Attendance: Howie Maffucci, Don Bartalo, Chojy Schroeder, David Hursh, John Boutet, Tricia Gonzalez, Candace Rubin, Janeille Crocker, Seiun Park, Dan Drmacich

Discussion:

1. Dan reminded members that Coalition members are involved in several important state, regional and local committees that could have important implications for improving education for students.

- The NYSED Blue Ribbon Committee for creating new student expectations & assessments,

- The County/City RASE Education Committee for creating more equity and justice for students of color and All Monroe County students,

- The Warner School/RCSD/Coalition planning committee for hosting an education conference on 2/11 @ SJFU, focusing on intrinsic motivation & self-determination theory,

- The International Academy ad hoc committee for creating a fairer and more effective school organization for meeting ELL student needs, 

- The ad hoc committee for using RCSD schools to house homeless students & families, and

-  The Great School for All (GS4A) organization, that is spearheading a proposal to create inter-district, racially integrated, thematic magnet schools in Monroe County & the City.

2. David, Seiun and Dan shared that the plans for the 2/11 Education Conference are almost complete.n (See the attached flyer). However, they need 15 small group facilitators to exchange viewpoints regarding Rich Ryan's presentation on motivation. (See attachment for facilitator role.)

Please volunteer. The small group discussions are a critical piece of the conference. Contact me if you can do it. We'd really appreciate your help! In any case, we hope you REGISTER to attend & hope to see you at the conference.

3. Bart & Dan reported that they have been disappointed in the organization of the RASE Education Committee activities, and that the committee will meet again on Feb. 2nd at 6 pm.

4. David & Tricia, 2 of the 64 state-wide members of the NYSED Blue Ribbon Committee, reported that they have forwarded information to the committee leaders to regarding invitations to attend the 2/11 Education Conference at Fisher Un. and a request to have a presentation by NYS Consortium Schools reps, but have not heard any information from them regarding their requests.

5. Chojy reported that members of the RCSD International School Academy will meet with Supt. Peluso in the near future to discuss a proposal for having the International Academy be a "satellite" school of the School Without Walls.

6. John Boutet, who's leading the initiative to find an RCSD school to host homeless students and families, received some ideas for possible schools from our members & he will investigate.

7. We welcomed Janielle Crocker back to our meetings & introduced ourselves.

8. We discussed possible RCSD School Board candidates who could actively support our agenda and agreed to do the following:

A. Invite Isiah Rodriguez, an RCSD 18 year old RCSD student who has declared his candidacy, to meet with us, and

B. Also. invite current BoE member, Ricardo Adams, who is also a candidate, to meet with us.

C. WE ENCOURAGE  ALL COALITION MEMBERS TO REACH OUT TO ANY CITY RESIDENT, WHOM THEY BELIEVE WOULD BE AN EFFECTIVE BOE MEMBER TO CONSIDER RUNNING AND TO MEET WITH US TO DISCUSS OUR AGENDA.

9. We discussed the implications of the National Parents Union's involvement in local county & city education policy creation and support of BoE candidates, and agreed to continue to do individual research on the NPU & watch for any possible red-flags of privatization efforts.

10. We agreed to meet again on Friday, Feb. 3rd @ 4:00 pm.