SUMMIT MEETING NOTES
October 11, 2007
Location: St. Clare Catholic Church

 ACTION ITEMS

The key action items as agreed to in this meeting are as follows:

ATTENDEES: (See Abbreviation Key)

ABSENT:

AGENDA

• Welcome and Introductions
• Host Greetings
• Agenda Review & Modification

• Review of Minutes from Last Month’s Meeting

• Opening Prayer

• Special Announcements

• Review of Action Items from Last Month’s Meeting

• CPOP/COP/Court Watch

• CHCURC Update

• CHBA Update

• Children’s Hospital Update

• Community Activities

• Discussion Topic Continued: Schools

DISCUSSION: 

1.   Special Announcements

·        Fr. George shared that 2009 will be the 100^th anniversary of St. Clare.   There will be a year long celebration with numerous events.

·        Steve gave an update on various Aiken extracurricular activities which could be of interest to the community:

-     Phyllis won a winter season pass for all sports at the fund-raiser dinner.

-     Saturday, Oct 13, is Homecoming.   The festivities will include community recognition.

-     The volleyball team has won 4 of their last 6 games.   They will be in a tournament on Saturday.

-     Aiken is the only CPS school to field a cress-country team this year. 

-     There is a new club this year which is environmentally focused, called the Green Team.

-     The cooking club continues to generate a lot of student interest and participation.   It is going to cater the Aiken fall banquet. 

2.   Review of Aug & Sept 2007 Minutes
The Aug & Sept minutes were approved and will be sent to Tom Strothers for posting.  There was one correction for the Sept minutes, which was to clarify the references to Eric’s presentation on Aiken as being specific only to Aiken College & Career. 

3.   Review of Action Items from Previous Meetings

All action items scheduled to be done by this meeting were completed:

-     Trena gave an update on Pleasant Hill Academy at this meeting.

-     Fr. George reported that Hillcrest Science Academy suspended activities because of low enrollment.    They started only last summer advertising themselves, and so will try again next year.

-     Sean gave a brief update on College Hill Fundamental Academy at this meeting, sitting in for Barbara Gordon.

-     Valerie handed out a compilation of all meeting notes on the Barriers Discussion at Summit, from February of this year through Sept.   (See Attachment #1)  If she has time (her mother has significant health issues), she will try to distill this down into one or two pages. 

4.   CPOP/CPD/COP/Court Watchers – by Jim Bodmer

Officer Pechiney handed out a flyer of Burglary Safety Tips.

He also reviewed the Sept Crime Report.  B&E’s and burglaries are up 9%.   The police have increased focus on burglaries, and have added extra plain clothes police.   Many thefts are happening in the daytime as thieves are becoming quite bold.   For example, this month some men were observed stealing copper tubing from an air conditioning unit on top of an unoccupied commercial building in broad daylight.   A stained glass window was also stolen during the day from a St. Clare building. 

Jim reported:

-         They are still working on getting a place for the Probation Officer.

-         They still have issues with guys roaming the streets.   Some have just gotten out of jail, some are just returning from other parts of the city.

-         Prostitutes are coming up from Northside because of increased crackdown there.   They tend to be on the streets from noon to midnight.

Marty added that the community needs to be aware of a new door-to-door cleaning scam.   People are claiming to be from a company called Oakwood Carpet Cleaning, but are using this as an excuse to get inside homes and steal. 

5.   CHCURC Update – by Marty Weldishofer

·        Linden Park – Marty showed us the design and layout of the revised Linden Park design.  The city and Neyer are meeting on Friday to review.   The desire is to get a Council vote before the new members come on board who will lack all the background.   They are looking at MI Homes to build the townhouses.   In order to obtain Federal funding, more detail is needed.   The townhomes will be 1300-1700 sq ft, and will have 2 or 3 bedrooms.   The design is similar to the Bluffs at Woodcrest.   Neyer is reworking the Avenue buildings to match.   Apartments will be available with 900-1600 sq ft. of space.

·        Gateway – The team met with Jack Martin, the city architect, who is overseeing the design.   There was a discussion about the long term property ownership for the north gateway.  The final design will have lighting.

·        Signs – They are in round 3 of the design process. 

·        Facade – There will be an architectural review board at the Rock on Thursday.  There are 6 or 7 projects in process.   2 projects are completed. 

6.   CHBA – by Karen Hartman

·        The annual Mix & Mingle went well.  Food was great.  New people came.   There will be another in the spring.

·        They are working on funding for the office for the Probation Officer.   Forum voted unanimously in support of this initiative. 

7.   Children’s Hospital Update – by Joan Burger

·        October is Mental Health Awareness Month.   CCHMC has several activities planned.

-         They are promoting the Mental Health Levy.   Have passed out information.   Funding from the levy supports 40 agencies, which is important since both state and federal funding has been cut.

-         Sponsored Cincinnati Walks for Kids.   Handed out a flyer at this event.

-         Sam’s Club is giving a discount to the CCHMC Psychiatry Dept.  They can share this discount with the community, only in October.  

• Construction on the College Hill campus is complete.   All units have been moved except for Eating Disorders, which will stay in its current location.   There are 13 new outpatient offices.    There’s a total of about 400 staff now at the College Hill location. 

8.   Community Events

o       Pumpkin Patch – this year’s Pumpkin Patch was highly successful.   It was a very hot day, and they had more kids attend than ever before.  The entertainment was wonderful.   Llanfair took 1^st prize in the scarecrow contest, while CHCURC and Mercy took 2^nd and 3^rd, respectively.

o       Halloween at the Rec Center –Last year, about 400 people attended the 1^st Halloween extravaganza at the Rec Center.   It will be held again this year on Halloween   Now in the process of getting corporate sponsors.   Expecting 400 kids again.  Need volunteers and donations (donate through the Forum).

o       Candidates Night – Tuesday, Oct 16, is a candidates night in the community for judges, school board, etc.   Court Watch has some opinions to share.

o       New Orleans Mardi Gras – is the theme of the annual St. Clare Evening for Excellence fundraiser on Oct 27.   Marty handed out a flyer.   Website is www.thevening.org 

9.   Discussion Topic: Schools

Sean McCauley shared briefly about College Hill Fundamental Academy.   Barbara Gordon has hip replacement surgery in July, but then found the other hip needed replaced Oct 2.   She is expected back at work on Dec 1. 

CH Fundamental Academy is movin to the old Pleasant Hill building this summer.   The current school building will be renovated, which is expected to take about 2 years.    The architectural design is currently being finished.  

The school was rated Continuous Improvement last year, but are very close to the next level.   Current enrollment is ~485 students. 

Treena Goodwin gave an update on Pleasant Hill Aademy.

-         Girls Scouts is starting in October, during and after school, for 5^th – 7^th grade girls.

-         Penny Pal Savings Group has started with 1^st-3^rd graders.

-         Powell-Crosley YMCA is running a new after school program beginning Nov 5.  A full time coordinator will be housed at the school.   Parents are excited about the free program.

-         The Bengals Oct 21 game will be a fund raiser for the school.

-         Starting a partnership with P&G Winton Hill Technical Center for tutoring.

-         Thanks to CHG for doing the planters around the school.

-         This year, enrollment is 547 students.  Some students are coming back that went to other schools.   If enrollment goes up to 560, the school will get back monies that had been lost. 

-         The Student of the Month program is continuing.   A popular reward is a free lunch at a restaurant like IHOP.   Each group that goes has 15-20 students.  Need volunteers to drive and chaperone.   Some kids have never been to a sit-down restaurant, so this is a very special experience for them.

-         The PTA is struggling.  Not enough parents are participating.   Some parents are volunteers during the day.

-         Funding cuts have led to a deep cut in classroom supplies.   Trena will provide Summit members a list of items needed so that the community can help provide these.

-         Volunteers are needed to help with reading during the daytime.   Call 238-8010 if you can help.   

10. Announcements

o       A funeral was held at CHPC this morning for the girl killed in the hit & run accident.

o       CCHMC has a patient that needs to do community service.   She is 16.  Joan is the contact.

o       Franciscan Friends is having a blood drive.   A flyer was handed out. 

Next Summit Meeting: November 8, 2007 @ 8:00 am at Llanfair Retirement Center.   

                                                                                                Summarized by:

                                                                                                Valerie Hershberger

                                                                                                Nov 7, 2007

Abbreviation Key: