Minutes of the May 5^th, 2020 meeting of

The 19^th Ward Community Association Schools Committee

Attendees: Bryan and Christin Babcock, John Boutet, Charlotte and Douglas Giebel, John Laing, Dan and Jay Ross, Sarah Yaworski

Spelling Bee Status (Douglas and Charlotte)

Douglas and Charlotte have made up recognition packages for the spelling bee participants consisting of the Gift cards (which have a bee image), a t-shirt, and a note. School coordinators/principals are working to deliver these to the students (44 is on the way, 10 will be done this week, 16 in the next few days, and 29 will pick up this week.) Thanks to Douglas and Charlotte and the school reps for their work in distributing them.

We are holding out hope that there may be an opportunity for a spelling bee event in the fall.

Rochester Coalition for Public Education

This organization lobbied successfully for a monitor to be appointed to assist the RCSD in meeting financial and educational goals. One candidate has been recommended to the State.

MOU Status (Sara)

Sara reported on her discussions with RCSD on ways to modify the MOU (Memo Of Understanding) surrounding the volunteer process. She needs to resolve an insurance issue and then it will be ready to sign.

New Business

The RCSD Arts department (Sheila Driscoll) had asked that we support their concerns about budget cuts. We felt that there have been significant changes in the budget, with more likely to come, that it didn’t make sense for us to add our names to their note.

Sara is making a Little Free Library to provide books for children (and adults) to read. We noted that there are several others around the 19^th Ward. Contributions of books would be appreciated.

The next committee meeting will be Tuesday June 2^nd at 7 pm on Zoom.

Submitted by John Laing