Oakmont Regional High School
National Honor Society
Faculty Council Selection Policy Plan
Membership in the National Honor Society is both an honor and a responsibility. Students selected for membership are expected to continue to demonstrate the qualities of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

Selection is a privilege, not a right.

  1. A faculty member is appointed as adviser to the Honor Society.
  2. A Faculty Council oversees the members and activities of the Honor Society.
  3. The Faculty Council is composed of the adviser, and five others, for a total of six. The five will be selected by the adviser and the principal, drawn from a list of volunteers, or appointed; in any case, the members should represent a wide spectrum of interests and areas from the staff, i.e.; music, academics, athletics, etc. The terms of appointment will be for one year and may be renewed.
  4. The whole faculty will be given the opportunity to submit a ballot (rating form); although they will have the chance to abstain from voting on candidates they do not know.
  5. The adviser, along with the Faculty Council, will be responsible for preparing and distributing the candidate ballot and for maintaining a checklist to indicate the returned ballots, or will act as chairman of the voting process.
  6. All candidates who are certified by guidance as being eligible scholastically will be asked to submit an information sheet listing activities, leadership positions, service rendered, etc. for the use of the Faculty Council only. The candidate must have a GPA of 3.3 or better, and have successfully completed a minimum of 10 courses/credits from the Oakmont core curriculum which are simultaneously recognized by the Massachusetts Board of Regents. Core courses from English, Mathematics, Science, History and/or World Language will be considered. Students not wishing to be considered should state so at this time.
  7. The teacher rating form will allow an opportunity to rate the candidates in character and in leadership, using a scale of 3 (Great); 2 (Good); 1 (Adequate); and 0 (Opposed). Where the student is not known well enough, or where sufficient information is lacking, the space will be left blank. In addition, space on the rating form will be provided form the faculty to cite evidence of service and leadership with which they are familiar, or to make known any negative reactions they might have to the candidate.
  8. The faculty ballots will provide a number of ratings from which averages will be obtained in leadership and character. An average rating in service will be attained from votes by the five members Faculty Council (adviser is not allowed to vote). The three scores, averages from the faulty leadership and character, and an average from the Faculty Council on service, will be added to determine the number of points for each candidate.
  9. The three numbers arrived at as outlined in #8 provide a range of scores from 1 to 9. A majority vote is required for election.
    1. A candidate with a score of 6.5 or better should probably be elected, provided he or she has at least a 2 in character and has not been suspended from school in grade 10, 11 or 12.
    2. A candidate with a score of lower than 5.5, or with more than one rating below 2, should probably be rejected. All selections are subject too the approval of the Principal.
  10. Appropriate discussion will take place among the Faculty Council members on each NHS candidate under consideration. When is appears that the discussion has run its useful course, a committee member may move to close the discussion on that candidate within 5 more minutes, if supported by a majority vote of the Faculty Council members. The purpose of the move will only be to close off prolonged and repetitious debate during the selection process.
  11. All Faculty Council will cast votes on selecting and other issues coming before the committee, either at the meeting in person, by absentee ballot, or as soon after the meeting as possible unless a majority has already been determined.
  12. The Oakmont Chapter of the National Honor Society will be for seniors and juniors only.
  13. The NHS National Council requires that each member maintains the standards of scholarship, service, leadership and character that were used as the basis for election. This same requirement will hold for the Oakmont Honor Society. A member is never automatically dismissed for failing to maintain standards, but when a member deliberately violates a school or civil law, the faculty selection committee will investigate thoroughly and take appropriate action.

Violations might involve dropping below the 3.3 acceptable scholarship level, being suspended from school for offenses against school regulations, being involved in civil or criminal violations in or out to school, or acting in a negative manner as an Honor Society member. The appropriate action may involve a written warning to the offending student, clearly stating the offense and the time limit of the warning period during which correction of the offense must take place. For flagrant violations, such as actions which result in suspension from school, the member does not necessarily have to be warned, but instead may be dismissed by a majority vote of the Faculty Council, after receiving whatever input it deems necessary from staff members, and following interviews of offending students by the full Faculty Council.

Once a member has been dismissed from the National Honor Society he is never again eligible for a membership. Resignations and dismissals from NHS must be noted on the annual report from the school to the National Council.

In addition to the 13 statements above, which make up the Policy Plan, three additional documents are appended to this report. One is a Student Guidelines statement, intended to be delivered either orally, in writing, or both, to all students as they enter high school, to familiarize them with the attributes of scholarship, leadership, character and service that form the basis for selection to honor societies. A second statement, Faculty Society Guidelines for NHS Selection will hopefully help staff members as they compose their ratings and statements on the candidates in the selecting process. The third document is sample faculty ballot to be used by the staff members for their part in the selection process.