SWCC Education Committee Minutes 2020-09-23

The Education Committee of the SW Common Council

Wednesday, 9/23/20

6:00-7:00 pm

Here are the meeting notes as a .pdf file: SWCC Education Committee Minutes 2020-09-23.pdf

Attendance:

Joe Baldino School #29 Principal, 490-2245, joseph.baldino@rcsdk12.org

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

Robert Burns School #16 Community Coordinator, robert.burns@rcsdk12.org

Mary Coffey N. Winton Village Co-Chair; Many Neighbors Building Neighborhoods; Public Safety
marycoffey0@gmail.com

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

James Demps Neighborhood Service Center, 923 Genesee St., 428-7630,
James.Demps@CityofRochester.Gov

John Laing 19WCA Schools Committee & Sch #16 Volunteer, 235-5236, jlaing1@rochester.rr.com

Lia Festenstein School # 10 Community Schools Site Coordinator, liaE.Festenstein@rcsdk12.org

Moniek Silas-Lee School #19 Principal, 328-7454, moniek.silas-lee@rcsdk12.org

Deborah Washington School #3 Principal, 454-3525, deborah.washington@rcsdk12.org

Quick update on school online reopening

School #3 & School #16 have about 85%; today’s status calls for individualized educational plans in many cases
School #19 - 70 % av daily attendance; grades 5-8 have chrome books; 95% Grades 1-4 have chrome books
School #29 - older students doing well; over 50% of the children have disabilities (including 3 blind). Working w/ staff about alternative ways to teach students with multiple disabilities - very individualized.
- Grades 3-6 have good attendance.
- Most of the challenge is with students who have disabilities. Cost is $75,000 per child wilth multiple disabilities.
- Planning on enhancement of our nurse’s office in 2022 to be more efficient for children with disabilities

Busing - Make sure 2016 Managed School Choice Task Force Info is supplied to Board and Superintendent and push for adoption.

John B staying on top of pushing for adoption of revised Managed School Choice Policy.

Update: How is our infrastructure working out for the start of school on line?

Most Teacher/Student communications are done onlive from home.
No renovations at School #3 planned at this time. Moving to Jefferson on hold.
Parking lot at School #2 is twice as large; expansion looks good from outside.
School #10 - lots of space, more room, preserved wood floors and older features (including the stage with references to Iroquois); now old gym is the library; added to what was already there.

Start-up of CET meetings

Two meetings have already been held at School #19 this school year; needs assessment data was reviewed over the summer and is still being processed and prioritized.
School #3 will be inviting John B. to their meeting later next week.
School #16 will be starting up their CET meetings within 2 weeks.

Is the food distribution to poor students working with online attendance?

Not a lot of families coming to the schools for food. At School #16, getting reports from teachers regarding parents in need of services, including food. Schools work with community organizations to connect parents with needed services.

Black Lives Matter Issues

Coalition for Public Education meets regularly and provides an abundant amount of resources for anti-racism instruction in the school and addressing poverty issues.
Need to look at the bigger picture; extremely disparate quality of life needs to be addressed before having expectations from parents about how they handle family issues; families need to know how to access the resources; systems in place are oppressive and until that changes, we won’t see improvement.
Anti-Racist Teaching During the Pandemic: Lessons from The New Teacher Book Register: https://rethinkingschools.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fe148910632882c1c736a18ff&id=cac0f88dae&e=eada9fb0eb
Rochester Coalition for Public Education this Friday 8/25 from 3 to 4:30
- Join Zoom Meeting
- https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82637753733
- Meeting ID: 826 3775 3733
- One tap mobile

Walk in items

Rotary SW
- Sold regular and see-through masks at Westside Farmers Market last Tuesday with the Deaf Rotary Club of Rochester and hope to do so again in 2 weeks; see-through masks are available at Saturday’s Public Market as well. Rotary SW makes masks available to community businesses as well.
- John Strazzabosco, author of 90 Feet Under, will be our speaker on 10/1, 5:30pm: Link to meeting: https://rochester.zoom.us/j/577285163
- Two more “garden clean-ups” scheduled at the School #29 garden on the corner of Kirkland and Kenwood: 9/28 & 10/12, 8am
YouthBuild
- Currently working with 6 students, which allows for much needed individual case management due primarily to homelessness and learning disabilities.
- While focus of program is on NCCER Core Carpentry certification, students are also learning other skills related to home building, like cement foundations. Students will visit NextGen in Farmington next week, an offshoot of Morse Lumber, where walls and trusses are digitally manufactured and used in much of the Rochester building construction.
- Voter Rights presentation will be given next week; students who register to vote will receive a $15 gift certificate
NSC Connection Still of Interest - have met in the past with Daisy Algarain who oversees all the NSC offices to connect NSC with schools; would still like to see how we can better connect services with homes and how connecting with schools could make that happen.
4 backpacks available via John Laing