The Agenda Committee’s new rule requiring submitted proposals to be more detailed prompted a student to rewrite an old proposal, adding in specifics needed for the Agenda Committee to successfully implement it.
The new proposal, by sophomore Ariel Mazar, was a rewritten version of one that was approved last March, which called for putting the new revised Shalhevet Constitution from 2020 in parchment and framing and moving the old framed Constitution somewhere else.
But the original, by then-senior Evan Beller, was never implemented. Then this year, on Nov. 8, the Just Community passed a proposal requiring the Agenda Committee to be responsible for implementing passed proposals in the future — prompting Agenda to specify that going forward, all proposals sent in were to be much more detailed and concise.
It’s not just that we’re implementing proposals now. But it’s also because we’re implementing them that we’re stricter in what we allow in for Judicial Review, and what we allow to go to Town Hall. — Rami Melmed, Agenda Chair
Ariel’s effort was meant to meet the requirements of this new rule. It was one of two proposals presented at Town Hall on Dec. 20, and was approved via a Google Form posted on Schoology the same day, 101 to 43.
The day’s other proposal was presented by Rabbi Ari Schwarzberg and would have meant students who had their phones taken away during davening or Town Hall would not be permitted to have their phone with them at school the next day. That proposal failed, with 123 to 23 among 146 students voting.
Ariel wrote a new form of a past proposal from March 15, 2023, written by then-senior Evan Beller, that was passed but never implemented, to display the Shalhevet Constitution in a new frame. Rami said this was due to the fact that there was not enough detail for the Agenda Committee to go through with imposing it.
The new proposal contained details ranging from where to get the funding for the framing to who would help with the design for the new constitution.
Rami said that before this new policy was made, there were quite a few proposals that had passed but ever ended up being implemented.
He said the main reason passed proposals weren’t always implemented in the past was because a student could simply submit a proposal with minimal detail and explanation. The joint student-faculty-staff Judicial Review Committee, which determines whether proposals are eligible to become part of school rules before they, was not tasked with checking whether they were clear enough to be followed.
“It’s not just that we’re implementing proposals now,” said Rami. “But it’s also because we’re implementing them that we’re stricter in what we allow in for Judicial Review, and what we allow to go to Town Hall.”
Meanwhile, it has been hard to tell which approved proposals might not have any effect. That’s because there is no list – as required by the Just Community Constitution – of approved proposals or anything else that happens at Town Hall on the Just Community Schoology page.
That updating is required by the Constitution but has not been happening. As of Feb. 9, there is no such listing on the page. The last time the “Proposals” section of the site had been updated was on April 11, 2021, recording a timely grading proposal that was approved in Town Hall.
The Constitution states that the updating should be done by the secretary of the Agenda Committee, currently sophomore Ari Elad.
It took us a while to get access to [the Just Community website] and figure out how to use it, because it was never taught to us or passed down last year as it normally would be. — Ari Elad, Agenda Secretary
“The Agenda Committee shall record an outline of Town Hall discussions, passed, failed, and pending legislation, and records of Committee meetings in a publicly accessible format,” the Constitution says in Article I section 1.
“I believe that Ari is keeping a list,” said Rami. “I will talk to him about it and we can update the website accordingly.”
In an interview with the Boiling Point, Ari had said that he had been keeping track of all the proposals from this school year in a Google document but that as Agenda Secretary, he did not have access to update the Just Community website where that information was supposed to be kept.
“Rami actually does have access to the website, and he and I are planning on adding all the proposals this coming week” said Ari on Feb. 15.
Ari also said that last year and the year before, the website was not utilized at all, so Agenda had fallen off track updating it.
“We weren’t as familiar with the website so it took us a while to get access to it and figure out how to use it, because it was never taught to us or passed down last year as it normally would be.”
As for Ariel’s proposal, Rami said Agenda has students ready to write out the new Constitution on parchment, and it should be ready for the Just Community to sign next month. After that it can be framed.
