Meeting of 21 November 2000
Minutes
Recently Achieved
The Coalition sponsored meetings with Mr.
Marcellino and Mr. Silverman, candidates for state senator.
Mayor Suozzi had a community meeting on
education at which several people expressed misconceptions about the
schools and anger with the schools. We now have a better idea of the
misconceptions and of the causes of the anger. .
At the Charter School meeting sponsored
by the Board of Education on Monday November 20, 2000, there were
about 1,000 people. At its last meeting, The Board of Education
voted 5-2 to send a resolution to the New York State Charter School
Institute against a Charter School for Glen Cove.
Sally Zwiebach continues to write articles for
her Spotlight on the
Schools newspaper column. She
has written about the activities at Connolly and Finley Middle
School. Presently she is working on an article on Landing School.
Eight
people who were interested in the election for
Board of Education in May 2001 met during November.
It was an excellent discussion and people were considering
withdrawing so there will only be two strong candidates that the
Coalition will back. There will be further discussion on this issue after
Thanksgiving.
A brochure is being designed which explains the
budget in detail and especially the small part we actually vote on.
We have gotten non-profit status with the Post
Office and we should win approval as a non-profit corporation within
the next two weeks.
It
was suggested that we invite all the custodians and secretaries of
the Glen Cove Schools to join the Coalition.
Our membership is about 150 members.
For
discussion:
We need to have a voters’ registration for
the people who are not registered.
It is important that we set up a schedule of
the events that we plan for the remainder of the year in order to
budget for the cost of these events.
We
need to raise about $10,000 to
be effective in this budget election. The brochures that we send out must be professional because
perceptions are important. Actually
we plan on a few mailings starting early next year.
It was suggested that one fund raiser be a breakfast at
Steamboat Landings for
$25. Each member of the
Coalition would be asked to solicit five people for the breakfast.
Mike Swirnoff
pointed out that press releases do not cost and are useful
for getting our messages out.
Sally Zwiebach and George Priest offered to
visit the Glen Cove chapter of the AARP to speak about the schools
and about the STAR program of property assessment reductions. We
would also like to visit the Senior Citizens, and Assisted Living
facilities. We would
like to hear their concerns so that we could turn any negative
feelings into positive proposals. It is important that they understand the Star Program and its
benefits. Also we want
to point out the quality of life that they should want for their
children and grandchildren. There is a recent school video about the
Pep Squad and an older video about the schools that we should use
when we speak to community groups.
Lorri Prince offered to organize a drive during
Christmas vacation to encourage graduates who are in college to
register to vote and to provide the graduates with absentee ballots.
Lee
Drucker is researching the ownership of conspicuous pieces of
property in Glen Cove.
Jean Kuttruff, Mary Mapleson, and Toni Rokos
have the names of 60 community leaders that they have invited
to visit the schools. We
want these people to see that the schools are doing an excellent
job.
Leslie Whitely is working on the bookmark
contest. The students
will list their one thought about their school.
The bookmarks will be decorated, printed, and given out at
the Senior Center, Assisted Living communities, and the library.
Natasha Price
22 November 2000 |