Minutes of the October 9^th meeting of

The 19^th Ward Community Association Schools Committee

Attendees: John Boutet, John Laing, Dan Ross, Jay Ross, Sarah Yaworski

Review of Action Items

• Generate a list of retired teachers/administrators in the ward and contact them – Dan Ross, in process
• Find a volunteer to run the spelling bee – all
• Set up a meeting with the RPH director, Matt Laniak and Jon Shull to determine next steps – John Boutet Jon Shull is working with school 17 and we’ll wait for that trial to be completed
• Plan an informational session for volunteers and/or a video of volunteers describing their experience - TBD
• Check with McQuaid for potential volunteers – Mark Sweetland via John Boutet

Recruitment of Volunteers
We have become a partner of FREE (FRiends of Educational Excellence) and will be covered under their MOA with RCSD. There were some people who expressed interest in volunteering at the West Side market, and I have sent volunteer application forms to them. At this point, if there is someone interested in volunteering, you should ask them to send me an e-mail with their contact information and whether they would like the application form in Word or Excel format. When I get the e-mail I’ll send them an application form to complete and return to me. Sarah suggested that we ask delegates to communicate the information at their district meetings and volunteered to talk to delegates council. John Boutet will talk to Reggie McGill, who is pastor of a church in the ward, and I was to get a list of the volunteer opportunities at the schools in the ward so folks would have a better sense of what they are being asked to volunteer for. We also decided to have a presence at the 19^th ward convention that will be held in November.

Feedback from Coffee and Conversation with the superintendent

John Boutet reported that Vargas was waiting for Albany to make a decision on the change in the busing limits from 1 ½ to ½ mile. Also that they were struggling with start up issues with the early start for breakfast. I went to the other coffee on the day after the shot was fired downtown so most of the time was spent on security issues. When I asked about the rumor that architects were working on school 16, he said that wasn’t the case and that we should lobby with the legislature to pass the bill. John suggested that someone attend the Coffee with the Superintendent Thursday, Oct 17 at 7 am.

New Business

Dan reported that this coming weekend (Oct 18-20) is Children’s Interfaith Weekend, which would provide an opportunity to ask the churches for volunteers. We need to keep this date in mind for next year. Also Roc the Future has a project to improve the 3^rd grade reading of RCSD students so we should understand what opportunities are there.

Next Meeting Wednesday, November 13th at 7 pm in the 19^th ward association office