Grand Forks Secondary School Student Advisory Council Webpage
The Student Advisory Council (SAC) is a group that meets approximately once a month to discuss student issues and concerns with administration. The SAC provides students with an opportunity to have a voice on school policy and programs. This website is designed to allow students an opportunity to see what issues are being discussed as well as contribute to discussions via the attached blog.
Below is a copy of our annual student handbook. Recently the Student Advisory Council was asked to review the "Code of Conduct" part of the handbook and give us any feedback or suggested changes they have regarding the outlined rules:
If you have any suggestions for changes, please add them as an entry on the blog page
2009 student members include: Kim Lacey, Merissa Kelly, Simone Truden, Isac Enquist, Tyler van Camp, Jaclyn Salter, and Heather Noren Stone
Notes from March 2010 meeting:
We reviewed progress on points from the last meeting. Calendar of Events is now up outside the library. Nine teacher websites are now linked up to the main GFSS website and are being used to post notes and homework. A leadership class is being offered in course selections but will depend on student choices. We discussed the scholarship workshop idea.....the counsellors indicated they felt it was best to be done individually. It was suggested that perhaps a couple days after school, there could be scholarship help sessions that students could sign up for where the counsellors would be there to help students negotiate some of the questions they were having....Mr.S. would take idea to the counsellors. There was still no idea why smoking seems to be gaining in popularity besides the issue of students wanting to belong to the
group.....it was suggested we look at offering some school scholarships to those students choosing to remain smoke free. The issues with printing restrictions seems to have calmed down......appears to be working ok although some students are sharing their accounts.
The issue of water wastage was brought up due to the fountain in the girls changeroom that is constantly running. Mr. S. will put in a request to maintenance.
Students indicated that lates are not being reinforced consistently and that in many classes, teachers had stopped dealing with it. There was mention that in a couple classes where students were provided late slips to fill out their reason for lateness and a detntion after the third one that this was a system that worked well.
We also discussed Career Work Experience. The students felt that it was important to be able to sign up for job shadowing oppoprtunities to determine whether certain career paths were what they may want to explore. They felt that some guidance in this area was good but that a fair bit of emphasis should be placed on the student as well.
Mr. S. indicated that there are two benches that need to be relocated....students suggested the landing heading up to room 208 would be best.
There was a question about what was planned for the front entrance......there was hope that some flowers, etc would be used to spruce up the vacant planter area.
Notes from Jan 2010 meeting:
It was felt that the Student Code of Conduct was ok as it is. There were no suggestions for change.
The Events bulletin board is now up. It was suggested that perhaps we could look at a monthly calendar format which might be easier to read, etc. It was also suggested we add in info other than just athletics
The issue of printing limits on students was discussed. The question arose as to whether certain students could get an increase if they had specific duties such as student council stuff, youth night, etc. Mr. S. mentioned certain groups can be increased but wasn't sure if invividual students can.....he will follow up. There was an unerstanding about the reason the limits have been implemented. There were also some suggestions that teachers use email more to send assignments, etc. Mr. S. explained some of the functions of First Class and it was agreed that teacher websites would be a great way for students to access information and conserve paper. It was also suggested that an intro to First Class for students in grade 8 would be beneficial.
Anna Pearson.....it was felt that we should do a school fundraiser to help the family with costs. A skating day and donation night at the dance were suggested.
Mr. S. mentioned that course selections would be coming up soon. Leadership was mentioned as a class students would like to see. A sugestion was also made that a workshop for students on scholarships would be beneficial....as an after school or evening session.
Mr. S. asked whether or not students thought smoking was a groing issue. There was some concern about it and the feeling that more should be done to address it......putting up some posters, not allowing it on sport teams, having teachers address it more, and having a school scholarship go to students that stay smoke free.
Cellphones was brought up...it was felt by some that phones should not be confiscated over the weekends. A suggestion was that students caught using phones should have to drop their phones off in the office in the am everday for a week. Also....drop boxes in classes was mentioned as a good way to prevent texting.
The last issue brought up was that some students were concerned that locker combinations were given out to friends of students but that it shouldn't be allowed (even if the student was trustworthy)
Projects worked on by SAC include: Getting new water fountains in hallways, annual review of the Student Code of Conduct, planting shade trees around the school grounds, starting a "What Going On" bulletin board, getting a healthy snack machine, fixing up the cafeteria and the front entrance, and other advice to administration regarding course offerings, timetable process, and use of technology in the classroom.
Other resource items:
Video clip on the impact of technology for students today
