Minutes of meeting on 2/3/2008 in Lal Bagh Date: 2/3/2008 Attendees: Mandi, John, Sanjeev, Siva, Anita 1) Asha introduction by Siva 1.1) Admin 1.2) Projects - School adoption program – 2 schools – various help - Chaitanya – funding the effort - Fellowship – to help government programs run better - Ballia 2) Sita School Anita spoke about her interaction with Sita school. She learnt about the effort after she met Jane Sahi (founder/teacher) at the Learning Network Conference where Jane was the keynote speaker. Jane had spoken about the importance of dialogue in the context of Sita school being a resource to the use of Art in education with the government schools of Chamarajnagar. Sita school is a small alternative school that focuses on use of art as a medium of education. The school has been running for about 30 yrs and their experience and thought can be seen in every aspect of what they do at the school. When Jane and Jyoti moved to Silvepura (near the upcoming new Airport) there was no school in the area and the school was a response to this. At present there are about 30 children at the school. Majority of these children are either dropouts from mainstream schooling with reasons varying from learning disorders to behavioral incompatibility with the mainstream schools. They also involved with working with the local government schools. Additional details are available in the proposal. Q: What is the goal of the school? A: This has changed over the time, initially it was a response to lack of access, now it serves the needs of those who are unable to manage in the mainstream. Here is an article that talks a little more about this. Action Item1: An article by Jane is available on how the goals of the school have changed over time. Anita to fwd the article to the group. Q: What is the profile of Alumni? A: Information about the activities of alumni is available (Q.18) in the proposal. Will ask for information regarding longer term profile. Q: Will it be possible of asha supported government school teachers (5 number) to undergo some training or interaction during the summer? A: We can explore this. Q: Is there any other inputs/resources? A: There is a book associated with their experiences of attempting to implement the art with education program in Chamarajnagar with NIAS. http://roshansahi.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-07-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2007-08-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=50 Q: Other work with government schools? A: They have developed science education kits which they are working with the local government schools to utilize. Additionally, they are also looking into comfort with English in the summer for anyone who wants to learn it in the village. Volunteers felt that the project was interesting and can also be a good resource to interact and learn from. It was decided to pursue further and visit the school. Action Item2: Organize trip to the school. Documentation: Proposal: http://www.ashanet.org/bangalore/projects/proposals/SitaSchool/SiteVisitReport_SitaSchool.doc Site Visit: http://www.ashanet.org/bangalore/projects/proposals/SitaSchool/AshaProposal_SitaSchool.doc 3. Government school program Teachers Salary – School - Siva 8000 3500 3000 3000 3000 21,000 ‡ 2,41,000 Additionally, there would be trip, perhaps some organized events and the overall budget can be expected around ‡ 3,00,000 4. Other discussions 1) We discussed the need for someone to drive project coordination as in other chapters. It was decided that Sanjeev would take up project coordination for the Bangalore chapter. 2) Alternate week meetings at various project locations to interact with groups in and around Bangalore. 3) New people to add to the group Amandagrover123@... jcorporate@...