SCHOOL COUNCIL MINUTES

March 6, 2023

Attendance: Paula Carlson Cahill, Victoria Chbarbi, Mike Feeney, Cheryl Giardi, Sanjay
Govindarajan, Rebecca Gonzales, Alan Harris and Paula Smith.

Meeting opened at 3:30 pm.
Our Agenda was reviewed and approved.
Minutes from January 9, 2023 meeting were reviewed and approved.

Update on our relentless pursuit of bathroom excellence: We have seen improvement and a
general deportment shift since the January class meetings with expectations laid out. Students
are much more responsive now. We now have a 3 minute hold on passes at the start of each
class.
Students who vape always receive restoration, consequences and support. We are working on
our own tiered response to repeated vaping and to create community around them. We hope to
have a more proactive approach in place for the fall. Ms. Marathas is working on spreading the
message down to Morse Pond and Lawrence.
Next we will work on the amount of time students spend out of class: for example, out of class 18 minutes on a bathroom pass, or out of each class on a bathroom pass. Sanjay wondered if digital passes could help with this - Sanjay offered to write the code to track this. Sanjay started a conversation about how to change the school culture to anti-vaping: students discouraging each other, supporting each other, students talking to students about it because peer influence is important, a community-oriented approach, student message is powerful.
We no longer have specific bathroom monitors. We do have single use bathrooms (besides in the health office).
We held a great Learn to Cope presentation last week and Cory’s story was very powerful.
Cory’s mother brought home that it could happen to anyone and that opioids don’t actually get at the pain, they stop you from thinking about the pain and that’s where they hook you. We will work toward holding 3 different presentations each year. A student mentioned toward the end of
the school year would be good timing. Some members thought in smaller groups would be
better - perhaps by counselor instead of by class? Mentor Monday groups? Committee
members generally concurred that scheduling someone each Monday for an academic year
may prove challenging.

Graduation Update - seniors vote whether inside or out: 70% voted for outside. Senior week used to be voluntary, now is required with attendance taken.
Handbook Review Update - Thank you all for your input. We will compile them and review. We have work to do to make this more user friendly with clear rules, expectations and
consequences. However, if we give a shortened version, we have a concern that
parents/guardians/students will think that’s all there is. Perhaps create “Clipper Cliff Notes”, perhaps add a table of contents. Eliminate redundancies. We will submit our suggestions to the district Handbook Committee - they create the final handbook.

Hiring:
The Assistant Principal position had nine applicants which a panel of staff and
parents/guardians reviewed and put forward three candidates to the first interview panel. Two candidates were recommended for a second interview with a panel of four staff members. We are proud to announce that Alexis Marathas has been hired as our new Assistant Principal. Alexis was the top candidate all the way through the process.

The Athletic Director position had many applicants who were initially screened by Dr. Harris and Mr. Bushy who screened out those who didn’t meet the criteria. Twenty-one candidates were put forward to the first panel of fourteen coaches, students, community members and staff who recommended seven for a first interview this week. Second interviews will occur the following day and one or two candidates will be recommended for a final interview with Dr. Harris and Dr. Duerr. We hope to hire a new Athletic Director by the end of March. Admission for Junior Varsity games: Dr. Harris met with Mrs. Burke and made the shift to no charge for junior varsity games. We had good feedback from students to this year’s athletic season pass. Perhaps next year we could offer a “spirit pack” to include families also. We will
work with the new Athletic Director on ideas/admission. Student Elections: Elections will shift from fall to June and there was discussion of class officers choosing a theme for the upcoming school year. Bylaws will be updated.

Wifi: we have noticed a slower connection, so will separate networks so student chromebooks
are separate from staff computers to make more room for all. All will be instructed how to
connect.
Upcoming Events are listed on the agenda for review.
Upcoming Meeting Dates

● 5/8/23 @ 3:30pm in the FHS Library

Meeting adjourned at 4:34 pm..