Town Meeting 1/17/2017

Please contact Teri Doxsee if you were present at the meeting and these notes need to be amended.

Precursors

• SAB:
• Staff Meeting:

Announcements

• AP music theory: create music theory and composition level 1 and 2, allows rigor of AP music theory curriculum without being tied down to the college board syllabus
• Fiddler on the Roof!-
• interest meeting today at lunch for black history month literature-
• HB news meeting today at lunch in the library
• Motions

Motions

• Format for further AP discussion-
  • AP discussion at town meeting not necessarily best format, devote a town meeting to small group discussion in the library
  • small group discussion can isolate opinions
  • time designation? Next week’s town meeting in the cafeteria
  • regular town meeting as discussion forum makes sense for community involvement
  • weighing pros and cons is important, but we should be mindful about time frame
  • Have a discussion outside of school hours involving broader HB community such as parents
  • hammer out positions of HB students and teachers before bringing it to broader community
• Outside teacher fund-Humanities project guest artist, snow day a Capella group block-long school wide performance and a Capella workshop, cost $500, possible date February 27, motion passes–
• Guest artist for chorus, 3 days, $240, motion passes

Discussions

• AP classes
  • Jamie Staeben’s power point: APs go back to the 1950s, in the last 10 years enrollment in AP classes has doubled. APs have been around at HB for a long time, allowing those interested to take more rigorous courses of study. The debate over APs has been at HB ever since APs were first introduced. Jamie’s counter arguments: APs get in the way of electives, but APs are optional and like electives allow greater choice in course selection. Jamie’s going to embed his PowerPoint so I’m gonna stop now.PowerPoint link: tinyurl.com/zuluunv
  • Oliver: AP classes definitely a factor in terms of college admission
  • Jacob: AP classes should definitely remain, but we should consider if the way we do things is the best possible
  • Luke: we should look at our education in terms of a balance, as even the strongest steel hammered too hard will break, and the strongest tree watered too much will drown. Our education system is no good at actually preparing students for real life, and the college board’s oppressive system of APs gets in the way of our education
  • Christine: if HB did not allow APs, many families would not let their children attending, removing APs would hurt diversity.
  • Priya: taking away APs will change things on the surface level, APs can be a financial necessity in terms of preparing for college-Fiona: the volume of work for some people can actually be greater in high school than college, as it is the same rigor and more classes
  • Granger: getting rid of AP classes would still look bad for colleges, as there are still online options and getting rid of APs only makes those classes more difficult to take
  • Eleanor: are there certain AP classes that we really don’t need? Or could be replaced with an intensified course not tethered to the AP syllabus?
  • Casey: proposal to limit comments to one minute, general advice just keep your comments as brief as possible and self-regulate. Friendly suggestion
  • Caroline: take the AP classes that interest you and weigh the opportunities you’re given
  • Aidan: APs are aimed at a certain type of student, and because of this APs are important but making them too important is dangerous, and at this point we are going in an uber-AP direction-What would we be replacing AP classes with? Intensified classes would not be as exam oriented-AP classes contribute a lot to stress, APs will in all likelihood remain but we should seriously consider how it affects our culture-Jacob: motion to create a committee to find alternatives to AP classes, post sign up list outside main office, keep in mind the scheduling for this week
  • Eleanor’s friendly amendment: committee that meets in two weeks, next week we have small group discussion, friendly amendment accepted-Eleanor: in two weeks committee bring back an initial report, THREE weeks because of activity block, or, use activity block to discuss APs
  • Dave: open committee meets during lunch or whenever, in two weeks we use activity block for all-school AP discussion
  • Motion will put in place open committee to discuss alternatives to APs, proposal or discussion or initial proposal will be brought to all-school discussion in two weeks in the cafeteria to discuss APs. Motion passes.

Motion to adjourn passes

Adjourn

• Chair: Leah
• Co Chair: Henry
• Secretary: Nathaniel