News From SWW

March 28, 2002 Community Board Meeting Minutes

Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002

To: School Without Walls Community Board Members & other supportive individuals
From: Dan Drmacich
Re: March 28th Community Board Minutes

Lauren Pivnick, Peter Mitchell & I had a small, but productive meeting on Thursday, March 28th, from 4:30-6pm @ SWW. We discussed the following:

1. The NYS Appeals Court hearing on the SWW/Consortium Schools case on Commissioner Mills' denial of our variance request from NYS Regents Exams. Dan attended the hearing in Albany & told how the 20 minute appeals process leaves much to be desired, but that our attornies represented the schools' appeal well. However, there seems to be much history & politics that play in this case , as the courts seem reluctant to make waves that might infringe on the Commissioners domain. We'll be hearing the results in 5-6 weeks. If we lose, the attornies will appeal to the NYS Court of Appeals (the state's highest court).
2. The work going on in Rochester through the CCSE (Coalition for Common Sense in Education) & through NYC activists, to obtain our variance goals through legislation. Currently, they are working with the Legislature's Black & Latino Caucus & the Teachers unions (primarily the Rochester Teachers Union & Adam Urbanski) to put pressure on the Legislature to support laws that would advocate more freedom from high-stakes testing for all NYS students.
3. We also discussed the possibility of MCC hosting a noon forum on high-stakes , standardized testing at the college with WXXI's Bob Smith hosting for his radio program. Lauren Pivnick will work on this.
4. We agreed to meet again on Thursday, April 25th, 4:30-6pm @ SWW.
5. We also agreed to have Norm Bauer's letter placed in the City Newspaper as an Educational Statement . It focuses on how the standards-based educational reform agenda is undermining democracy.

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