SW Common Council Education Committee

At the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence

929 S Plymouth Avenue

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Meeting convened at 6:30 pm.

Participants: John Boutet (19^th Ward Resident, SWCC Education Committee Chair, Location19.org manager), Sean Harrigan (Daughter has started in RCSD), Bill Nichthauser (19^th Ward Resident, past School #19 volunteer, currently volunteers at School 22, Oboist), Alison Skvarla (Music Teacher, Vision Quest),

Common Core Discussion

Sean Hariggan reviewed the experience his daughter has had with Common Core in two years of private daycare and one year of RCSD full day kindergarten. For her it has been a good experience. Eliminating Common Core would be disruptive for her. Alison indicated the State is backing off on some of the testing requirements. Much of the problem the state caused was a function of how it was rolled out.

A video of this discussion is at: http://youtu.be/RNjHAiNOhSg

FR=EE workshop and “Discussion on Race” meeting discussion.

We discussed our impressions of the FR=EE workshop at our previous meeting and the April 9^th “Discussion on Race” meeting. We talked about what training takes place for teachers. Alison mentioned that she was surprised when principal Eva Thomas mentioned at the FR=EE workshop that the District requires teachers receive an hour of sensitivity training each year. In Alison's many years with the District she has never received mandatory training on race. She and many teachers elect to take training available through the teacher center but it has not been part of mandatory training. Alison mentioned that she was very surprised at the great difference she observed at the Discussion on Race meeting at the Phyllis Wheatley Library versus similar discussions she has participated in through her church near Irondequoit. The makeup of the participants is very different and that impacts the tone of the discussion a lot. We discussed what the Education Committee should do next in the area of race. Alison mentioned that the Rochgester Teacher's Center has a program for teachers and that she would look into what they might be able to do with the Education Committee. Dr. Susan Goodwin is the director there.

This very interesting discussion is captured in this video: http://youtu.be/3wGN-PT2-PM

Vision Quest Update -

Teacher Alison Skvarla reviewed the presentation she and colleague made to Dr. Vargus on March 21^st. The Vision Quest group had hoped to come out of the meeting with a commitment of resources to help build the details of how the project will go forward. He was enthusiastic about the idea but was concerned that Vision Quest did not have the idea more fleshed out. Dr. Vargas wanted to see more details defined on the governance of the school and on financing. He wanted to see plans for how the school would have financial resources to weather the periodic budget crises that the District inevitably has. He referenced the Flower.City School initiative and the need to avoid the pitfalls that forced them back to a traditional model. Alison is familiar with the issues involved with that school and gave us her perspective on what happened.

One of the issues John brought up is that in the 140117 Vision Quest proposal.pdf that he looked through, the governance part did not describe the shared roll that the community, parents and teachers would have in in overseeing the policies set for the administrator to follow. That shared responsibility had been described in the presentation to the ESA Board committee but needs to be well described in the proposal. Alison referred us to the VQCS Power Point.pdf she had used at that meeting which she had sent me April 2^nd and I posted on the 3^rd. Indeed there is mention of shared governance on page 16 of that document but it still needs more definition.

Alison and other Vision Quest representatives will make a presentation to the 19WCA Schools Committee on April 6 regarding the possibility of Vision Quest getting involved with School 16.

A video of this review can be found at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDNIvimqmN4

Wilson International Baccalaureate Discussion

The (IB) program was developed in part to ensure that internationally mobile students preparing for university could move between schools and still be covering the same material. Sean reviewed the IB program at Wilson High School and how it grew to encompass the Wilson Foundation Academy at 200 Genesee Street.

When Sean attended Wilson High School the top graduates could get in to just about any collage they wanted. As the State Regents Exam got watered down Wilson turned to the IB program to to ensure the quality of their students would be recognized by the colleges and universities. To ensure the quality of students entering the high school an IB middle school was opened at 200 Genesee. That program was then extended to an IB elementary school at the Wilson Foundation Accademy at 200 Genesee.

A video of this discussion is on YouTube: http://youtu.be/mphK6fPOScA

Summer reading

The District is encouraging students to read over the summer. Caterina Leone Mannino mentioned at a meeting that the District would be doing an outreach in neighborhoods to distribute information encouraging reading for students. Libraries will have reading lists to recommend for students. Sean said he had mentioned to the Superintendent that city buses have a reading bins but that they are always empty, which is a missed opportunity to get people reading. John pointed out that the 19WCA has a book sale at Square Fair that always has books left over. That might be a source of books for the buses.

The meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.

Minutes submitted John Boutet

Past meeting minutes can be found in www.Location19.org in the SW Education Forum located at http://www.location19.org/group/sw-education-forum

Our next meeting will be May 21, 2014 at 6:30pm at the Flint Street Community Center.