SWCC Education Committee Minutes 2015-08-19

Here are the meeting notes as a Word file: SWCC Education Committee Minutes 2015-08-19.doc

SWCC Education Committee Meeting

Wednesday August 19th, 2015

6:30-8:00pm

Arnett Branch Library, 310 Arnett Boulevard

Next Meeting: Wednesday, September 16, 2015, 6:30 pm at the Arnett Library, 310 Arnett Blvd.

Meeting Convened at 6:30 pm

Introductions/Attendees: John Boutet, Jeniffer Lenio, Pat Merl, Bill Nichthouser, Betsy Robson

Receivership Hearings Review - 3 of the 10 “Struggling Schools” Hearings were attended and videoed by John Boutet. All these school hearings were at central office:

School 44 – Aug 4^th hearing - https://youtu.be/GDoKeLX3F8g.
- John was of the opinion that many parents and teachers had not heard about the meeting. The fact that this was one of the first meetings scheduled may have contributed to the meeting notification problem. One teacher present had only found out about the meeting because Mary Adams had alerted her.
- Some parents present brought up the reduced level of parent participation present this year compared to last.
- Betsy Romson had attended the School 44 hearing and thought that some of the teachers there seemed at odds with administrators in the room.
- John: the objective of the meetings was to inform the community of the state of the school and plans formulated for improvements AND to invite input from parents, teachers and the community on problems and suggestions for improvement. Administrators, particularly from Central Office, seemed to go on the defensive as parents and teachers identified problems and suggested solutions, rather than trying to solicit and build on input. This may have been because this hearing never broke down into small groups soliciting input as had been planned and as was the case at the School 3 and School 17 hearings which came later.
- Questions were raised about the the process used to select the Community Engagement Team.

School 3 – Aug 5 hearing - http://youtu.be/chMiHQBGG1M
- Pat Merl had looked at about ½ of the video on School 3 and said she was surprised to find that School 3 was in receivership since it is a STEM School.
- Pat had heard from Bonny Mayer that only three students from Corn Hill attend School 3.
- John indicated all students at School 3 get busing even if they are less than 1.5 miles from school. This was learned from John Gonzalez, Director of Expanded Learning, who said that in the video.
- Bryant Cromartie, Assistant Principal of School 3 (also at that table in the video) was not aware of School 3 attempts to connect with the Corn Hill community during the two years he has been there. He and principal Rodney Moore were encouraged to connect with the neighborhood
- Emails were also sent to Corn Hill NA encouraging them to reach out to School 3.
- Considering that the School 3 / Adams Street Community Center provides an ideal situation for a “Community School” it is very sad that there is not a significant neighborhood student participation.

School 17 – Aug 8^th hearing - https://youtu.be/eXIdZi0DrQs
- By the time the School 17 hearing took place Central Office staff had organized the structure of the meetings so that the presentation by the Principal was followed by small discussion groups which each reported back to main group with the input they had collec

Community Engagement Team Workshop review – The SWCC Education Committee and 19WCA Schools Committee hosted a workshop on August 10 to discuss the State requirements for how the Community Engagement Team must be elected. There was concern that the process used at School 44 did not meet the requirement. We had pulled out all stops to get the meeting scheduled in time to provide input before the August 13 deadline Struggling Schools schools had for submitting required paperwork. Mary Adams facilitated the workshop. A big tank you to to Jennifer Lenio who, while on vacation, made special arrangements to keep the library open for us. Unfortunately, other than for Elizabeth Eng, RCSD Parent Educator for Pre-K, no administrators or teachers from school 44 attended the meeting.

Attending the August 10^th meeting were : Mary Adam, Ricardo Adams, Sharlene Banks, John Boutet, Adrian Elim, Elizabeth Eng, Eileen Graham, John Laing, Bill Nichthauser, Chojy Schroeder and Jeanna Straus.
At the end of the workshop the group voted to send a letter to School 44 to convey the thoughts that had been discussed at the workshop. The group created a list of items to include and people were asked to submit drafts for a letter which would be worked on by email. A big thank you to Ricardo who submitted the firs draft later that evening. Other submissions by the group were incorporated to the letter and it is ready to send.

School 44 update : Most of this past month's input for School 44 has been covered above but no report was made last month because Beverly and I were absent. Last month the sign-up for Kindergarten and Pre-K classes at 44 were still lagging behind expectations. Sing-ups are now picking up. We discussed the fact that we only had School 44 teacher participation in the SWCC Education Committee at one meeting, the Aug. 5, 2013 SWCC Ed. Com., Mon. Meeting at Thurston Rd YMCA - Y P.... Those Minutes contain a link to a video of the School 44 teacher discussion: http://youtu.be/21v2Duq_b2Y. They were very passionate advocating for their students. We were surprised not seeing any of them come to the next meeting: Sept. 4, 2013 SWCC Ed. Com., Wednesday Meeting at Carlson Commons.... Instead we had the Principal, Richard DeRose, and Assistant Principal, Redell Freeman, from School 44 and two RCSD Chiefs, Raymond Giamartino, and Juliette Pennyman. We had a very good discussion regarding School 44 as can be seen in the video: http://youtu.be/3gANabMaASI. It would have been nice however seeing teachers and administrators come together to talk with committee members to explore ways to meet the needs of students, parents and the community. Hopefully we will see a more relaxed cooperative participation of teachers and administrators in future meetings. Hopefully if we can see the PTO at school 44 grow and thrive and that will help build parent and teacher participation in this forum.
School 16 update : We still have not heard back from Willie Robinson on whether he has sent out the letter to parents in the 19^th Ward area announcing the planned renovation of School 16 and its reopening as a neighborhood school. Betsy inquired about what progress there is on School 16 renovation. We have not received any notices of when planning meetings will start for the renovation of School 16. Based on summer 2014 discussions with Dr. Vargas we had expected discussions to start last December, but they have not yet. Delays in identifying the prime contractor for Phase 2 work appears to be the holdup.
Enhanced Library Programs - Betsy read old meeting notes from 2012 that sounded pretty much like what we are striving for today. Only the planned achievements regarding the Rochester Library programs had been realized. Jennifer Leneo offered to get the Libraries more involved with with education issues in the community if the SWCC Education Committee wants to encourage that activity. Longer Library hours and adequate staffing would permit outreach to the community to educate parents to help their children succeed. It would also provide quiet space for students to study in the evening.
Little Free Library and Free Books update - John: So far we have distributed 800 to 1000 books via:

Free Books Table at the Westside Farmers Market
Handing books out to children on some streets using my trike with a book box on the back. In early summer Diane Watkins, her daughter and I covered the E2 block club area. Mid summer, Bill Marian and I covered Woodbine from Chili to Aberdeen. Mary Adams and I handed books out on Garfield St. and the north block of Lincoln Ave. while she was out canvasing. The last outing was with Beverly Usher, her son, Bill and myself when we covered the Copley St., Lincoln Ave., Wilbur St. an Stanton Street block north of School 44.
Book boxes we stock at a laundromat and an ice-cream shop in the 19^th Ward.
Books Beverly hands out to kids who visit her house all summer.
Books supplied to Sheri Tehan for the LFL in front of the 19WCA office.
We have a steady supply of books for now from Shelley Matthews of the RPL.

City Lot Agreement: With the help of Jermayne Myers from the Mayors office we got and agreement from the City to use City owned lots to locate Little Free Libraries. David Hawkes has the necessary paperwork ready for us when we are ready to place LFL in a lot. We have five people who have expressed interest in setting up a LFL but so far none is ready to go.

Michael Hagelberg: Kit Miller of the Gandhi Institute connected us with Michael Hagelberg who is on their Board of Directors and is interested in building and installing LFL in the SW area. He has build two so far and will work with us to make more. Brenda Driscoll is looking into possibly using old newspaper boxes for adapting to use as a LFL. She did not get anywhere with D&C and is now talking to City Newspaper.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00pm

Minutes submitted by John Boutet

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