Minutes of the January 9^th meeting of

The 19^th Ward Community Association Schools Committee

Attendees: John Boutet, John Laing, Deb Leary, Liz Pollock, Dan Ross, Jay Ross, Sarah Yowarski

Acceptance of Previous minutes

No additions/changes

Review of Action Items

Generate a list of retired teachers/administrators in the ward and contact them – Dan Ross, Dan introduced Liz Pollock, retired RCSD teacher

Check with McQuaid for potential volunteers – John Boutet contacted Mark Sweetland, a '73 McQuaid graduate, who contacted Chris Hood at McQuaid.  It sounds like students could be available to volunteer after 3pm on week days.  We thought working with School 10,  could be a good location to try these volunteers at because of the location and the Quad A program they have.   John Laing suggested that John Boutet contact Ericka Glascow, head of the Quad A program at school 10 to see how McQuaid student volunteers could be incorporated into that program.

Contact a person in the early childhood education at the Warner school to see if there are discussions of the Vargas suggestion that universities take over city schools - Dan

Status of Spelling Bee

Committee members signed up as volunteers for the sessions at the Arnett library. Deb was going to solicit help from the Friends of the Library.

John Laing received an e-mail from school 52 about competing in the spelling bee. The committee agreed that the spelling bee was for children attending schools in the 19^th ward only (10,16,19,29 and 44) and John responded in that way to the folks at school 52

Volunteer Process Update

We need volunteer co-ordinators at schools 29 and 44. John Laing shared test data from the 19^th ward schools. The first table shows the ELA data for grades 3-8 in our schools. The high percentage of Level 1 test scores is discouraging, as is the low percentage of levels 3 and 4. The last column shows the increase that could be made if 50% of level 2 students could be moved to level 3.

School Board Structure Implications Van White was elected president of the school board, and the committee felt that he would be open to suggestions for change and brings a passion to the position

New Business Thursday Jan 16 and Tuesday Jan 21 are Coffee and Conversation sessions with the Superintendent. Sarah suggested bringing up the issue of the school open houses, in that the one large event at with all schools on display was not scheduled for this year. Given the focus on parents, this means multiple trips for parents to get the information they were able to get in one trip in previous years.

The SWCC Education committee meeting on Jan 15 will be at the Ghandi center, with a discussion on sustainable agriculture. There is a proposal for an aquaponics “farm” near the river which could provide jobs as well as food

Minutes submitted by John Laing

Next Meeting Wednesday, February 12^th at 7 pm in the 19^th ward association office.