Minutes of the September 11^th meeting of

The 19^th Ward Community Association Schools Committee

Attendees: Boutet, Kolbuc, Laing, Ross, Ross, Yoworski

Review of Action Items

• Follow up with Willie Lightfoot and the barber shops – John L No response from Willie on the first e-mail, will use Westside market to recruit -closed
• Investigate the process of becoming a community partner with the RCSD – John L waiting for response from district – in the meantime partner with FREE - closed
• Generate a list of retired teachers/administrators in the ward and contact them – Dan Ross
• Use the Westside Market to solicit volunteers John L Closed
• Need volunteers to sit with school principals to take information on volunteers – Jay and John B volunteered - Closed
• Find a volunteer to run the spelling bee – all
• Talk to the school 10 principal about opportunities there - closed
• Set up a meeting with the RPH director, Matt Laniak and Jon Shull to determine next steps – John B
• Plan an informational session for volunteers and/or a video of volunteers describing their experience
• Understand the requirements for MOU (or MOA) for volunteers – John L- will be done by FREE - Closed
• Check with McQuaid for potential volunteers – Mark Sweetland via John B
• Plan events for families with pre-K children to steer them to school 16 now – Sarah- Found a number of day cares in the area which will be useful in soliciting feedback on community needs for school 16 in particular – closed

Review school 44 at Westside market Jay and John B.

44 principal Rick DeRose was enthusiastic in engaging the crowd in the search for volunteers. He also distributed a fact sheet on the school and stated his intent to keep school 44 (including the building) open. We signed up 5 volunteers. Closed

Review test scores

We reviewed the test scores for RCSD and charter schools. The results are low, given the high state standards. The results show the charter schools in the top half of the scores, but only one has results better than all of the city schools. Given the low scores for the schools in our ward, and the relatively small sample sizes, it won’t take many students improving to make the scores better and thus finding volunteers to work with the teachers is important.

Other:

We had a short discussion on how to challenge the assumption that 5 RCSD schools should close, given Rick DeRosa’s intention to keep school 44 open. Information on the enrollment data for this year would be useful. John L took the action to get enrollment data from RCSD

Next Meeting Wednesday, October 9 at 7 pm in the 19^th ward association office