Follow Up from Last Month
Fundraising Committee Update
See notes from meeting. Jane Buccheri will be reaching out to Bon Secours shortly.
Principal’s Dinner Recap
President Perman hosted a dinner at the B&O Railroad Museum and the schools in the Southwest Partnership to discuss mental health issues in the schools, what resources they have, and what resources they need and how the schools and the anchor institutions can collaborate to support them. Was a successful dinner, schools were appreciative and the anchors appreciated being able to have face-to-face contact with the schools. Mental health and social work needs can sometimes get lost by educators/researchers, miss the point that children have special needs. CURE is looking to include social work resources into the grants that they are writing.
Lou: relational aspect was the most important, would like to consider holding similar events on a quarterly basis, also challenged the schools to think about collaborating with each other
Abigail: teaches in the University of Maryland Psychiatric outpatient program—no longer have vans to pick kids up and so kids no longer have a way to access the program; Sabrina has been in conversations about that
UMB has assembled a meeting to discuss their contribution to Southwest Baltimore schools
Elizabeth: follow up will be around sharing note summary, as well as potential best practices around suggested issues
Enrichment Programs (Nisha): work stemmed from conversation around questions about which enrichment programs are available. Is working on building a database out that brings together the resources and programs that are available, developing information on the website that would be pertinent to kids and families. Also looking at organizing a working group for enrichment providers that would be interested in collaborating together
Edith: should talk to Amanda Talbert as well as the Boys and Girls Club
Jane: Boy Scouts are willing to expand
Kirwan Commission Advocacy:
Sheila: Commission started in 2016, reviewing and assessing the educational financing, one of the recommendations is for every school in Maryland to be Community Schools. Tuesday Senate Bill 1030 which will accept and fund the Kirwan recommendations and it looks like it will pass quickly. Will include $110,000,000 in grants for schools with high concentrations of poverty, no real specificity in the bill about how the money will be spent but may recommend hiring a state-wide community school manager. Advocacy now is around keeping Gov. Hogan from vetoing the bill. Next will have to work on specifics around community school work—especially local management. Sheila asked the Committee to write a note to Gov. Hogan expressing support, will also send a link that will generate an email to our representatives.
House Bill Hearing March 13th 1pm
Ingenuity Project:
Students at other schools, even schools with middle schools, in the area who are eligible for the Ingenuity Project are being invited to attend the Ingenuity Project at James McHenry. Letters are being sent home to students—it does provide students with access to a high quality STEM curriculum, but also might be taking students away from students at other schools. The recruitment is city-wide. The Committee would like there to be some priority for students in the area, Committee members also think it’s important for students to have access to high quality.
Elizabeth met with the Executive Director who mentioned that they were focusing their recruitment on elementary schools, and that they were open to potentially prioritizing students who lived in the area zip codes.
Upcoming Month
Jay: working with Baltimore City Public School System, working with the 100% project based out of Commodore John Rogers, planning a career fair on April 5th (9am-2pm) passed around a sign in sheet for folks who are interested in attending.
Franklin Square: Teacher’s Democracy Project is working on Restorative Practices and Circle Conversations, hosted by the parent group at Franklin Square.
Rally March 11th at City Hall that will prohibit discrimination from source of income—people with housing vouchers and other forms of rental assistance will not be discriminated against
Donnell: Union Square is rolling out a new program called the Book Buddies program, going into Steuart Hill and providing mentors who will have the children read to them to improve their reading (2nd grade students). Looking for 39 mentors (there are 39 second graders).
New Business and Announcements
What If?
