ZSRU Featured in NYRA Freedom
December 15, 2008
The Zionsville Student Rights Union, NYRA's affiliate in central Indiana, continues to be an effective voice for youth. The ZSRU's most recent victory came just this month when they successfully worked with their high school administration to change the structure of final exams starting in 2009, after a long cooperative process involving months of negotiation.
Successes such as these demonstrate that it is possible to form cooperative alliances with schools and other institutions in order to enhance youth voice and youth participation. Because of these successes the ZSRU has been asked by John Loflin, senior fellow of education and youth issues at the Black & Latino Policy Institute, to take the lead on a statewide initiative to gain support for "democratic education," where young people are actively involved in shaping their own educational experience. ZSRU leadership plans to meet with Loflin, an expert on democratic education and a member of the Democratic Education Consortium, and leaders from the Student Alliance for Education, an organization founded by urban Indianapolis students, this week to form a strategy to move the effort forward.
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A major priority for the ZSRU is ensuring that rules impacting students are reasonable and consistent with students' constitutionally protected liberties. "We keep a close watch over rules governing students," says Steve Ross, ZSRU Chairman. The Union has already achieved several victories: stopping school officials from reading private text messages on confiscated cell phones, ending arbitrary and unfair restrictions on restroom use, reforming parking lot policy, and more. Also, according to Ross, the ZSRU is on the verge of winning a more favorable final exams structure. With its large membership base, the ZSRU is sure to continue working on behalf of student rights in Zionsville for years to come.
In addition, the ZSRU is taking the lead in organizing the youth rights movement in Indiana, with the goal of setting up several additional chapters throughout the state. With their help, Indiana could become a hub for youth rights action in the future, like Berkeley and Southeast Florida have been. NYRA looks forward to working with our allies at the ZSRU on student rights issues. The ZSRU has created a Facebook group for Indiana students to network and advance their rights. Be sure to check it out.
Finals Plan To Be Officially Implemented in Spring 2009
I am proud and happy to announce that our plan for senior spring final exemption has been officially accepted, and will be piloted THIS SPRING!!!!!
You can expect to hear from the school in a more official capacity in the next month or so, after Mr. Willis, Mr. Kirkham and I have slated all of the small details.
As the plan stands:
A senior with a 90.0% or above in any given class will have the option to not take the final in that class, and instead accept each quarter grade as 50% percent of their his/her semester average.
I wish the percentage was lower, but this was as low as the department chairs wanted to go the first time around. Not everyone gets straight A's-- I usually don't. So, for the majority of us, I would recommend that we target a few finals we really don't want to take, and prioritize those classes during the year.
This is a pilot program, so let's prove that this plan works. Class of '09, let's get more A's than any other graduating class in the history of this school, so we don't have to spend our last week taking a bunch of tests!!!!!
-Steve
Finals!, Parking!, and more success!!!
This has been a VERY successful week for the ZSRU. Here's a summary (it's long but you're going to like what you read) :
1) Finals: A committee made up of myself, cory kirkham, mr. [greg] kirkham, andrew walters, and several teachers convened for the first time on wednesday morning. It was a pretty well rounded group, with some very influential teachers present.
After all was said and done, the committee unanimously decided to develop a concrete plan for changing final exam structure (both weighting and timing).
Better news yet, every teacher on the committee agreed on some kind of exemption policy for qualifying seniors. Best of all: there is a real chance that this could all be put into effect in time to BENEFIT THE CLASS OF '09!!! I still can't promise anything, but now I can say there's a very high possibility. I'm very excited about this development, and I'm sure you all will be as well!
2) The Senior Parking Debacle: The senior lot is oversold. I know that quite a few seniors are parking in the current "teacher section" of the west lot. Soon, the spots you currently illegally occupy will become part of the official senior lot. The admin. is running an inventory on exactly how many teacher spots are needed, and the rest goes to the senior class.
Also to ease parking pressure, we are going to zone off a section of the junior lot for use by senior athletes (beginning with winter athletes), and any other senior who wants to park in the east lot. Soon I will send out a survey to see how many seniors want to take advantage of this new flexibility.
3) The ZSRU Goes National!: I am pleased to announce that the ZSRU is now an official affiliate of the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) (www.youthrights.org). Their organization is similar to ours, except they cover the whole country instead of one small town. We are the first NYRA representative in Indiana, so that's something to be proud of.
In light of this new affiliation, the Board has created the ZSRU Office of NYRA-Zionsville. Our first goal as an affiliate is to raise awareness in the rest of the state, and try to unite more students all across Indiana. I created this group:
http://www.facebook.com/gr
to start a network of Indiana students with the common goal of advancing our rights. So if you haven't already, please join this group and invite anyone and everyone you know (in Indiana) to join as well.
4) Seminars- Look, I know a lot of people are upset about the way seminars have turned out this semester. I know that far too many people (seniors even!) have been placed in supervised study for all 6 sessions. It's not a good situation, but please don't give up on the idea just yet.
This semester is a test run, and next semester will be better (I can promise you that). In the meantime please keep in mind that Mr. Walter, Mr. Willis, and the rest of the administration have worked very hard to get this off the ground.
So, I'm asking for your patience on this one. For those of you stuck in study hall, I'm working on a plan to get movies playing in a couple different venues in the school. If anyone has any other ideas of things we could easily implement for those stuck in supervised study, let me know.
That's all for now. A lot of success this week, and there's a lot more where that came from! Remember to join that Indiana-wide group and spread the word!
Thanks,
-Steve
Teacher Survey
Willis Meeting I
The first meeting of the year with Mr. Willis went very well!
Here'sa recap (It's not as long as it looks) :
Finals (GOOD NEWS) Mr. Willis fully supports a change to Zionsville's final exam structure, including a possible plan to (at least) exempt qualifying seniors from finals!
Hehas asked for the formation of a joint committee made up of staff and parents (selected by Mr. Kirkham), and students (selected by the ZSRU). This committee will discuss the issue and measure opinions from all sides.
If the committee is able to settle on an analysis of finals, and a plan to change them, then that plan will be approved by upper administration, and presented tothe School Board.
(This will be a long process, and I can't promise that it will affect the class of 2009, but I will do my best to push it through in time.)
We welcome any good points about finals that can be presented in committee, so send in your opinion!
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Restroom Use Restriction: Mr. Willis has stated again that he does not support teachers' restriction of student restroom use. The staff has been re-informed of thispolicy. Specific complaints are being investigated.
The Food Situation: Let's face it, the cafeteria has gotten worse, and the prices have risen.
This is a big issue that affects all of us, so I think it requires the undivided attention of a ZSRU Director. As such, I have asked Andrew Walters (the Director most passionate about the food situation) to take over the lead on this issue. You can contact him with comments/suggestions/complaints, and he will handle it.
Parking: Parking tags are in, and they will be handed out soon. In the mean time, a stricter watch will be kept over the senior lot. So underclassmen...you've been warned. 
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That's it for now!
Welcome