SWCC Education Committee Minutes for Wednesday July 16, 2014 Meeting at the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence

SW Common Council Education Committee

At the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence

929 S Plymouth Avenue

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The Meeting convened at 6:30 pm.

Participants: John Boutet (19^th Ward Resident, SWCC Education Committee Chair, Location19.org manager), Jeremy Coleman (19^th Ward Resident), Robin Dettman (Education and Business Organization Development Consultant, on Board of Baobab Cultural Center, works w/ JOSANA Safety Net for School 17), Jennifer Lenio (Librarian in charge of 5 Southern Branches), Bill Nichthauser (19^th Ward Resident, past School #19 volunteer, currently volunteers at School 22, Oboist), Betsy Romson ( 19^th Ward Resident, Former Teacher)

Phase 2 FMP Update

Betsy Romson had been out of Rochester for the winter so we went through a review of the activities in the district. As of this meeting the state of the Phase 2 Facilities Modernization Plan funding by the NY Assembly and Senate has been approved. The last minute objections that Mayor Warren brought up concerning the Phase 2 FMP bills in Albany were addressed through changes which add some oversight safeguards.

We discussed the roll that former mayor Tom Richards is playing in the in the facilities modernization oversight committee. Betsy asked it it would be OK to contact Tom Richards to get a better idea of what the renovation time-line and planning process is likely to be. She will try to make contact.

Short Distance Busing Legislation Review

Short distance busing would promote a return to neighborhood schools by making it more appealing for parents to enroll their children in the nearest school. Most of today's parents use busing as a safe way to get their child to school so they can leave for work without worrying about their child walking to school. They therefore pick schools that are more than 1.5 miles away since that is the minimum distance the RCSD is willing to bus students. S5227B is a NY Senate bill which would shorten the minimum reimbursed student busing distance from 1.5 to 0.5 miles. In many neighborhoods 0.5 miles is reasonable for an elementary school child to walk depending on what the street crossing conditions are. It is also a reasonable distance to have a parent or grandparent to walk their child to school or to set up a Walking School Bus where volunteers escort a number of students to or from school along a given route.

The Senate bill has not been passed yet and there is currently no comparable bill in the Assembly. We discussed the importance of getting a bill like S5227B submitted in the Assembly and approved. For this you can contact:

Assemblyman Joseph D. Morelle, Roch: 585-467-0410, Albany: 518-455-5373, morellej@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman David F. Gantt, Roch: 585-454-3670, Albany: 518-455-5606, GanttD@assembly.state.ny.us
Assemblyman Harry B. Bronson, Roch: 585-244-5255, Albany: 518-455-4527, bronsonh@assembly.state.ny.us

To urge passage of S5227B in the Senat contact:

State Senator Robach, Joseph E., Roch: (585) 225-3650, Albany: (518) 455-2909, robach@nysenate.gov
State Senator Ranzenhofer, Michael H., Williamsville: (716) 631-8695 / (585) 454-0322, Albany: (518) 455-316, ranz@senate.state.ny.us

FR=EE (Facing Race, Embracing Equity) RACE in Education meeting June 25, July 9

The FR=EE Education Committee is trying to implement two Priority Goals:

Anti-Racist Professional Development for for all RCSD employees. .
Identify and develop an Anchor School which can serve as an example of a community school where the staff has received all the sensitivity training to work effectively their students and the school engages parents and to community to the benefit of the students.

In trying to implement the first goal the FR=EE Education Committee had invited a Rochester school related group of union and RCSD department representatives to a special meeting to get agreement that the District would provide anti-racist professional development to all teachers and RCSD staff. They had all attended the meeting on June 10^th . At that meeting there was general agreement on the goal except for having the training be mandatory. All participants agreed to meet again to continue the discussion at a 2^nd meeting. The news from our June 25th meeting was that the Rochester school related representatives were no shows at the 2^nd meeting. None of the people present at our July 16 meeting had been able to attend the July 9^th FR=EE meeting but we had heard that the group from the District had been contacted and they had apologized for not attending nor providing notice they were not going to attend the last scheduled meeting. A new meeting with them was being scheduled.

On the Anchor School initiative the FR=EE workgroup has been working to define all the components needed for the proposal. School 19 had been approached as a candidate. There was a delay in hearing back from principal Eva Thomas but they have now heard back from her. School 22 is also being considered as a potential site.

School 44 update

We had hoped to have Valerie Barattini from School 44 join us for the review but she was not able to attend. She did send in a report:

This is a summary of what we have been told:

Spring of 2013-Told we were closing by 2020-21 School Year

End of the 2012-13 School Year and again at the beginning of the 2013-14 School Year -Told that just the building was closing and the school community would be moved to another place.

Winter of 2014-Told we were becoming a “model” school for the 2014-15 School Year

Late winter of 2014-Told that we were in “phase two” (2015-16 School Year) of the model school program

Spring of 2014-Told that we were losing our 7^th and 8^th grades and not accepting Kindergarteners-this signifies a “Phase Out” to me!

June of 2014-Our principal retires

As of today-not aware of new principal

So, I hope you get the idea that it is not that people don’t care, but that we really don’t know what is happening! Staff are not comfortable talking to parents because we don’t know what to say. We also have a population of English Language learners. This presents a language barrier for parents. I am at a loss as to what to do.

John went through a review of developments with School 44 in the past year to bring Betsy up to date. The latest that we have heard is that principal Richard DeRose has retired and in my latest contact Ray Giamartino, Chief of School Transformation, I found out they had not yet chosen a replacement for the principal. The district is still planning on closing School 44 and is trying to decide whether to move the teachers and students as a group to another location to minimize the disruption to the student body, or to divide the students body and send students to their nearest neighborhood school.

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