Here are the meeting notes as a Word file:  Meeting Notes SWCC Education Committee Oct 3, 2013.doc

SW Common Council Education Committee
At the Flint Street Community Center
271 Flint Street
Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013

The Meeting convened at 6:45 pm.

Present: Mary Adams, Peter Benvenuto, John Boutet, Marian Boutet, Stacie Colaprete, Eleanor Coleman, Robin Dettman, Charles Dickerson, G. P. Dickerson-Hanks, Bruce Dunn, Angela Ferris, Don Hanks, Sean Harrigan, John Laing, Candice Lucas, Adam McFadden, Bill Nichthauser, Bruce Pollock, Annie Pride, Betsy Romson, Tanya Wilson

The Education Committee of the SW Common Council took its October meeting to the Flint Street Community Center.

Coming to order and introductions

First time participants were:

• Peter Benvenuto, Teacher, School 29,  Charles Dickerson, Parent,  G. P. Dickerson-Hanks, Grandparent,  Angela Ferris, Teacher, Vision Quest founding member,  Don Hanks, Grandparent,  Sean Harrigan, Parent, Candice Lucas, Parent Advisory Council, School Board Candidate, Bruce Pollock, Founder and Executive Director, FREE Partnerships, Annie Pride, Director, Flint Street Community Center; Tanya Wilson, Principal, School 29

Quad A For Kids (Athletics, Arts, Academic Achievement) – Adam McFadden, Rochester City Councilman, Executive Director of Quad A for Kids
When Joe U Posner (“Joe U”) founded Quad A for Kids in 1994, he envisioned an organization that would end poverty by helping its youth succeed through learning academic and behavioral skills from activity based programs.  In 2005, the current 3-hours/day, 5 days/week program (the “Expanded Day program”) was created and started with School 34. Adam joined the program in 2006 and it now operates in Schools 4 and 16, as well as partnering with the Expanded Day program in School 10, reaching a total of 330 elementary school children.

Quad A continues to fine-tune its programs, staying abreast of best practices research. Funding is primarily from grants. Expansion is contingent upon long-term funding being integrated into RCSD so that it remains stable through future administration and staff changes. Governor Cuomo has pledged to allocate money to fund the Expanded Day Program, but it has not happened yet. Citizens need to apply pressure to the State Legislature to establish a plan that assures continuity. Many private entities are profiting from the existing turmoil in our public schools through such avenues as charter schools, printed materials, and testing services. Additionally, the concept of mayoral control is in reality being implemented today because several influential members of the current RCSD administration are the same individuals who were promoting it in the past.

YouTube video of Quad A presentation is at: http://youtu.be/vpTmfAT-gwg

Vision Quest – Stacie Colaprete, Angela Ferris
Assessment of community support is continuing. Superintendent Vargas has suggested a “conversion charter,” although the Vision Quest organizers do not envision that mechanism; but rather, prefer having a start-up, teacher led, true “community based” public school, such as School 17 Under Dr. Ralph Spezio. School leadership would be teacher, parent and community based. Adam Urbanski is trying to convince Dr. Vargas teacher led schools should remain District schools. It was surprising to hear that the Superintendent was suggesting Vision Quest be a “conversion charter” school. Usually the District administration is talking in terms of charter schools started by external forces taking their students away, yet here it looks like an energetic group of teachers and parents trying to start community school within the system are being pushed out of the District.

Principal Tanya Wilson, said that School 29 had voted last school year to become a teacher led community school and was looking at getting the needed approvals. School 29 already functions as much as possible as a community school. If this change is approved, Tanya sees her roll as principal continuing during a transitional period while administrative skills are developed and proven within the teaching staff. She had also heard the term “conversion charter” used when discussing 29's objective with Dr. Vargus.

Mary Adams understood the conversion charter term to mean the school would continue within the district for 2 or 3 years and then become a separate charter school. When asked why this would be considered, she saw this as a response to the push for privatization coming from national, state and local entities trying to privatize public education. She hoped the Union would stand firm and suggested working the Board of Education to make sure the right decisions are made.
A YouTube video of the Vision Quest discussion is at: http://youtu.be/F6bCEsZVuVw

Community Wi-Fi Update
Talks with Frontier Communications have resulted in a proposal that would cover most of PLEX, COTS, and SWAN. Initial investment would be approximately $500,000, with a continuing cost of $1000/month. The ongoing costs have been the bottleneck. Robin Dettman reports that some RIT students created a network for their immediate neighborhood, but there was no funding to continue it after they graduated. Robin will speak to members of City Council about creating a city-wide project in the future. Sean Harrigan offered his technical expertise. Progress is recorded in SWCC Communications Committee minutes.

FRiends of Educational Excellence (FREE) Partnerships - Bruce Pollock, Founder and Executive Director, FREE Partnerships
FREE Partnerships is an official Rochester City School District community partner with a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the District to provide support for city schools. They work with community organizations to recruit enough volunteers to meet the needs of students who are struggling. They are currently working with nine City schools, including No. 29 and No. 10, and hope to begin working with No. 16 and No. 44 in the near future.
A YouTube Video of FREE Partnerships presentation is at: http://youtu.be/SOCIJjsj5uo
Also see: School Volunteer Application on Location19.org

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Minutes submitted by Marian & John Boutet