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

Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 9:45 AM

To: David Long , Sean Smith , Dave Atias , Eileen , David Kurtz and 80 more...

Subject: Rochester Coalition for Public Education 4/7 Meeting Minutes

Present: Howie Maffucci, Phyliss Moss, Don Bartalo, John Boutet, Chojy Schroeder, Joe Simson, Don Pryor, Ed Donnelley, Caterina Mannino-Leone, Candace Rubin, Dan Drmacich

Discussion & Decisions:

1. We de-briefed our last week's meeting with new Regent, Adrian Hale, and unanimously agreed that we were impressed with his transparency, concerns about charter schools & standardized testing, his vision for all students; but especially RCSD students, his assertiveness & willingness to exchange ideas with our Coalition.

2, Chojy, Ed & Dan shared that the International Academy Committee followed up on their meeting with the Supt. Peluso & his cabinet with encouragement to support their proposal for providing an assessment for ELL students by having the Academy become a School Without Walls "satellite."

They will be following this up with more lobbying, if necessary.

3. Our RASE Education Committee reps shared that the committee continues to meet & is working on defining the recommendations & creating implementation plans. Joe shared that he has dropped his membership with RASE due to his frustration with its membership dynamics & progress.

4. We discussed the RTA leadership election & agreed that it's an internal process that we should not take a position. We agreed generally, that RTA leadership has become an easy target for blame for low student progress, when there are many other factors to consider. We also agreed that there are some education issues & initiatives that we do wish to discuss with RTA .

5. Bart reported that he has not received any response from Supt. Peluso on his suggested initiative for the creation of an advisory committee to discuss RCSD issues. He will follow-up with another encouraging email.

6. Candace and Howie gave positive reports on Isaiah Santiago's BoE candidacy. Please consider making individual funding contributions to his campaign by sending a check to his campaign at  Isaiah4rcsd@gmail.com

7. Phyliss, Joe & John shared their work as RCSD tutoring co-ordinators & advocates & agreed to share their resources & processes for meeting student needs & to recruit more tutors.

8. Dan shared that despite our enthusiastic support for new Regent, Adrian Hale, there are still concerns about the selection process for new Regents & will seek more information for  developing a proposal for change.

9. We discussed our strong support  for the Jamaal Bowman Congressional Bill to provide more nation-wide, standardized testing flexibility. Dan shared that he met with the NYSUT lobbyist who stated that NYSUT strongly supports the bill & will be creating a media campaign to gain statewide support for it from U.S. Congressional reps. We agreed that we need to lobby for it with Joe Morelle & other area reps. (See attachments.)

10. Ed asked that we review our new website (which we'll share with you shortly,) & discuss improvements at our next meeting.

11. We agreed to meet again on Friday, April 21st, by Zoom, @ 4:00 pm.