Education and Workforce Committee Meeting Minutes

 

  1. Attendance

Elaine Lee

Schlonte McGee

Julie Rivera

Lou Packett

Dottie Paige

Sabriyah Hassan

Bif Browning

Nancy Littlepage

  1. Community School Tour Recap
    1. Bif and Sabriyah spoke on their experience touring the Arlington Elementary Middle School (Community School)
      1. Sabriyah explained that it ran through the Family League and for most community schools a grant for that is applied through them. They provide extra support for coordination. She also mentioned that a benefit of a good community school is that it allows for extra accountability for the school administration. The main struggle could be the school having to do more data tracking for all of the resources being utilized in the school.
      2. Sabriyah also mentioned that the community resource coordinator at the school discussed that they looked to address 3 things in the school; out of school time, attendance, and family engagement.  
      3. Bif also spoke on the many resources that they saw while they were there as well as was mentioned by the coordinator.
        1. Monthly Food Bank (over 500 people)
          1. Fresh food and produce
        2. Strong Neighborhood volunteers
          1. Avg 6 volunteers a day
        3. Over 300 parents in attendance for School Nights
        4. After school programs
          1. Vision exams and resources
    2. The overall consensus of the many members in the meeting was that
      1. More parent/volunteer support. There need to be way s to have parents more involved in their children’s education and help with the resources that we do have in the area.
      2. Teachers needs to challenge kids. Bif mentioned that no school administration beside coordinator were present for the tour. Some members mentioned that it should be important for school administration to see how this school doing it and see if those strategies can be used in their schools.  
      3. More community overall support. Many members agreed that some differences can be seen, but there is still room for improvement, and parents need to provide input in the meetings as well, it was mentioned that none of the members in the meeting had children except for one, so they may be speaking out of turn for parents who may feel differently about certain issues discussed.  
      4. With the discussion of reaching out to parents to have them more involved, Ms. Dottie mentioned that they should reach out at the events that are held at the Community Engagement Center, like line dancing. Elaine, JR and others have been working on recreating the library at Steuart Hill and it was suggested that there should be a grand opening at the event as to help reach more parents as well, and encourage parents to do readings and have their children utilize it.
  2. School Reports was pushed for the next meeting.  
  3. Fundraising for Small Grants Fund for Schools was pushed for the next meeting.
  4. The final thing that was discussed by the committee members was the lack of advertising that is done for many resources that are being provided in the area. Bif mentioned that there was a day where at a school they were giving away tennis shoes for kids and families and it wasn’t advertised enough.It also discussed about a possibility for teachers/school administrations to connect altogether. A member suggested a roundtable and create a transparency between the neighborhoods and schools.
  5. The meeting was adjourned around 9:05pm.  
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