11/5 Coalition Meeting Minutes

Dan Drmacich <dandrmacich123@gmail.com>

To:Sean Smith,Dave Atias,Eileen,Deb Hanmer,David Kurtz, .....                    Sat, Nov 6 at 10:17 AM

Present: Philliss Moss, Don Bartalo, Howie Maffucci, Chojy Schroeder, Don Pryor, John Boutet, Joe Simson, Connie Flahive, Donna Lamura, Lil Alshehri, Dan Drmacich

Discussion & Decisions:

1. Dan reported that he met with County & City Govt. liaisons for the RASE Recommendations, Candice Lucas & Cephas Archie & that they were each verify supportive of our plan to advance the Education Recommendations for "Curriculum & Testing." They will support our efforts to collaborate with other city/county organizations by facilitating the first meeting & inviting various organizations to attend an initial organizational meeting. Dan will continue to work with them & notify the Coalition of progress for a pre-Christmas organizational meeting.

2. Dan shared a response to a letter from Congressman Jamal Bowman to the U.S. Secretary of Education, that contains some flexibility for states to apply for variances from high-stakes standardized tests. Dan will share this discovery with other education leaders for clarification & submit a plan to the Coalition for advancement of our goal for testing alternatives.

3. We discussed Joe's letter to Suburban Supts. regarding their need to support transportation costs for the Urban-Suburban Transfer Program Students. We agreed on:

A. A revision of Joe's letter supporting his recommendation for suburban support of transportation costs, and

B. A 2nd forthcoming letter regarding the Coalition's additional concerns regarding the program's inequities for city students.

4. We discussed the need for Coalition members to attend the 11/6 RCSD-sponsored meeting at Franklin High School, from 11 am to 1 pm, concerning school violence. 

5. Dan shared that Ed Donnelley will assume the Coalition Treasury duties formerly held by David Hursh. Thanks for your years of service, David!!!

6. For our Coalition work on Racial Justice & Equity, Bart recommended that we do the following:

A. Survey our People of Color members to find out why many of them have stopped attending our meetings & discover what recommendations they have for the purpose of boosting our People of Color attendance, and

B. Follow through on examining the Urban-Suburban Transfer Program for racist policies.

We'll begin our discussions on the Transfer Program at our next meeting & Dan will develop a survey for Coalition members of Color & share with members for feedback.

7. We agreed to sign onto the Children's Agenda Recommendation Petition for use of funding to decrease school violence through the use of psycho-social support staff. Individual Coalition members are also encouraged to sign the petition as an individual. Our Coalition had previously sent the Supt. & Board a letter encouraging them to use additional funds for classroom & support services for students.

8. We also discussed the need for our Coalition to address not only systemic policy concerns, but also direct help for individual students.

9. We have scheduled our next meeting for 4:00 pm, on Friday November 19th; but are open to changing the days from Fridays to another day of the week. Dan will design a survey for feedback on this issue.