MEETING MINUTES

(For previous meeting minutes, click here)

Butchers Hill Association
General Meeting Notes
May 5, 2010

Committee Reports:

• Flea Market – Beth Braun. Are 116 vendors to date, should hit 140. Still need volunteers.
• Garden Tour – Posters and Postcards available for pickup. Twelve gardens are selected with artist in each. Still need volunteers to sell tickets.
• Community Initiatives – Kathy Hackett. New T-shirts with Pagoda will be available at Flea Market for purchase.
• Streetscape – Thanks to Sandy and everyone who participated in Mayor's Cleanup. Will be new dumpster on May 11 th.
• Crime Prevention – Carolyn Boitnott. Quiet but are “casers” of houses. If you feel there is a “hot spot” for drugs, please notify Crime Prevention Committee.
• Chairs of Land Use and House Tour Committees announced next meetings.
• Education Committee – Still needs a Chair. Carolyn Boitnott introduced representatives of Living Classrooms who will taking charge of Commodore John Rogers (CJR) School as of July 1 st.

Speakers

Living Classrooms - Scott Raymond, VP for Education, and Telib Horne, Director of Community Outreach at Living Classrooms spoke on goals. Eight years ago the Living Classroom association began to run the Crossroads School with 150 children from all over the city. Now one of the top preferred schools in the city. They will bring this talent pool to CJR. Mark Martin will become the principal.

Values – Scholarship,Leadership, and Citizenship – are the goals they want to instill in students. A student is more than test scores. They expect students to do Community Service. CJR was chosen because the kids are decent and just need an academic push. Goal of Living Classrooms is to break the cycle of poverty, working from year “O” to age twenty with graduates going to college or into a good job (like Geoffrey Canada's program in Harlem). Requested that BHA be a partner. Would like volunteers and those willing to be a mentor and meet with students every two weeks for lunch or other activity. Hope to turn one of the worst performing schools into one of the best in three years.

Plans are to continue pre-K to 8 th grade but will reduce size of 6, 7 and 8 th grade to about 15 students per class. Overall want to increase enrollment from 360 to 500 students.

When asked what will Living Classrooms do to help parents who care but don't have skills to help children, Mr. Raymond indicated they planned on reaching 100% of responsible adult(s) students live with. Plan a massive outreach where every student has an annual home visit. Will also refer parent(s) to adult needs programs. Will not put up with “bad behavior” but it will take time to build a culture of respect.

Tish White spoke on behalf of the Patterson Park Dog Park. There has been an 8 to 9 year effort to establish a dog park, handicapped by constant change in City's Recreation/Park directors. She stated that dog parks ad value to a community, particularly when listed in real estate offerings.

Had established an interim agreement with last Parks & Rec Director where a designated area with designated hours would be off-leash. Original goal was a fenced area but budget concerns led to this interim measure. Area would be marshy ground between Pagoda and Lake. Were two community forums to discuss this. With change in director, must once again start over. Looking for new members. Can see activity on web with PattersonParkDogPark.org.

Anne Fleshman , owner of Baltimore Contained, spoke briefly on container gardening. Talked about watering problems re roof gardening. To offset very hot days where such gardens must be watered twice daily, add gel to soil mix for water retention. Another option is a water mat which can be cut and put in bottom pots or boxes which will cut watering needs. Other options are coffee filters or shipping peanuts to reduce weight at bottom of pot. Also provided information on ground cover that can be walked on (Treadwell, Steponit, Sedums, Thyme). Discussed cascading plants that will do well in this climate.

Baltimore Contained provides garden coaching (home visits and consultations). Will design and install. Located at 2400 Fleet Street. Contact at 410-732-7717 or Baltimorecontained@gmail.com . Open Thursday 12-5, Friday 10-6, and Saturday/Sunday 10 to 5pm.