From: Dan Drmacich [mailto:dandrmacich123@gmail.com]

Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 10:24 AM

To: David Long, Sean Smith, Dave Atias, Eileen, David Kurtz and 78 more...

Subject: Feb. 10th Rochester Coalition for Public Education Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Howie Maffucci, Cindy Butterworth, Chojy Schroeder, Don Pryor, Don Bartalo, Ed Donnelley, John Boutet, Joe Simson, Candice Rubin, Dan Drmacich (Whom did I miss???)

Discussion & Decisions:

1. Isaiah Santiago, an 18 year old, RCSD graduate and current freshman at St. John Fisher University, shared his rationale and vision for seeking to become a RCSD School Board Commissioner, and responded to our questions. Generally, we were all very impressed with Isaiah. His knowledge of education issues, experience with the current RCSD Board, his priorities for change, his confidence, speaking style & skills, willingness to learn & cooperative spirit were exemplary. Isaiah demonstrated his commitment to learning more about education issues by committing to attend the St. John Fisher event today on student motivation & his interest in continuing to meet with the Coalition. Although we have not formally voted on supporting Isaiah's candidacy, those in attendance were strongly leaning that way. If anyone has questions for Isaiah, his email address is    isaiah4rcsd@gmail.com   He welcomes your inquiries.

2. We reviewed our co-sponsorship of today's (2/11) education conference at St. John Fisher University, focusing on student motivation & featuring Coalition member Professor Rich Ryan. 

Approximately 200 folks have registered and the RCSD Professional Learning Office and Warner School Doctoral Students Association, with Coalition member David Hursh's support, have been largely responsible for making the event happen. We hope to have access to the recording of the conference for sharing with all interested parties.

3. Joe, Bart, John & Dan reported on the latest developments with the RASE Education Committee with the following:

A. Things are moving slowly; but with some important movement in the last few weeks:

B. With City/County financial support to Urban League leadership, a RASE Coordinator has been hired: Dr. Candace Lucas, who will work with all 9 RASE Committees.

C. A survey will be distributed shortly to RASE members, students, parents, community organizations and teachers to prioritize their top 3 priorities of the current 18 RASE Education Recommendations. The top 3 priorities will be worked on first by the RASE Education Committee, followed by the others.

D. This past Feb. 7th, a presentation was made by the original 3 RASE Commissioners on the state of all the RASE Recommendations. We're waiting for a report on that event.

4. The NYSED Blue Ribbon Committee for creating new requirements and assessments for NYS graduates continues to meet with all 64 state-wide members, including Coalition members David Hursh & Tricia Gonzalez. A webinar focusing on "performance-based assessments" will take place on March 1st @ 11:00 am. See the attachment below for attending.

5. Ed & Chojy reported that they have finally established communications with the RCSD Superintendent's Office to discuss possibilities of gaining NYS Consortium School Regents Exam flexibility for ELL students, and are waiting for an agreement on a meeting date.

6. We discussed other RCSD BoE candidates. Chojy recommended a candidate with ELL experience, whom we will plan on interviewing, and we discussed our continued support for Amy Malone.

7. Bart shared a statement made by BoE President, Cynthia Elliott at a recent BoE meeting that supported and urged more work to be accomplished by the RCSD staff on anti-racism, which we supported.

8. Cindy shared area involvement of the neo-liberal/corporate-supported National Parents Union (NPU), including its financial support for BoE candidates in various school districts who support school privatization options and opposition to teacher union power. We all agreed to keep our antennae up for signs of NPU involvement. 

9. Dan and Coalition member Peter McWalters remind us to participate in an important "Learning Out Loud" webinar involving the re-imagining of education on Feb. 16th from 3-4 pm. See the attachment below to register.

10. We agreed to meet again on Friday, Feb. 24th at 4:00 pm.

Registration links below:

1. We invite you to share this Learning Out Loud opportunity with your colleagues and networks. You can register here: https://mailchi.mp/1142529a5411/flgdyaiitb

2. Topic: Leading PBLA 

When: Wednesday, March 01, 2023, at 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET 

REGISTER NOW! 

Once you submit the form, you will receive an automated email confirming receipt of your registration.  This webinar will be hosted on Zoom with our colleagues at Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES.  The PLAN Pilot Team will send the Zoom link to join the webinar to the email address you provide closer to the event date.  Keep an eye out for an email from us at plan.pilot@nysed.gov with information on how to join!