From: Dan Drmachich

Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 10:01 AM

To: David Long, Sean Smith, Dave Atias, Eileen Graham, David Kurtz, and 81 more...

Minutes: 2/24 Rochester Coalition for Public Education Meeting

Attendance: Howie Maffucci, Chojy Schroeder, Phyllis Moss, Don Bartalo, John Boutet, Diane Watkins, Joe Simson, Isaiah Santiago, Lee Loomis, John Curran, Dan Drmacich

Discussion & Decisions:

1. We welcomed John Curran.

2. Howie informed us that the Monroe County Democratic Party designated new Coalition member, Isaiah Santiago as one of their 4 RCSD School Board candidates, along with Amy Malloy, Ricardo Adams and Beatriz Lebron. We congratulated Isaiah & discussed ways to support him. Isaiah stated that there are two ways to support him:

A. He needs to collect 1,000 petition signatures to be on the primary ballot and wants to get 2,500. He needs folks to help collect City of Rochester signatures, email Isaiah at Isaiah4rcsd@gmail.com to assist, and

B. For donations; Use the Paypal link at https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=7KWVHLX5923WG&f... OR

- Checks can be made out to “Friends of Isaiah Santiago”

Mail to Treasurer: “Deziree Garrick, Friends of Isaiah Santiago”, P.O. Box 30998, Rochester NY, 14603

* Isaiah has pledged to continue meeting with our Coalition for advice & feedback on education issues.

3. We received very positive feedback from Lee, Diane and Isaiah, who attended the 2/11 Student Motivation Conference, which was co-sponsored by our Coalition, the RCSD & the Warner School Doctoral Students Association.We will be planning some form of follow-up activities to support the research on intrinsic motivation & self-determination.

4. We heard feedback on the RASE Education Committee's work to move forward with its recommendations by soliciting feedback from the community through a survey to rank-order the 16 recommendations. We generally agreed that:

A. The survey needs to add recommendations requiring all Monroe County School Districts to develop K-12 curriculum on anti-sexist and anti-LGBQT ism.

B. The survey results may take a good deal of time for survey-takers to complete & may result in distorted data, and that

C. It may be most effective, for the survey to be limited to all RASE Education members.

Our RASE members will present our ideas for discussion at the next RASE Meeting on Thursday, March 2nd at 6 pm.

5. Dan shared that the next NYSED Blue Ribbon Committee PD meeting is open to all NYS citizens on March 1st at 11:00 am.

6. Dan shared that the meeting with the RCSD Supt. to discuss a plan to allow ELL students to graduate using alternative means of assessment is still in the process of being scheduled.

7. Bart shared that his inquiries regarding the Supt.'s proposal to meet regularly with Rochester Education Activist Organizations has received no response & that he will draft another letter of inquiry for our feedback, before being sent to the Supt.

8. John Boutet & John Curran presented their progress to create more shelters for "homeless" students and their families. They are experiencing several bureaucratic roadblocks, but are continuing their creative, assertive efforts. They will keep us posted for whatever support we can provide.

9. Dan announced that on March 1st at 7:00 pm, The Re-Thinking Schools organization will host a Zoom meeting on anti-racist education. To register, go to: marketing@rethinkingschools.org.

10. We agreed to meet again on Friday, March 17th at 4:00 pm.