The next NYCSU meeting will be:

Monday, Oct 30
5:30 to 8:00
52 Broadway Btwn Exchange and Morris
Room TBA

As usual, there will be pizza and snacks.
Member schools must send a representative.

On Monday, Oct. 16th, we held our second meeting, an action meeting at which we discussed some more issues and came up with some great ways to work on them.

Some new things we talked about were:
- Regents standards, whether or not they are too high, and whether curriculum is too regents-based
- Grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that are running out and the resulting privatization of schools.
- Fundraising as a key aspect of student government.

We broke those issues, along with all the issues brought up at the first meeting (which you can see if you check out our website: nycstudents.org), into a few categories, the most popular of which were security, curriculum, outreach/student unity/student governments, and funding. We then tested out our bicameral voting system (one vote per student present plus one vote per school present) which worked a little sloppily, but we’re getting the hang of it, and came to the conclusion that we needed to break into two campaign groups, one tackling security and one tackling outreach.

—————————————– Security ———————-

The Security campaign has decided to work with Urban Youth Collaborative on finding ways to resolve violence in schools, rather than relying on metal detectors, police officers and punishment to solve the problem. Some of us will be attending a UYC meeting on Monday, Oct 23rd. If you want to come, email nycstudentunion@yahoo.com ASAP to discuss meeting up.

—————————————- Outreach ———————-

At the end of our outreach planning session we came up with a set of action we can be accountable for by next meeting.

-We agreed to all report back to nycstudentunion@yahoo.com by next Wednesday (10/25) about our progress reaching out to schools around the city
-We agreed that each of us would be accountable for working to get two schools to the next meeting. We decided to consider one student emailing nycstudentnunion@yahoo.com to confirm that they would attend the next meeting as a recruited school.
-We mentioned this list of schools to target, we all know which ones we are responsible for:
Finance and Enterprise HS, Grover Cleveland HS, CCNY HS, Hunter HS, Global Studies HS, Bishop Lockland HS, Bedford Academy, Tottenville, PPAS, LaGuardia International HS, ICE, School of the Future, NEST+M, Civil Rights HS, Bronx Science, and Academy of American Studies.
If we can network with all of these schools that would be great.
-To help in the outreach we wanted a pitch letter, I have attached one to this email.
-We also agreed to begin research about a book distribution program by talking to science teachers and administrators about whether unused books are available, who has authority over books, or whether books are needed, or look at the DOE website to try to find out the regulations regarding book disposal or when a book become out of date.
-In addition George, the Stuy Student Gov. President, agreed to look into the annual COSA meeting as a great out reach possibility.

Also, some people wanted a listserv address with which they could email all the other NYCSU members… So Danya, our tech person, is working on this and we’ll try to have something.

Lastly, we were discussing different ways we can work on improving student government in schools, including increased communication inside schools with administration and students. We can continue thinking about this stuff for next time.

Two NYCSU members have a letter published in the NY Times!

New York Times, City Section, October 8, 2006
School Cellphone Ban Is Not the Solution

To the Editor:
Re “Getting the 411 on Random School Checks” (Oct. 1):

The ban on cellphones in public schools is unsafe and counterproductive. Many students travel long distances to and from school every day. During their commutes, students need to be able to contact their parents or someone who could assist them in an emergency.

Contrary to certain claims, the cellphone ban will not create a better learning environment in schools. In fact, when students feel that School Safety Agents are there to confiscate the very items that give students a sense of security, students may be reluctant to go to them when there really is an emergency.

Students who irresponsibly use their cellphones in school should face serious consequences. However, it is not right to punish students who keep their cellphones off and out of sight. This is one issue we at the New York City Student Union, a coalition of students from public high schools all over the city, are working to address.

Laura Johnson
Seth Pearce
Park Slope, Brooklyn

The first meeting of the New York City Student Union, on September 25th, was attended by students from fourteen schools, who all brought their own vivacity and ingenuity to our crowded table. We’d like to invite you to our next meeting! Last time we discussed the issues we faced in our schools and in the education system, ranging from overemphasis on standardized testing to problems with curriculum to the criminalization of students in high-security schools. Now we’re going to put those ideas into action. On Monday, October 16th, we hope to see you at our action meeting, where we’ll figure out how to put our energy, creativity, and resources to work to make our schools a better place for students. The NYC Student Union is run entirely by public high school students, for public high school students. If you know some other public high school students, bring them too! (Sorry! Teachers, parents, and other adults are not invited.) If you have an issue that’s especially important to you, come in with research and ideas about it. If not, come in ready to make your brain work!

Meet us at the UFT Offices:
50 Broadway (between Exchange and Morris down below Wall st.)
2nd Floor (follow the signs to the room)
5:30-8:00 (5:15 if you want 15 minutes to eat pizza, and there will be pizza)

And if you need more info, contact us:
nycstudentunion@yahoo.com

See you there!