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Human Rights Commission Minutes February 19, 2014 Page 2 of 10 Public Comment There being no one present wishing to speak to the Commission on an item not on the agenda, the chair moved to the next agenda item. Old Business Discussion and Evaluation of Top Scoring Essays: Ms. Collins reviewed the evaluation process of the student essays. She requested the Commission select the top scorers for first, second, third and honorable mention. She reported the Commission could have several honorable mention candidates to ensure that each class was represented. Commissioner Grefenberg recalled that in the past honorable mentions were presented to ensure each school was represented. However, only one school was submitting essays for the contest this year. He did not believe that each class had to be fairly represented within the contest. For this reason, he believed the HRC had the freedom to decide which essays were first, second, third and honorable mention. He asked staff to report which essays ranked high and in what order, based on the raw scores. Ms. Collins reported essay # 18 received a score of 165, essay #114, received a score of 160.5, and essay #103 received a score of 160. The honorable mention candidates would be as follows: essay #29 with a score of 150, essay #17 with a score of 140, essay #27 with a score of 139.5, and essay #102 with a score of 139. Commissioner Courneya asked if the HRC wanted to recognize an honorable mention from each class, given the fact that one class had English as a second language. She was impressed with how well each of the essays were written this year. Commissioner Grefenberg discussed the strong essay scores from each of the classes. He was in favor of awarding the top awards (first, second and third) to essay numbers #18, #114 and #103. Ms. Collins explained that the scores for second and third were only a half point different. Due to this fact, the HRC could choose to award one first place, two second-place winners and then select essay #29 as the third place winner. This would allow another class to be represented. Commissioner Courneya and Youth Commissioner Thomas supported this suggestion, as did Commissioner Grefenberg. Selection and Ranking of Winning Essays: Commissioner Grefenberg moved and Vice Chair Becker seconded a motion to award the top essay winners as follows: First Place - Essay #18, Second Place — Essays #114 and #103, and Third Place — Essay #29. Motion passed unanimously. Chair Groff requested the HRC now select essays for honorable mention.