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Logistics

Sunday Work Party Report

Closed Schools

East Oakland

School of Social Justice

North Oakland

Washington Elementary

Golden Gate

Community Meeting

Goal

Talk honestly and openly with community members (including kids) about their desires and interests for schooling.

Structure

  1. If more than 15-20 people show up, break up the meeting into smaller groups (10-20 people).
  2. Go around and do introductions
    • My name is...
    • The reason why I am here is because...
  3. Begin general discussion bringing up the following topics:
    • Current state of the Oakland public schools
    • History of public education and its uses
    • History of the Free School movement
    • Ideas and possibilites for the East Bay FreeSkool

  4. If we broke up into smaller groups, reconverge into a larger group
  5. Close with a shorter discussion while asking the following questions:

Community Meeting Location Deadline

The community location confirmation deadline is Thursday, April 7th.

Checkins

Kiran

I asked some kids about a FreeSkool class wishlist. Here's what they wanted:

We should look into contacting pet shops and animal shelters to borrow animals. Kids love animals.

John

I've been researching Oakland Unified history. You can see more at FreeSkoolResearch. I'll do a lot more in the coming days.

I (and Anders) discovered a few organizations that we may work with us. They're also listed on the FreeSkoolResearch page. I'm planning to contact as many as possible this week.

Mostly off-topic: The BarringtonCollective website has been hosting a coop directory (http://barringtoncollective.org/housing) for sometime now. I have been working with somebody else recently on producing a more "dynamic" housing site. It's beta testing right now and will go live in about three weeks.

Anders

I'm doing more and more research on FreeSkool...since it's for my thesis anyways.

Community Meeting (Flyering and Kids)

Discussion

Kiran: I think we should include the following phrases on the flyer:

Anthony: We should transmit (in general):

Yogi: What about a phone number? Many people do not have regular access to computers.

Anthony: I figure that they can come to the meeting.

John: I think a lot of people are hesistant to give out their personal line simply because they don't want random drunk people calling them at 2am. "Heeeeey buddie!"

Kiran: We totally need have a BarringtonCollective home base with a phone line. I'm totally going to make it happen if I'm still here at the end of the year...

Mike: I can do Cantonese langauge translation at the meeting, but my writing isn't so hot. I can get help doing the written translation.

Many: What about kid liability?

Kiran: Free child care is sketchy...

Yogi: No one is just going to give their kids away to some random people they've never met.

Anders: I think we should encourage kids to stay. If they are getting restless, I think it tells us something about our meeting; that we are too boring or that we're not communicating effectively.

Anthony: Perhaps we need an "Easily Distractable" room? Humor, I think, will help break down initial apprentions at this meeting.

Kiran: The child care worker would also need to be able to speak spanish. And I agree with Anders. If kids are getting bored, we're not doing something right.

Claire: How about a kids table with markers, books and papers? They could go over if they ever get bored.

Anders: We should be treating the kids as people too. We need to make sure we also address some of our questions to the children.

John: Just thought of something. We should have name tags, no?

Everyone: Yes!

Kiran: I think we need to make an effort to make the flyer appealing to the community we're targeting. As much as I like our aesthetic, I think it may be alienating.

Anthony: It shouldn't be boring. Boring itself is exclusionary and alienating.

Yogi: Look at the flyers in the area you're planning to target and take notes on style.

Anthony: We should meet at John's place this Sunday with Erin's printer in tow.

Consensus Summary

Sunday Work Party

We will meet Sunday, April 10th, 6pm (ish) at John's pad to produce the flyer. Contact <jingoro AT casa-z DOT org> for directions.

Other Ideas

Support

Many are feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, giddy and, in general, weird. The following is a brief, incomplete and anonymous summary of what was discussed.

Next Meeting

Our next FreeSkool meeting will take place Tuesday, April 12th at Nabalom Bakery. See you there!

Barrington Collective: MeetingMinutes/FreeSkool/20050405 (last edited 2008-01-10 05:18:21 by anonymous)