National Honor Society

picture of NHS students in front of four Target carts filled with toys

The National Honor Society (NHS) is service and leadership organization that awards membership to outstanding students in recognition of their achievements.

NHS is a recognition bestowed by the Lakota East faculty.

Unlike an award in math or English, this recognition comes with obligations that you are agreeing to meet should you accept membership.

What are the duties of an NHS member?

NHS Members participate in many projects that serve the school and community. You will be required to contribute 30 hours of service as a member.

What are my other obligations to NHS?

You must make yourself available when NHS calls on you. Certainly, you are required to attend the monthly general meetings. You must show yourself to be a leader in the Society.

Requirements

NHS exists to foster and recognize the four tenets of scholarship, leadership, character, service. In keeping with the fine traditions of Lakota East NHS, eligible candidates for membership will meet the following criteria

Scholarship

Leadership

Service

Character

Lakota East Chapter Bylaws

The following bylaws are a supplement to those of the NHS constitution.

Article I: Selection

Students will be selected for membership in NHS on the basis of the four tenets: scholarship, character, leadership, and service.
Students who have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.8 (weighted) or higher by the spring of their junior year will be invited to submit themselves for consideration by the faculty council.
Cumulative GPA of 3.8 or higher as indicated in I.2 will meet the scholarship tenet.
Thirty service hours accrued for school and community in three separate activities since grade eight will meet the service tenet.
Two different organizational roles will meet the leadership tenet. Leadership is only valid since grade eight.
It will be for the faculty council to determine the extent to which the service and leadership accrued by the candidate meet the criteria for such set out in Article II and Article III.
The faculty of LEHS will be given the opportunity to object to the character of any candidate by means of a circulated roster and examination of school discipline records where necessary.
Objections by faculty (I.7) will be considered by the faculty council in its selection process.
The faculty council will be comprised of the five voting members and the non-voting NHS advisers.
Candidates’ names will be released to the faculty council during the selection process.
The identities of the members of the faculty council will remain protected from students and from parents.
No candidates shall be considered by the faculty council after the submission deadline for packets set by the advisers.
In accordance with the national NHS Constitution, there is no automatic right of appeal in the case of non-selection. As has been established by the courts and by precedent, NHS membership is a privilege extended by the faculty to students it deems to have met a set of criteria, not a right to which non-selected students are being denied.
The principal may choose to ask the faculty council to reconsider a candidate only on the grounds that he or she determines that published selection procedures were not followed.
Candidates who were not selected for membership may be given the opportunity to amend their application, however the faculty council will not review new applications after the original deadline.
The faculty council will not consider leadership roles or service hours verified by a family member. All such must be independently verifiable.

Article II: Service Hours

Service is defined as an altruistic act performed for school or community outside of class time.

All Members will perform at least 30 hours of service:

At least 15 hours must be NHS Project or Event Hours.
The remaining 15 hours may be NHS, school or community hours.
Hours of any category may still be submitted even after minimums are met.
School service is defined as that which serves an activity run by Lakota East High School or sponsored by an LEHS faculty member.
Service to activities sponsored by other schools in Lakota Local Schools will count as community service.
The National Honor Society is both secular and apolitical. Consequently, the Faculty Council does not recognize as service work done to further a political agenda or to propagate religious belief.
Hours cannot be a requirement –implicit or actual–for class credit or extra credit.
Hours will not benefit the member financially or in any other way.
Evidence of hour completion will be in the form of official letterhead stationary from the sponsoring organization and signed by an official of that organization or by a signed NHS hour verification form.
The signer of a service hour verification form will have no family relationship to the member.
Hours issued by faculty members of Lakota Local Schools may substitute an email in lieu of a service hour verification form.
NHS officers may personally verify hours in lieu of a service hour verification form.
Members who do not complete the service requirement in the interval specified by the executive committee will remain members of the society; however, they will not receive chapter recognitions, a stole for graduation, an invitation to Induction, and their names will not appear on the National Honor Society school display.
Members selected in the spring are required to have ten service hours at the December checkpoint. Failure to meet this requirement will incur a five hour supplement, with the result that 35 hours must be earned by the April checkpoint.

Article III: Leadership

Article IV: Attendance

NHS members are expected to attend all general meetings, plus whatever special meetings may be deemed appropriate by the executive committee. One absence will be excused.
Absence from a meeting must be approved in advance by a faculty adviser except in the case of emergency.
Members will be placed on probationary status and given written notification of the same upon a second absence.
Members missing more than two general meetings may be indefinitely suspended from active involvement in the chapter and will accrue no further recognitions.
Participation in school on sports teams, in sporting events, or other school clubs does not supersede attendance requirements.
Postsecondary / part-time students will not be exempt from the attendance policy.
Valid attendance at general meetings will be defined as arrival not later than five minutes after the start of the meeting.
Meetings will begin promptly at 3:05 PM.
Members may not leave the General Meeting earlier than 3:25 if the student is to be counted as present.
Members who arrive late or leave early will be deemed to have been in non-attendance.
Students who cannot attend a general meeting may have an opportunity to make up that meeting during online make-up sessions.

Article V: Character

NHS members will conduct themselves in a manner, both on and off the LEHS campus, compliant with the guidelines set down in the NHS Handbook.
Misconduct reported to the executive committee will be considered a violation of the character tenet and will be brought to the attention of the faculty council for possible action.
The faculty council will have at its disposal a variety of disciplinary measures, including but not limited to, dismissal.
Dismissal cases brought before the faculty council will be decided by majority vote of the five members.

Article VI: Elections

Selection Criteria

In accordance with the NHS national constitution, students eligible for membership in Lakota East High School’s chapter of NHS will have already met the four tenets: scholarship, leadership, service, and character.

Scholarship Defined

Leadership Defined

The Lakota East chapter of NHS defines leadership as activity in which the student has had an organizational role. Leadership may be demonstrated in the context of service (e.g. organizing a food drive), school or community activity (e.g. Relay for Life committee), or paid position (e.g. crew trainer at McDonald’s).

The Constitution of NHS suggests that local chapters consider implementing a fixed number of leadership roles as a cut-off for selection. Therefore, the Lakota East NHS executive committee has determined that candidates who have held two different leadership roles (since grade 8) will be eligible for membership. The Faculty Council will determine the extent to which the information provided by the students meets the criteria for leadership outlined in the bylaws of Lakota East NHS.

Service Defined

The Lakota East chapter of NHS defines service as an altruistic act done outside of class time. The service may neither benefit the student directly (e.g. for monetary gain) nor indirectly (e.g. for an institution or organization of which the student is a part). Service may be done through the auspices of an institution or organization, however (e.g. helping at a soup kitchen run by a church).

The Constitution of NHS suggests that local chapters define a fixed number of hours as a cut-off for selection. Therefore, the Lakota East NHS Executive Committee has determined that candidates who have completed 30 hours of community and/or school service in at least three different activities since grade eight will be eligible for membership. The Faculty Council will determine the extent to which the information provided by the students meets the criteria for service outlined in the bylaws of Lakota East NHS.

Character Defined

All candidates are assumed to be of good character unless there is evidence to the contrary. A list of candidates is emailed to the Lakota East faculty at the time of selection, allowing staff to register concerns. Such concerns are brought to the Faculty Council for consideration, and it is the Faculty Council that renders a final decision as to the severity of the concern and to its effect, if any, on the candidate’s suitability for NHS.

The student of character:

Consistently exemplifies positive and desirable qualities of behavior (cheerfulness, friendliness, poise, stability);
Cooperates by complying with all school policies and regulations and codes of student conduct;
Takes criticism willingly and accepts recommendations graciously;
Demonstrates the highest standards of honesty, academic integrity, and reliability;
Regularly exhibits courtesy, concern, and respect for others; and
Complies with instructions and rules and displays personal responsibility.

Voting Procedures for the Faculty Council

Concern regarding the identity of members of the Faculty Council usually arises when parents of non-selected students wish to question each of the Council members why the student was not selected. Because the chapter adviser(s) and principal are chiefly responsible for responding to parental concerns, the national office does not encourage such inquisitions and supports local chapter efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the Faculty Council, the members of which are volunteering their time.

The number of faculty members serving as voting members of the faculty council is set at five. Nowhere in the Constitution is there an exception made for the size of the Faculty Council and maintaining an odd-numbered council ensures that voting will resolve questions with a majority or greater vote.

Once the Council has discussed and deliberated over a candidate’s information packet, the student’s admission as an inductee is registered by simple majority vote.

ARTICLE X: DISCIPLINE AND DISMISSAL

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7 Article X

(Note: Refer to Article VIII, Section 7 regarding the permanent consequences for members when dismissed.)

1. Procedures for dismissal are determined by the local school’s NHS faculty council (with review by the principal, superintendent, school board, school system attorney, etc., when necessary). Student input on these procedures can be sought; however, the final say on the procedures is always left to the faculty council.

3. A member can be considered for disciplinary action, including dismissal, when performance falls below the acceptable levels of any of the standards by which he or she was selected, when the member fails to fulfill chapter obligations, or when the member is found guilty of violating school rules or the law.

4. A student shall be warned in writing whenever he or she falls below any standard. Copies of this correspondence will be sent to the parents, and a copy of the letter, including the date it was sent, will be maintained by the adviser. This may be by email, by U.S. mail, or in person.

5. The faculty council will determine when an individual has exceeded a reasonable number of warnings, thus warranting consideration of dismissal.

6. In all cases of pending dismissal, a chapter member has a right to be notified in writing of the offenses and to a hearing before the faculty council. This is the due process guaranteed to all chapter members under both the NHS national constitution (Article X, Section 4) and the Constitution of the United States, Amendment 14. Please note that this hearing is always prior to any vote or decision on dismissal. Under no circumstances is there automatic dismissal from the honor society.

7. Appeals of dismissal are to be handled first by the school principal and thereafter in the same way as disciplinary appeals. If a member is dismissed, written notice of the decision will be sent to the member, with copies recommended for his or her parents, and the principal. The member must then surrender the NHS emblem and membership card to the chapter adviser. If the member is unwilling to do this, the matter is to be treated as a school disciplinary matter.

7.4 Appeals of Dismissal Cases

The dismissed member may appeal the decision of the faculty council first to the principal and then as indicated under the Lakota School District’s policies governing disciplinary appeals, following the normal channels for an appeals process. In the case of dismissal appeals, the principal is the first recipient of the appeal. The national guidelines provide no formal structure for appeals; consequently, at Lakota East, the model suggested by the NHS handbook will be followed. Decisions will be based on adequacy and fairness of the faculty council procedures. In the rare instance in which dismissal cases are successfully appealed by a member, the principal is encouraged to share the rationale for reversing the initial decision, and the faculty council is requested to accept and implement the decision. The National Council and NASSP do not have the authority to hear or make any decisions regarding appeals in dismissal cases (see Article X, Section 7 ).

7.5 A member who resigns from the National Honor Society will never again be eligible for membership or its benefits. Resignation from the honor society should involve the submission of a written statement by the resigning member that is dated and signed by both the student and his/her parent(s). Verbal resignations are generally insufficient to end membership. Students contemplating resignation should familiarize themselves with the consequences and permanent nature of their resignation as stated at the beginning of this section. Students cannot be forced to resign. This would be interpreted as a dismissal order for which the process, as outlined in Article X of the national constitution, must be followed.