Minutes 12/10/14

Agenda 12/17/14

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports
3. Bylaw Revision: Campaign Posters Change
4. Report Card Discussion
5. Notes & New Business

“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

—  William Faulkner

Council Minutes 12/10/14

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports
• (Mod): Short meeting today because of the snow delay.
• (COI): Approved Program of Studies
• (Sec): Sophomore alternate can vote.
3. School Dance Discussion
• We have had no dances yet this year due to lack of interest and behavior problems leading to lack of administrative support.
• There are other ways to socialize so not having dances isn’t a big deal.
• Liability is an issue for the school.
• 90% of the senior class wants a dance.
• Current classes are being punished for previous classes’ actions.
• They are great fundraising opportunities that are now unavailable.
• A majority are showing up intoxicated.
• Having only underclassmen events changes the culture of dances away from drinking.
• Administration and police don’t want conflicts with students.
• The goal is to find an appropriate social interaction between students outside the classroom.
• They have to be made attractive without substances.
• Whole social culture in this country and region is unsafe and needs to be fixed. This is not just a Hanover High issue.
• There is a safety in numbers, but only when those numbers are of similar levels.
• It will take courageous people to stand up and say “Not at my dance. Not here. Not now.”

Meeting adjourns.

Minutes 12/5/14

Agenda 12/10/14

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports
3. Bylaw Revision: Campaign Posters Change
4. School Dance Discussion
5. Notes & New Business

“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes,

smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”

—  John C. Maxwell

Council Minutes 12/5/14

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports
• (Mod): Thanks for taking time to come to today’s Friday meeting.
• (DSB): New Balance
• (SL): Survey will be going out soon
• (RJ): Met with Mr. Smith to plan AIP revisions.
• (OEC): Worked on bylaw revisions that are coming today.
• (Sec): Sophomore and staff alternates can vote.
3. Senior Exam Motion Discussion
• Are we strong enough in favour of this motion to overrule Mr. Campbell’s questioning of our jurisdiction?
• Exams will continue in college, so seniors will still have to take them in the future.
• Still a great incentive for students to do well in class.
• Exams are difficult no matter what the effort so this would really change how students work.
• This is our chance to spread our wings and define Council’s boundaries.
• We shouldn’t be rewarding/punishing learning, which should be expected in school.
• This motion isn’t “big” enough to push through an override.
• Exams aren’t that difficult if class work is completed as expected, so there is no point to removing them for As.
• Informal straw poll on overruling: in favour.
4. Bylaw Revision: Fall Clean-Up
• Mostly simple, small stuff, lots of grammatical fixes and consistency fixes, should not be a problem.
• Amendment to remove the poster requirements section.
• Amendment passes with no objections.
• Motion passes.
5. Bylaw Revision: Campaign Poster Strike
• Removing this shifts elections even closer to a popularity contest.
• What are qualifications for Council and who should members really be?
• Where is the line drawn between serious and satire?
• Posters should catch the eye however they can.
• Voters will vote for their “type” so posters as a whole are unnecessary.
• This requirement could weed out those who do not take it seriously.
• Motion fails.
6. Bylaw Notification: Campaign Poster Change

Meeting adjourns.

Minutes 11/19/14

Agenda 12/3/14

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports
3. Senior Exam Motion Discussion
4. Bylaw Revision: Summer Clean-Up
5. School Dance Discussion
6. Notes & New Business

“Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing;

prepare while others are playing; dream while others are wishing.”

— William A. Ward

Council Minutes 11/19/14

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Reports
• (Mod): Ben is not here, Max is acting as Secretary.
• (SL): Worked on the quarter 1 survey.
• (SA): Started European sports week with handball.
• (Curric): Discussed location of course concern form.
• (OEC): Started approach to handbook revisions.
• (Admin): Worked on survey results presentation.
• (RJ): Started survey.
• (COI): Continuing discussion of new physics course and homework at next meeting.
• (Sec): Senior and staff alternates can vote.
3. Student Life Survey
• Broke into committees to review survey.
4. Teacher Web Presence Survey Results
• Teachers would appreciate consistency, but would rather not try and fix something that is not broken. It is important for students to learn to be self-sufficient. However, an important question is “is there a problem?”
• See above link for summary.
5. Teacher Web Presence Survey Discussion
• Students should learn to adapt to different methods.
• Teachers should have flexibility to post homework as they choose.
• Unsettling that teachers spend so much time posting their calendars.
• Could include how effective the teacher’s distribution of assignments in course evaluation.
• Bottom line is that the student body is very much in favor of this and it would greatly improve an average student’s daily life.
• Some teachers really don’t need this system to function as good educators.
• Eventually all teachers will transfer online and doesn’t need a Council push especially when there are some teachers who are fine without.
• Nothing in this motion is restrictive, a minimal amount of effort is required on the teacher’s part.
• This is just to help the last couple of teachers who have not moved to the web.
• Though we should represent the students, we need to respect the Council minority of teachers who are the ones affected by this.

Meeting adjourns.