News From SWW

October 18, 2002: October 17th Meeting Minutes

Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002

To: School Without Walls Community Board Members & Friends
From: Dan Drmacich
Re: October 17th Meeting Minutes

Present: Norm Bauer, Rose Martin, Ken Steffen, Dan Drmacich

Discussion:

1. Norm presented a detailed proposal for forming a New York State Coalition of Experimental Schools, for the purpose of establishing an alliance that has some political power and influence, creating a forum that will allow experimental schools to learn and grow from each other and outside resources and forming a synergistic relationship with colleges through which the experimental schools and colleges can grow and benefit. The proposal will be sent to each of you within the next week so that you may review and comment about it. (I just need the floppy disc from Norm.) Dan will also distribute the proposal to other "experimental schools" for feedback.

2. Dan shared that through the Community Board's grant, SWW had hired an advertising consultant to develop a "slick" invitation that was mailed to all City School District 8th graders and their parents, to invite them to the SWW October 28th Recruitment Open House. Posters were also created for each Middle School to promote the open house. The total cost will be about $3,500.00, much less than the $5,000.00, that was requested. Dan will inform the Board if the campaign was effective, based on a comparison to the 40 students and parents they drew last school year.

3. Dan reported that SWW teacher, Samantha Brody, is organizing a student input process to determine the design for the $1,000.00 that the board awarded to her last board meeting for purchasing SWW t-shirts, to be worn by students when they do Community Service.

4. Dan informed the Board that the new Regents requirement of passing the 5 Regents Exams by current SWW 9th and 10th graders is having a negative impact on the SWW curriculum, goals and processes. Already, Extended Class has been reduced form 2.5 hrs. to 1.5 hrs. Norm suggested that SWW develop a "contrast matrix" to demonstrate the differences in the school as a result of the Regents process. Dan will work on it with staff.

5. Dan shared that work is continuing on organizing speeches and demonstrations at the Nov. - Dec. '02 NYS Legislature Education Committee Hearings through the Coalition for Common Sense (CCSE) organization. Similar organization is also taking place in NYC and Albany. On Wed., October 23rd, from 7-9 pm at East High's Forum Room, the CCSE, in collaboration with the RTA and Monroe County School Boards Assoc., will host an Education Vote Night Forum, at which 16 candidates for NYS Legislative office have been invited. A panel, consisting of one rep from the sponsoring organizations, will grill the candidates on education questions ONLY. WXXI's Bob Smith will moderate panel and audience interaction with the candidates.

6. Dan requested $250.00 from the Board to purchase the design and creation of an SWW Flag that will be flown on the new SWW flagpole. Approved.

7. Dan informed the Board that in an effort to educate the City School District 8th grade teachers and counselors about SWW, the SWW staff was hosting a reception for all City 8th grade teachers on Wednesday, October 30th, from 3-4 pm at SWW. Dan requested $250.00 from the Board to cover the costs of catering. Approved.

8. The Board discussed the possibility of hosting another educational forum to educate the public about progressive educational reform. The Board decided to suggest to CCSE that it co-sponsor a forum with the Board, at which local corporate and business leaders would state their perspectives on the aims of education and education reform, followed by the opportunity for a panel and the audience to question them about their positions. Dan will take the proposal to CCSE.

9. Ken Steffen, SWW Teacher, proposed to the Board that they sponsor SWW's participation in Community's new version of "Horses on Parade". The new "Animal Scramble" involves the selling and painting of a variety of fiberglass animals, rather than just horses. The deal is that we would purchase the "white" animal from the sponsors for $3,300, paint it creatively with student involvement in the design and painting, and place it out side for community viewing for a year. After that, bidding would take place on the animal. SWW could buy it outright and keep it at SWW for $4,000.00, participate in an auction for it, or not participate in trying to keep it. All proceeds go to local charities from the original purchase to the auction. My take on it is that this is a great opportunity to get SWW publicity and also end up with a great symbolic piece of art that could represent what SWW is all about, located forever in the SWW Commons Area. Here's the current plan, if we want to fund this:

   1. We purchase the most unusual animal, like a giraffe or elephant, to represent the uniqueness of SWW, with student participation.

   2. We then sell, for example the spots on the giraffe, to individual SWW students or alumni, for $40.00/each. The SWW purchaser would design the spot , creatively, to state what was powerful or important about their SWW education . Their name would appear on the spot, and placed on the animal, which then be placed in the Commons Area forever.

   3. The 100 X 40 spots or $4,000.00 would be used to offset the cost of purchasing or bidding for the animal. The original $3,300 might be partially covered as well. The loss would go to charity.

   4. Any visitors at SWW could be told to make sure they study the animal and its messages to understand why SWW is such a special place. I really like the idea because it allows for maximum SWW student and Alumni creativity and participation in designing their own "spot". The local publicity would be great PR for SWW, and the idea of having this big, colorful symbolic representation of SWW learning is terrific! Please e-mail in your ideas and questions ASAP. We'll need to try to do some electronic discussion and voting on this because of the time-line.

We agreed to meet again on Thursday, Nov. 21st, 4:30 at SWW. Please come to our meetings. We need you and miss you!!!

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