The Education Committee of the SW Common Council

Wednesday, 6/28/23

6-7:30 pm at

To be on distribution list and receive Zoom Link, Contact John Boutet @ jboutet@frontiernet.net

PDF of Minutes: SWCC Education Committee Minutes 2023-06-28%20.pdf

Attendance:

John Boutet SWCC Education Committee Chair, 328-4271, jboutet@frontiernet.net

Mary Coffey N. Winton Village Co-Chair; MNBN-Public Safety,marycoffey0@gmail.com

Eleanor Coleman Rotary SW, CCFCS YouthBuild, 224-5119, eleanor.coleman@gmail.com

John Curran REACH, St. Monica’s, WFM, jecurran@rochester.rr.com

Chojy Shroeder RCSD Retired, chojy.schroeder@gmail.com

Lieselle Taylor Director of Community Schools, lieselle.taylor@rcsdk12.org

Lee Loomis via email Sch.10 volunteer coordinator, 738-3079, leeloomis46@gmail.com

Welcome & Introductions

School News

• School Board Democratic primary results: Amy Maloy, Beatriz Lebron, Isaiah Santiago, Jacqueline Griffin. Ricardo Adams will be on the Working Family ticket.

• A lot of work is being put into challenging high stakes testing. The Rochester Coalition for Public Education has been very active in meeting with decision makers and pushing for change. Studies are showing that “teaching to the test” is not an effective way to impart education, measure student progress or support teachers.

• Point: Community Schools shouldn’t be created just because a school goes into receivership; it should be a foundational model for how to operate a school. Every school should have access to the services that come about by moving toward becoming a Community School.

  • The resources that have been afforded to East High, which has made a significant positive change in student attitude, teacher attitude, grades, etc., aren’t readily available to all schools that fall into receivership.

  • It was noted that School #44 called on the community for assistance when they were put into receivership but then ended the connection when they went out of receivership.

  • State should be taking responsibility for the education of our children; this is not just a local issue. We never got an explanation on the missing State funds that were intended for RCSD.

• School #10 Report from Lee Loomis via email:

  • I attended the 6/15 “Exhibition Day” and met with Principal Dr. Eva Thomas, and Dr. Walter Cooper was also visiting that day! We. Shared thoughts about the success of this year’s RES Tutoring Team’s success, and the fact that the First and Second Grade Teachers have noticed improvement in the students who have been tutored these past few months by our RES Tutors.

  • Last Tuesday (6/20), I attended the DWCA “Rites of Achievement Ceremony” and watched nearly every student receive school-wide recognition for having exhibited specific traits of character, integrity, honesty, leadership, etc. during the past school year. It’s an amazing, warm, joyous event that brings recognition to every student as they receive recognition and good wishes from their teachers and their peers.

Local busing - .75 mi. or greater for busing is approved by the School Board - would like to know what funds will be used to accomplish this achievement. John Boutet has a You Tube channel that contains most of the history of the work of the Education Committee, including the lengthy work on reducing the local busing from 1.5 to .75. Schmidt oversaw the busing and building issues and was very helpful to us in the past with the design of School #16 that led to more of a community school model. He contacted us today to announce his retirement. We need to make a new contact at Central Office.

Avoiding the standardized test mentality - Rep. Jamaal Bowman Unveils Green New Deal for Public Schools which is just what we need to get passed in Washington. At this time, Joe Morelle is not on board with this bill. We meed to change his mind! Contact Joe Morelle and urge him to support the Bowman Congressional Bill: BOWMAN_014.XML - repmorelle@mail.house.gov

Implementing RASE Education CART View: https://youtu.be/5bSfSobbGJw, a video of our April 26^th meeting where we discuss the RASE Education CART with Nicolle Haynes, our Cart Facilitator. We have been discussing how to fight the legacy of various forms of racism in education and government. For the last two meetings Joseph D. Fargnoli has facilitated the group while Nicolle was on vacation. If you are interested in joining this group, please do. Contact Joseph Fargnoli <jdfargnoli@gmail.com> or Nicolle Haynes <nicolle.haynes@rcsdk12.org>, (585) 262-8648.

Rochester Coalition for Public Education News Review: Rochester Coalition for Public Education Minutes Index.. The Coalition has been doing great work. Their next meeting is this Friday at 4:00pm on Zoom. The link for that meeting is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86894818181?pwd=TldVTXh5R1RQYWFMK1p4Zk9Hd... Meeting ID: 868 9481 8181 Passcode: 289492    I hope I'll see you at that Friday meeting.

The SWCC Education Committee will not meet in July because of several conflicts.   I'll let you know in a couple of weeks if we will meet Wednesday August 23^rd

Scribe Services: Eleanor Coleman, CCFCS YouthBuild & Rotary, 224-5119, eleanor.coleman@gmail.com