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District 30 Democrats: Minutes August 1, 2009
[Draft: to be approved at Oct. 3 LD 30 meeting]
Agenda Item: Assigned To:
Summary of Information//Points of View:Decision/Action Taken:
Welcome and Pledge of Allegiance (10 a.m. starttime)
Suzanne Newton,Chair
Pledge of Allegiance recited by those attending.Pledge led by Don KretIntroductions
Suzanne Newton,Chair
Officers and reps to County Exec Committee are introduced.MinutesJen Prileson,secretaryPat Canady moved to accept the June 6 minutes as written (byMark Kerr).Minutes from the last meeting in May were posted on
30dems.blogspot.com
. Hard copies will continueto be made available atmonthly LD meetings inlimited quantity.Minutesamended/corrected.Motion to approve minutesmade by Pat Canady,seconded and passed. June6, 2009 meeting minuteswill be posted on the blog.Treasurer’s Report
Alex Mich,Treasurer
Alex Mich gave the report. we have a current balance of $358.12after payments made for supplies, postage, quarterly support for theCounty Democratic Party, booth space in Sahuarita, and printedchecks from Wells Fargo.Leroy Dyson moved thatwe accept the treasurer’sreport. Motion secondedand report approved.Guest Speaker PennyKotterman
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Candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.Election to be held in 2010.
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PennyKotterman.com is her website
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Background: teacher for many years, esp. in SpecialEducation at middle school level; former AEA President
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Dedicated both professional and personal life to promotingeducation as basis for strong democracy. High expectations,high standards with resources to support.
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Systematically reduced support for education; spending
more but less per student as AZ has grown from 650,000 to1.2 million students. Our state is now ranked #50 in per pupil spending.
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Need to focus on what our kids really need to learn, sincethe world of work has changed.
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Need to change how we assess students. School ratings can be managed differently even with federal mandates. Focusinstruction on what matters, tests will take care of themselves. Have to provide all kids access to rigorouseducation options (honors, AP etc). Quality of teachers is #1factor in student achievement. Class size has gone up asover 7,000 (15% ) of AZ’s certified teachers due to budgetcuts.
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Performance pay (merit pay) – need to revise what thislooks like.
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School safety: disciplinary actions include the more seriousinfractions but not those conditions and incidents that leadto the more serious ones. Greater emphasis needed on prevention.
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Schools should be the center of the community – playgrounds, ball fields, libraries, should be available to theneighborhoods. Parent education and health services can be provided through community partnerships at schools.
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Need leadership to accomplish all these things.
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No moderate Republicans running for this office. She is theonly female running from either party at this point.
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Asked for donations, signatures, volunteers.
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Questions: 1. Charter schools receiving federal $$? Theyare public schools and we have the right to question howour taxes are being used; federal initiative includesimportant requirements; we should be skeptical and watchclosely. Federal money for Title I and Special Education:less than 20% has been allocated to the schools. 2. Wheredid your kids go to school? Here in AZ. [more discussionre. recess and PE mandates]. 3. How do we pay for thekinds of assessment we need to substitute for the currentsystem? Schools should develop their own; too expensiveto do something uniform statewide. Site-based assessments
supplemented by standardized assessments can take place.Example: NAEP can do a rating system by assessing acarefully selected cross-section of students to get state-widesamples for ranking and comparisons as a way of gettingaccountability data on specific measures. 4. I had troublehiring anyone who could read or do basic punctuation. Howwill you handle this? It’s not that simple. Kids learn to readin different ways. Technology has changed the way kidswrite. Writing assessment can’t be done with a bubble-intest; we need to utilize technology better to teach kids innew ways that are more effective.Chair’s Report:PCDP Executive CommitteeReportState Committee Report
Suzanne Newton,Chair; LauraHogan, PCDPExec. Committee
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Fiesta: Sept. 26 in the Sahuarita park. We will have a booththere (see Alex Mich’s report). Voter registration,candidates can come and introduce themselves, won’t beselling anything, need signups to volunteer. David Hoseawill set up and man the booth – see him to sign up.
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Laura was at the county Exec meeting: roof repairscompleted at HQ (took the balance of maintenance budget).$2,000 will be moved over from somewhere else in the budget for any unexpected repairs. City council candidateswill have a fundraiser: Jim Hightower will be in town Aug.30.Committee Reports
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PatCanady
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MaryJaneDyson
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DavidHosea
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PC Recruitment & Training: no report at this time.
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Hospitality: Mary Jane thanked everyone for contributionsand said that her committee was able to continue providingrefreshments at meetings as long as these continued. Signupsheet being passed around. Will need help for Oct and Novmeetings.
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GOTV: In addition to the event Sept. 26, there will be theReid Park event Oct. 4 (see Don Kret’s information) andFriends Indeed event [on La Canada in Green Valley; watchDVD and have a discussion afterwards regardinghealthcare, Wed. Aug. 12
th
].Old Business
Don Kret
Fundraiser: Dysons and Suzanne worked with Don on theFundraiser committee. Fliers: Octoberfest will be Sunday Oct. 4,
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District 30 Democrats: Minutes August 1, 2009
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| Upload Date: | 08/04/2009 |
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