SWCC Education Committee Minutes 2021-05-26

The Education Committee of the SW Common Council

Wednesday, 5/26/21

6-7:30 pm

A PDF of these minutes can be found at: SWCC Education Committee Minutes 2021-05-26.pdf

Attendance:

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

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

Lentory Johnson Light the Way/Legacy Pk Sta, 749-3494, lentoryjohnson89@gmail.com

Avril Little 19thWard Resident/Villa of Hope, 420-8521, avrilglittle@gmail.com

Stella Wang 19th Ward Resident, 355-8568, UR Teacher, stella.wang@rochester.edu

Welcome & Introductions

Zoom startup problems
John, the Zoom host, had problems logging into his Zoom account to admit guests and the meeting started about 12 minutes late. It is unknown how many in our waiting room left before the meeting started. Two joined us after the meeting started. We had heard from at least 3 regulars that they were planning on attending the American Rescue Plan hearing which coincided with ours.

RCSD Parent & Community Public Hearing on the American Rescue Plan - $107 million; - One of our late arrivals gave up on speaking at the Hearing after waiting many minutes and told us all speakers are kept in the waiting room disallowing speakers to hear the rest of the input. Very concerning that speakers (community and parents) can’t hear what’s going on.

Update on School Reopening - New COVID guidelines

Currently plans are to reopen in the Fall with a majority of students attending classes in school unless parents object and want their students to attend online. This all depends on how COVID goes.
Some schools are planning on having summer in school classes for students having the most trouble.
There is concern that students are not doing well educationally with the online or hybrid teaching.

Political & Funding Developments

Money received but not allocated; working hard to stay in the budget as it stands. Tonight’s meeting is around spending the one-time COVID-related funds.
Have made good progress in Albany thanks to election of progressive Democrats and AQE
There will be a 3-year phase-in of a substantial amount of funding that was owed RCSD.

Local Busing / Child Safety Zone Progress

Emails from Superintendent & Mayor responding to Child Safety Zone; was hoping we could see some progress by next year but, per Superintendent, that should not be counted on. Need to reach out to legislators for movement on this. Money has to come from somewhere; raising taxes is not an option.
Since Child Safety Zones are established, according to the regulations, transportation can be provided which should result in reimbursement; John will explore this premise.
Need to establish a timeline to track potential activity.

Primary elections

Candidates Forums have been taped.
Forum coming up for RCSD School Board
Coalition for Public Education has been interviewing School Board candidates
Evan Dawson has interviewed Malik Evans, 2 school board, and all city council
All interviews are available on WXXI

CET meetings (Community Engagement Team)

School #19 having frequent meetings; continued parent reach-out
School #16 meetings not well attended due to a conflicting meeting; struggling to keep attendance numbers up. Reaching out to parents.
For all schools, student participation online is low; concerns about grading.

Lee Loomis - School 10 - Reported by email

So, here's my report regarding Dr. Walter Cooper Academy...

We are still tutoring (virtually) into the first couple of weeks of June.
We are hoping that we will be, again, allowed into the School, next Fall, when things return to "normal".
To say the least, this pandemic thing has been a real "learning experience". Stay well (and masked, for just a little while longer)...

...Lee Loomis

Rochester Coalition for Public Education News

Still focused on the effects of racism on public education. Interviewing RCSD School Board candidates Having frequent meetings. Sending out a lot of reading material and video links

19th Ward Schools Committee