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[SamanthaE]

The Student Government Organization: Executive Council

Thursday, April 22, 2010 3:10 PM – 6:20 PM

Minutes

I. Attendance

Key: [L] = Late [A] = Absent

<br style="page-break-before: auto;" clear="ALL"> [A] Angelica Ahmed, SGO Speaker

<br style="page-break-before: auto;" clear="ALL"> N. Chen, President

[A] K. Zhang, Vice President

I. Rahman, Parliamentarian

H. Abdul-Karim, Treasurer

W. Chin, Secretary



D. Shadburn, President

I. Ahmad, Vice President

D. Sandfia, Parliamentarian

[A] A. Bukhta, Treasurer

D. Alebdy, Secretary



M. Gorbonosov, President

M. Hossain, Vice President

[A] J. Chan, Parliamentarian

S. Eng, Treasurer
S. Dhaliwal, Secretary



I. Cheng, Vice President

[A] R. Chinsky, Treasurer

A. Geraloglou, Secretary

<br style="page-break-before: auto;" clear="ALL"> II. Business

A. Math Department Grading Policy

1. Has the most consistent failing grades out of all the departments

2. Average failure rate in this subject is 4% in the city

a. The failure rates, per grade level, in Tech range from 9% to 15%

3. Report card grades are 90% tests

a. Someone who rarely attends class and only shows up for the tests can pass the class

b. It is hard to change the grading policy because the consent of every math teacher is necessary

c. Mr. Kaelin agrees that the tests are hard for students

i. Teachers must show their exams to Mr. Kaelin before they administer them

ii. Mr. Kaelin has observed that the tests are extremely hard for students

4. Melinda would like to set up an extra credit system on Moodle to lower the failing grades

a. Students must complete a few math problems

i. The extra credit can go to tests

ii. There is a limit on the amount of extra credit a student can complete

i. A student cannot rely on extra credit to boost their grades on a large scale

iii. Students must be eligible to complete the extra credit assignments

i. They must complete with the guidelines set up in the plan (i.e. number of absences)

b. Mr. Kaelin can easily set up the system

c. A lot of teachers may not support this plan because math is largely based on performance

5. Math teachers are currently taking some workshops to help improve students’ grades

6. Student School Leadership Team (SLT) representatives (Angelica and Ursula) are being asked to bring this plan up at the next meeting

7. Melinda will send the presentation, in writing, to Mr. Williams

B. Pepsi Grant

1. Pepsi awards grants amounting up to $250,000 on a monthly basis

2. People submit project ideas that require money to Pepsi

a. The public is open to vote on their favorite idea

i. Voting is open until June 30^th for the next month’s grants

ii. Only the first 1,000 ideas are considered

iii. We want to submit our idea(s) on May 1^st, which is the first day to submit ideas for the next round

b. The idea(s) with the highest votes are awarded the grants

i. Up to 10 $5,000 grants are awarded

ii. Up to 10 $25,000 grants are awarded

iii. Up to 10 $50,000 grants are awarded

iv. Up to 2 $250,000 grants are awarded

3. We will pair up to come up with ideas that would benefit the school

a. There are certain categories that we can choose from

i. Health, Arts and Culture, Food and Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods, and Education

ii. We should come up with an idea that is education-related since this is a school

i. A 6^th grade teacher requested iTouches to do in-class research

ii. One possible idea is to request grant money to renovate the locker rooms

iii. There aren’t many high school submissions

iv. Each pair will come up with a proposal by the next meeting

i. At the next meeting will agree on the best ideas for submission

C. Alumni Homecoming

1. Everyone has been assigned shifts

2. Nicky will be representing SGO onstage

3. We need to fix up the center section of the student cafeteria so that it looks presentable

a. Need to decide on the themes for the bulleting boards in the center section

i. SGO, Student Assembly, Clubs, Athletics, Senior Events, Special Events, and Community Service

ii. Samantha, Michelle and Sharnjit will manage the SGO bulletin board

iii. Jim will manage the Community Service bulletin board

iv. Seniors will manage the Senior Events bulletin board

b. Materials are available in 7C1 (i.e. paper, borders, etc.)

c. We will meet Nicky in the center section of the cafeteria after 9^th period

D. Double Dutch Request

1. Would like funding for 12 new uniforms

a. Each uniform costs $25

b. Requesting $300 total

c. Already have $71 allocated to them from the beginning of this school year

2. There will be a competition on May 2^nd in Gym 1

a. 17 other teams will be competing

3. Double Dutch is a fairly new PSAL sport

4. The Double Dutch team had a short demonstration for us

5. Majority voted to allocate $300 to the team for new uniforms

E. You Got Served

1. The CSA committee responsible for this event is having trouble getting trophies for the winners of this event

2. They are requesting money to purchase the trophies

a. They must find out the amount they need to have allocated towards them

3. The committee should speak to Ms. Manduley about trophies

a. The committee already decided on a website that they would like to purchase the trophies from

i. They have yet to get in touch with the website

F. Budget Meeting

1. Marouf (SGO Treasurer) will update the budget request form to be released to the clubs and teams for the following school year in order to be considered for funding from SGO

2. The deadline for the clubs and teams to submit the forms will be June 1^st

a. Izzy (Club Team Council Coordinator) will communicate this to the clubs and teams

b. Electronic versions and hard copies of the forms will be available

i. A hard copy will be placed in each advisor’s mailbox

3. Unanimous decision to release the form as soon as possible

4. Marouf (SGO Treasurer) will organize all of the forms into a spreadsheet

a. It will be easier to understand the information

b. Hard copies of the organized information will also be available at the budget meeting

5. The annual budget meeting will be held on Monday, June 7^th

G. SGO Structure

1. At the previous meeting we agreed to keep the titles of Treasurer, Secretary and Parliamentarian

2. There was a suggestion for the coordinators (Coordinators of Council of Student Activities, Student Assembly, Student Leadership, and Club Team Council) not to be Executives

a. There was a suggestion to have a liaison attend the respective meetings (CSA, SA, Leadership, and CTC) and report back to Executive Council

3. Mr. Williams’ Suggestion

a. Executive Council

i. Each of the 4 Presidents serve on the School Leadership Team (SLT), School Safety, and SLT Facilities Subcommittee

i. These are the positions that need student representation and work hand-in-hand with the administration

ii. Each of the 4 Vice Presidents be the coordinators of CSA, SA, Leadership, and CTC

b. Council of Student Activities

i. Consist of 10 students per grade level

ii. Be organized based on grade level (Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors)

iii. Each Parliamentarian would run their respective class’ meetings

iv. Each Secretary would record the minutes for their respective class’ meetings

v. The 4 Treasurers would form their own committee

i. Would work on fundraising ideas

· The committee would eventually reach a point where they would run out of ideas

· Puts more emphasis on creativity than computational skills

ii. Would put together a handbook on ways to raise money (i.e. contests, grants, etc.)

· The handbook would be given out to clubs and teams

4. Nicky’s Proposal

a. Executive Council stays as it currently is

i. Roles within SGO would be assigned to each position instead of having each person apply for an SGO position

i. Senior President – SLT Representative

ii. Senior Vice President – To be determined

iii. Senior Parliamentarian – CSA Coordinator

iv. Senior Secretary – SGO Secretary

v. Senior Treasurer – SGO Treasurer

vi. Junior President – SLT Representative

vii. Junior Vice President – To be determined

viii. Junior Parliamentarian – Leadership Coordinator

· Juniors have just finished participating in their Leadership classes so they know about how it runs and how to make it successful and fun

· A Freshman would not be best to run Leadership because you can’t teach what you don’t have

¨ They don’t have experience using their leadership skills because they still need to develop them

ix. Junior Secretary – Newsletter Director

· Should have a column on BTHS news to update on a weekly basis

x. Junior Treasurer – To be determined

xi. Sophomore President – School Safety Representative

· Requires someone who has been in the school for at least one year

xii. Sophomore Vice President – Community Service Coordinator

xiii. Sophomore Parliamentarian – CTC Coordinator

· Should also run the Carnival

xiv. Sophomore Secretary – Cafeteria Representative

xv. Sophomore Treasurer – To be determined

xvi. Freshman President – SLT Facilities Subcommittee Representative

· Will build their leadership skills

xvii. Freshman Vice President – Historian

· Responsible for recording the history of the organization

· We need to purchase a camera for the Historian

xviii. Freshman Parliamentarian – SA Coordinator

xix. Freshman Secretary – Creative Director

· Responsible for the center section of the cafeteria

· Responsible for the SGO bulletin board

xx. Freshman Treasurer – To be determined

ii. SGO roles should be similar to the role the student was appointed to

i. A Treasurer as Publicity Manager would not be a good combination

iii. If a student is elected or selected into a position should not play a role in their SGO positions

i. Both are equally qualified for each SGO position

iv. The roles of each SGO position need to be clearly defined

i. SGO Speaker should play a more active role with the Freshman

v. Some SGO positions are dependent on how much work you put into them (i.e. Newsletter, Community Service, Creative Director, etc.)

i. An ideal example would be Jim as Community Service Coordinator because he has put an enormous amount of work into his role

b. Council of Student Activities

i. From 3:00pm – 4:00pm committees would work on school wide events

i. The committees would consist of mixed grade levels

ii. The number of committees is to be determined

iii. Concern that the Seniors would not care so much for the school wide events and would neglect their responsibilities serving on committees that work on school wide events

· This school year started out with the Seniors mixed in with the committees

· The Seniors ended up breaking away from everybody to form their own Senior committee

· This will continue to happen in the future

ii. From 4:00pm – 5:00pm councils meet to discuss their class-related events

i. Junior Council (30 people) would begin to meet 2^nd term every other week to discuss Semi-Formal

ii. Senior Council would meet all year and alternate with the Junior Council on a weekly basis (meet every other week, different from Junior Council)

iii. There would not be a need for Freshman and Sophomore Councils

· There was a previous suggestion for the Freshman and Sophomores to organize the Spirit Games

iii. Majority (11 out of 14) voted to keep CSA under the current model

iv. Suggestion for each Vice President and Secretary to be in charge of each CSA committee as their SGO role

i. It would take away the opportunity to learn leadership skills for the other committee members

ii. They would facilitate the meeting and appoint the chairperson per event

· Ultimately, the facilitator would be responsible for the committee and what is accomplished

iii. There was a split in voting for and against this suggestion (7 votes each)

c. Club Team Council

i. Would have a CTC Coordinator

ii. Would have a Student Athletics Advisor, who would assist the CTC Coordinator

i. Would be responsible for the athletic teams in the building

ii. Would be responsible for communicating the dates of meets and their locations

· Would put together a calendar that would be available for students

iii. Assistant Principal of Physical Education or the Athletics Director should attend these meetings

iii. Would have a Student Clubs Advisor, who would assist the CTC Coordinator

i. Clubs would inform the advisor of their events

ii. Clubs should be promoting their own events instead of having SGO promote their events for them

iv. These assistants to the CTC Coordinator would only take away the responsibilities of the CTC Coordinator, leaving them with very little work to do

i. The way the system currently runs is perfectly fine and unified

ii. There would be a power struggle because they would all be doing the same jobs essentially

d. Student Assembly

i. Would consist of all grade levels, as it does under the current system

5. Class accounts have not been combined

a. There is no money going into the separate accounts

6. Suggestion for the next Executive Council meeting to be mandatory

a. We can have as many votes as possible

III. COSA Notes

IV. Open Agenda

A. Library Meeting

1. There was a meeting on Wednesday with a presentation

2. Print stations are highly favored by the administration

3. They looked at the different components that could be added to the library

V. Reminders

VI. Adjournment