Nov. 11 2022, Student body president Justin Krelitz ’23 led a Forum meeting that began with the announcement of a new club to support mental health for student-athletes called “Morgan’s Message.”
Next, the plans for finals week were brought up. Bringing puppies to school for pet therapy was suggested.
Then they discussed the possibility of a textbook exchange between older and younger students. There was a debate on if money would be involved. The conversation ended with the decision that they needed to talk to the business office.
The advisory curriculum was then mentioned. The consensus was that the intentions were good, but they got repetitive, unproductive, and boring. Ben Cady suggested that the curriculum should be grade specific.
The Nov. 18 meeting began with Krelitz encouraging play attendance before starting the conversation with the topic of the schedule. Krelitz asked the rest of the Forum what people were talking about. When no one spoke up, Cady wondered if there was a better time for clubs to meet. Someone suggested that moving FLEX up in the day would be a good opportunity for clubs to meet as it would force attendance. Krelitz responded by mentioning that there is already a FLEX time before school on Wednesday that isnít used. Krelitz proposed that the start time of school would change so that FLEX could be later; however, that would cut class time. When Sophia Perri ’23 asked if advisory could be sacrificed for an additional FLEX period, the topic of the advisory curriculum was reintroduced.
Next, social studies teacher Stacey Helmbrecht-Wilson asked why there were still senior speeches. Krelitz shut down the idea of removal by adding that getting rid of senior speeches would upset Alum. Junior Class President Karn Kaura ’24 said that listening to senior speeches motivates the younger classes to give a great speech and returned the attention to how time is spent.
Kaura mentioned that many schools have a home education class and suggested that this could be incorporated into the curriculum. Krelitz said it would be a huge conversation and Cady added that it would be a cultural shift.
Julia Zhang ’23 liked the idea but compared it to the required senior seminar course, stating that it should be optional because many people have other academic courses that they are interested in taking but can’t. Krelitz disagreed, stating that people can always be more empathetic, suggesting that this would help.
Sophomore Class President Zellie Olson ’25 said that the topics during health class would be repetitive in a life skills class and suggested that combining the two would be a good solution. Cady said that it would be hard to do because health is a graded class.
The next topic was the possibility of a Writing Skills Lab. Krelitz said he would email Rick Cawood and Beth Calderone and cc. Chris Robinson (Heads of English, social studies, and math departments) to start communication. According to Krelitz, Director of the Upper School Joe Ruggerio said there should be a trial run.
After the topic switched to having a possible no-homework weekend for early decision college applications. Krelitz dismissed this possibility saying that there are already too many no-homework weekends and that it would be too burdensome to have another.
The meeting was adjourned.
