19th Ward Schools Committee Meeting

7:00 pm, 3 January 2022

Present by Zoom: John Boutet, Charlotte Giebel, Douglas Giebel, Lee Loomis, Josie McCleary, Phyllis Moss, Sarah Yaworsky.

1. Schools Report: School 16’s Elisa Ruise sent a proposed “Attendance Incentive Plan” looking for feedback. She is hoping for four volunteers initially to provide help for students suggested by teachers.

Requirements: 1/2 hour to 60 minutes per session; vetting with the Downtown office may be required. Volunteers should email Phyllis if interested.

Lee Loomis has been canvassing his former tutors from the Engineering Society to see how many are still available and on which topics they are able to tutor. A meeting with Michelle White on January 13 is planned to arrange a schedule. After these arrangements are set, Lee hopes to provide some tutors also for School 16.

2. Community Report: A good meeting of the South West Common Council Education Committee was held on December 28. John Boutet suggested that we might connect with Ashley Cross, who is working on in-school suspensions.

Another issue raised was regarding using school buildings for sheltering people without homes. Josie will discuss this with the person in charge at the County offices. (The City has 2,000 + children who are chronically homeless through the year.) Suggestions for dealing with this problem:

1. Address it at the Community level

2. Bring in the Department of Human Services people to inform families of their options

3. The Family Stabilization Network is a group of agencies and churches that can help.

4. Don’t assume we know what families actually need. Ask them!

3. 19^th WCA Newsletter: Phyllis submitted an article informing Association members of our Committee's activities and inviting their participation. The article has been added as part of these minutes.

Douglas agreed to write an article for the February Newsletter.

4. Spelling Bee: Douglas stated that he has contacts with community representatives from all five schools which are planning to participate in this Spring’s Spelling Bee:

Wilson Foundation Academy: Reyita Perez (Community School Site Coordinator)

#10 School: Allyn Walters (Art teacher)

#16 School: Joan Cowles (6th grade teacher)

#19 Yarritza Delgado and Laquanda Fields (teacher and Site Coordinator)

#29 Lynn Paris (librarian)

All have received the word lists and a large poster to publicize the Spelling Bee.

University student participation:

It has been difficult to reach to Sigma Phi Epsion students, but we expect them back next week. It was suggested that Clayton Jones could help with making contact. He is in charge of Community Engagement at the University of Rochester.

Practices will begin at the Arnett Library on January 14 at 11 a.m.

5. Goals for 2023: Focus on tutoring. We need to collect information for parents with regards to where they can find tutors, as well as other services which the community can provide for families.

6. Next meeting: on February 7, 2023 at 7:00pm. We will put Spelling Bee on the agenda.

The meeting was adjourned around 8:10pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Charlotte Giebel

Secretary

Newsletter Article:

Article for the 19WCA Schools Committee
December 28, 2022

It’s been my pleasure to serve as the Chair of the 19 Ward Association’s Schools Committee for a little more than a year now. I have found the committee members to be faithful and extremely committed to helping the children of our community. Currently, our projects include an annual Spelling Bee and a Tutoring Program at School #10.

I must admit that I was initially skeptical about the idea of a spelling bee. I didn’t know that was still a thing! But last year I attended with my son who is a struggling reader and was pleasantly surprised by his excitement. In fact, all the children who attended and participated seemed excited and engaged. This year we are expanding the Bee to include 7^th and 8^th graders.

Unfortunately, the Pandemic temporarily halted the tutoring program at School #10, but I am still awed by the fact that area engineering firms allowed their employees to tutor our scholars on company time. We need this type of community involvement like never before. I’m told that not only did reading scores improve, so did attendance as scholars seemed reluctant to miss the days they met with their tutor.

We hope to continue and expand these programs in 2023. If this committee is something you would like to be a part of, please email me at drphyllismoss@icloud.com or phone/text me at 585-451-1686.

Happy New Year!