Council Update

By Jennie Frishtick and Carl Tischbein

Council has moved! Meetings are now being held in the cafeteria. The main reason for this change is to increase student awareness of and participation in Council issues. We tried the atrium, but the cafeteria is a bigger space and works better for us. Already, there are students who sit and eat in the cafeteria on Fridays during fourth period who listen and contribute to the discussion. We hope this trend will continue to grow.

Here are a few of the issues we have been discussing this year:


X-Days: Some classes give weekly X’s, and some classes give none. The result is that some students have hardly any X’s. As a result, some students are having difficulty making up tests or getting extra help. A motion was brought to Council mandating at least two X-days per month in every class. If each class could have at least two X-days per month, many of the problems concerning current X-day procedure could be avoided. This motion passed, but soon resulted in an issue: currently, there are no clear X-day guidelines in the handbook. Therefore, before any further action is taken concerning the X-day motion, Council’s Curriculum Committee is looking into creating X-day guidelines before bringing this motion back to Council. This motion must also get staff approval before it takes effect.

Activity Period: Council had a discussion about the possibility of moving activity period to after fourth period (instead of after third). A motion was made to have a trial week in order to see how clubs and academic classes would be affected. The motion failed due to multiple complications, including conflicting schedules of students who take afternoon courses at Hartford Tech. These students can only have a normal schedule if activity period stays where it is.

Cutting Class: Council passed a motion changing the consequences for cutting classes. Instead of getting a warning after the first cut, students will now get a cut. A student has 24 hours to resolve any misunderstandings with the teacher about why the cut occurred. If the conversation does not take place or the teacher does not excuse the cut, a schedule-up will be in order.

That’s all for now.  Please come to a Council meeting, Friday, 4th Period, to offer an opinion, make a motion, or just listen while you eat your lunch!

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