Faculty Council Meeting of Tuesday, 25 Feb 2003

President: Joe Liles; Vice-president: John Woodmansee; Secretary: Floyd Bullard

Minutes

These minutes were taken by John Woodmansee, as Floyd Bullard was absent for this meeting

Announcements

Joe recommended that we send good info about students to “all staff” instead of just faculty on e-mail.

Spring sports rosters come out tomorrow.

1. Changes to the Student Code of Conduct

Joan Barber gave a handout with all the changes defined. (See hard copy handout for specific wording because there are too many changes for me to transcribe.)

Emergency Suspensions

Added phrase “causes disruption to the NCSSM environment.”

Added amount of time: “up to 3 academic days.” And after that time it will be reviewed. After the hearing, the suspension will be reviewed.

Added that students will have the right to communicate with teachers to make up work. And students will lose all NCSSM privileges while suspended and cannot attend NCSSM sanctioned events on or off campus.

Some faculty questioned the wording of “causes disruption to the NCSSM environment,” arguing that it is too broad and vague and gives too much power to suspend. How is disruption defined and does environment mean educational environment?

The new wording means that students will be allowed to make up work. It should be stated directly. Should we add wording “in a manner that is agreeable to teachers”?

Steve suggested leaving out the words “any” and “communicate with their teachers”

Level II

Academic Violations

Added accumulations of 4 or more absences

Safety

Unauthorized access to classrooms and other off limit areas . . .

“Walking, running, or biking alone off campus.” Some faculty questioned this, saying that it is unreasonable to never allow a student to be off campus alone. Some recommended that this only be applicable to after dark hours.

Level III

Safety

Unauthorized access to offices, rooms, etc

Possession or use of grand master/sub master key or universal access I.D.

Tampering with electronic access doors

And others

2. Curriculum and Standards Task Force

Assumptions the Task Force is currently working under:

Student will be taking fewer courses.

Faculty will be teaching fewer courses.

To make this happen they have considered semester and trimester models.

They have been considering having different courses having different contact hours based on the needs of the course. They are working on how to count courses, by hours or courses themselves?

They are working on a draft that they can distribute to faculty, students, staff, parents, etc. for feedback soon. They want to give Jerry a revised draft by April so that changes to the curriculum could be worked on in May instead of waiting to begin next year.

Questions came up about the goals behind the assumptions given, such as students only taking 4 courses. Will that lead to NCSSM being less attractive to excellent students? Too little flexibility.

Steve’s answer concerning the goal of fewer courses: Less stress for students, more sleep, better performance, better health, more creativity.

Jerry has reiterated his goal of having students take 4 courses as a rule.

Some faculty thought that we need to figure out our own plan and rational.

Steve said that Jerry says NCSSM is in the business of preparing students for college, not teaching them college. Yet he also endorses AP. Steve thinks we can find some happy medium.

Comment: We used to talk about students accomplishing more, greater excellence, but now we are talking about less, taking less, expecting less. We seem to be working toward a block schedule, which is like regular public school.

Response: We can maintain rigor and standards while cutting back in some areas. We can make the school better through this process. These changes can lead to improvements.

The committee is gathering information to determine if the trimester schedule can work.

Comment: The block schedule model hasn’t worked in the public schools.

Is there going to be funding for all the wonderful new things the committee is imagining? So far we are running on a shoe string.

The committee is trying to find out what it will cost and won’t recommend something that won’t work.

Some are skeptical and believe that the changes will be forced upon us.

How is it possible for teachers to teacher less?