not think this has been improved.

•It would be better to have this discussion with all Jcomm members present.

•Jcomm this year was made up of a lot of people who weren’t on council.

•When you are on Jcomm you want a case. We do not want to lift the spirits of the students who make up Jcomm. If this is to get more people involved this isn’t the right way.

•Jcomm has not met so how do we know if it works?

•We cannot keep postponing this. Jcomm might not meet but that doesn’t mean we should keep postponing it until it does.

•We need to make it clear what you’re signing up for next year if this passes.

•I really recommend postponing this until we have Jcomm members here to talk about this and hear their point of view on the matter.

Meeting adjourns.

Minutes 5/2/14

Agenda 5/9
1) Approval of minutes
2) Reports
3) Tom Hanlon cup voting
4) Bylaw revisions
5) Jcomm discussion
6) Plan M discussion
7) Notes & new business 

     Council Minutes 5/2/14

1) Approval of minutes
2) Reports
(Treas): A money allocation for the science club will be coming soon. I am working on club budgets with SA. 
(DSB): Talked about security at the school and the school board wants to know how students feel about having police presence in the school. Also thank you to those who came to the meeting to talk about their March Intensive. We are looking into instituting mandarin at some point at this school.
(SL): Results from survey are back. We will be sharing those with council soon.
(Admin): Working on nominating staff of the year.
(OEC): Posters are up. Elections are on Tuesday the 13th.
(Curric): There has been no negative feedback yet about restorative justice. We are now working on teacher evaluations/reporting. Department of heads is in charge of staff evaluations. 
3) Circle Up presentation
• “Formed by a group of local parents who came together to begin a community conversation about youth substance use. Community partners include Hanover High School staff and administration, the Upper Valley Substance Misuse Prevention Network based our of Dartmouth-Hitchcock, and the Hanover Police Department.” 
•Would really appreciate more input from the students/youth in the community.
•Please contact us for substance free event ideas.
4) Tom Hanlon nominations:
•Kelsey Smith (Been very instrumental in the restorative justice process at our school. She has spent years working hard on this and it has finally passed.—Nominated by Toby) 
•Ms. Addante (She is always here and supporting the community—nominated by max) * respectfully declined nomination. 
•Max Greenwald (Always involved in the discussions at council. Very passionate about moving things along.—nominated by Isaac) 
•Mr. Campbell (Has done a great job as principle so far and he shows genuine interest in the council.--nominated by Eleanor)
•Isaac Jacobs (Contributes a lot to council. Very precise and eloquent during the meetings- he is a great role model. –nominated by Mae)
•Mr. Berube (Has always been very involved in council and getting the word out to the school about what we do and tries finding ways to improve that. He isn’t just focused on council; he has worked with Mr. Murphy to create the common ground games, trying to bring the common grounds closer together in a fun and creative way.) 
5) X-period motion
Amdin is bringing a recommendation to fail this motion. Under the current policy it is not much of a conflict right now. 
• Original motion: Was to put check-ins in the discretion of the teachers.
• Current policy is to check-in at the beginning of every X-period.
• It was a huge deal at the beginning of the year but it isn’t a big deal anymore.
Debate closes. 
Motion fails.
6) Bylaw revision
strike article vii: committees; section H: SLC; item 2: specific duties; point g
(g) To assist Ms. Nickerson as needed with periodically sending out an email to 12 students containing a Golden Ticket, which gives the student who claims the ticket, and one friend, free admission to school sponsored events for 22 weeks, with the following conditions:
i. The 12 students will be chosen at random and will consist of 3 students from each grade.
ii. The first student to reply to the email will be the only one to receive the Golden Ticket.
iii. School sponsored events include athletic events, music department concerts, and plays.
iv. To receive the ticket, the student must go to the front office, where they will be presented with a chocolate bar and a hard copy of the ticket by Ms. Nickerson.
v. To use the Golden Ticket, the student must present the hard copy when asking for admission into the event (i.e. at the ticket table, if there is one).
• Student events are now free so this motion isn’t really necessary and wasn’t very effective in the first place. 
•There are still problems with student/staff communication over email.
Debate closes. 
Motion passes.
7) Discussion on Security
• School board looking to increase school security, and is exploring the possibility of having a full-time police officer stationed in the school
•Must mark distinction between police officer and Student Resource Officer; has had great success at other local schools such as Mascoma.
•Already made progress: reinforcing layer on windows around school, labeling system, limiting possible entrances during school day.
•We should also recognize the possibly of student-inflicted in-school violence.
Meeting Adjourns.

Minutes 4/25/14

Agenda 5/2:

1) Approval of minutes

2) Reports 

3) Bylaw notification

4) Bylaw revisions 

5) Jcomm evaluation 

6) X- period motion

8) Notes & new business 

Council Minutes 4/25/14

1. Approval of minutes
2. Reports
• Welcome French students!
• (OEC): Council elections are coming up! Please refer to the council bulletin board for more details.
• (SA) Ice cream party for seniors is going to be held Friday 5/2 during activity.
3. Restorative justice motion:
• The motion has changed a lot after meeting with the staff.
• Restorative justice comes in after the base consequences. This helps the students learn how to be responsible and even be able to self-report to colleges.
• This process is about reintegration.
• We are not changing anything to due with base consequences.
• If they are found guilty after going to Jcomm they can go back and do restorative justice.
• With these changes we are confident we will have support from the staff.
• This does not seem like much has changed. It’s on the right track and still a good motion that has had a lot of hard work put into it.
• Amendment: “Regardless of J'Comm's ruling, a student can opt in for Restorative Justice.”
• There will be a trial period for this motion.
• Jcomm is more about was the law followed.
• The staff does not want the students to try and avoid their consequences.
• Debate closes.
• Amendment passes.
• Debate closes.
• Motion passes.

Meeting adjourns.

Minutes 4/11/14

Agenda 4/25
1) Approval of minutes
2) Reports
3) Council elections update 
4) Restorative justice motion
5) Bylaw revisions
6) Notes & new business

Council Minutes 4/11/14

1. 1)  Approval of minutes
   
2. 2)  Reports
   (OEC): Elections are coming up. Please refer to the council bulletin board for more details.
   (SA): The ice cream party for the seniors has been moved to the week after break.
   (Curric): We will be bringing back restorative justice next week due to the absences.
   (PR): Please do not do work in council. It wastes other people’s time.
   
3. 3)  “I move to postpone the restorative justice motion to the week of April 25.”
   Debate closes.
   Motion is postponed.
   
4. 4)  Senior exam motion referral:“I move to charge admin with the senior exam motion.”
   Debate is closed.
   Referral passes.
   
5. 5)  “I move to allocate 38 dollars to the science club.”
   •Money will be used for materials they need to conduct the experiment. •Would recommend emailing Jeffrey.
   *“I move to refer this to student activities.”
   Debate closes.
   Referral passes.
   

Meeting adjourns. 

Minutes 4/4/14

Agenda 4/11/14

1)   Approval of minutes

2)   Reports

3)   Restorative Justice motion

4)   Senior exam motion—hasty decision

5)   Bylaw revision

6)   Notes & new business

Council Minutes 4/4/14

1)   Approval of minutes

2)   Reports:

(Treas): Starting to look into club budgets

(OEC): Council kickoff will be coming up. The start of the election process will be on the 24th. Elections will be held on Tuesday the 6th.

(SL): A draft of the student life survey will be presented to the council before sending it out to the student body.

(SA): We will be creating a “24 hours of happiness” video this spring.

(Restorative Justice): Significant changes were made at the first staff meeting. We met with them again and it went very well so we will be bringing in back as a motion to council next week.

3)   Senior exam- hasty decision motion

“I move to reconsider a hasty motion”

•We need to come up with a plan to implement this

•The principal still has the option to veto this.

•Council as a whole should not be caught up in this. We have spent a lot of time talking about it when we could be moving on to other things on our agenda. I think it still needs work but we should refer it to a committee to work on.

Debate Closes.

Motion fails.

4)   Lost and found motion

"I move to change the Lost and Found policy in the Handbook from:

Articles not claimed within 10 days at the end of each quarter will be donated to the LISTEN Center.

to say:

Articles not claimed within 2 weeks will be donated to the LISTEN Center."

-This motion is coming from Ford and Bonnie

-Bonnie spends every day taking things out of the locker and then putting them back in at the end of the day.

-Bonnie is willing to keep track of what has been there for two weeks.

-Bringing the items to the LISTEN Center is not a problem--there are many teachers who live in Lebanon.

-This may increase the amount of items which are stolen from the lost and found.

-Students need to take more responsibility for their items

-This seems like it will create more work for Bonnie

-The problem is there isn't enough space to hold all the lost items.

-Two weeks is a short amount of time. We should consider once a month.

Debate closes.

Motion fails.

5) “I move to charge the Admin committee with implementing the senior exam motion.”

Meeting adjourns.