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School
Readiness Council
Actions
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here for Minutes from meeting YEAR 2003
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Click
here for Minutes from meeting YEAR 2004
Click here for Minutes from January 12, 2005 Click here for Minutes from April 13, 2005 |
MAY 11, 2005
ATTENDANCE: Betsy Bain, Chairwoman; Mary Peniston; Lynn Moritz; JennyLynn Carey; Curtis Law; Carlin Hill; Maryhelen Burk; Linda Wilock; Lauriston Avery; Devon Raymont; Jean Taylor Hart; Patricia Balaban; Victoria Schilling; Ed Schmidt, Assistant to Mayor; Rev. Janet Hodge
STAFF: Mary Budrawich; Barbara Smart;
OTHER: Sally Grose; George Hensinger; Aida Frese; Paula Trujillo;
CALL TO ORDER
Chairwoman Bain called the meeting to order at 9:40 a.m.
APPROVAL OF JANUARY 12, 2005 MINUTES
** MS. CAREY MOVED TO APPROVE MINUTES OF JANUARY 12, 2005 MEETING.
Ms. Budrawich said that she had the following correction:
On page 2, the second to last paragraph, the last sentence should read “Much
of this information is reported at the Early Childhood Alliance meetings.”
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
APPROVAL OF APRIL 13, 2005 MINUTES
** MS. BUDRAWICH MOVED TO APPROVE MINUTES OF APRIL 13, 2005 MEETING.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
UPDATES
School Readiness Grant, Programs and Issues
Ms. Wilock said the grant has been completed for this year. She distributed a Grid showing the allocation of slots to various programs. It was based on the budget of last year. It will now be a two year grant.
** MS. SCHILLING MOVED TO APPROVE GRANT AS OUTLINED IN THE GRID.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
CHEFA
The School Readiness Council voted to award 13 slots of the expanded funding provided to us by the State to the Head Start Program in order to support the CHEFA loan application. They are currently housed at Ben Franklin and will move to Ely when the renovations are complete. CHEFA needed more specific language in the loan application. Ms. Bain distributed a letter outlining the Council’s intent. In the grant proposal, it showed the number of slots at Ely plus the 13 slots that are at Ben Franklin.
** MR. SCHMIDT MOVED TO APPROVE LETTER WITH THE CORRECT LANGUAGE.
Ms. Bain said that the Fairfield architectural firm of Becker & Becker is being recommended to the full Common Council as the architects to work on the project. They had done the work at Marvin. They appear to be qualified to handle the project.
Ms. Moritz asked about the debt. Mr. Schmidt explained that the legislation was passed in 1997, and it was funded in 1998. That allowed CHEFA to issue $33M in financing. The state had committed to pay $1.5M every year for 30 years. A total of $45M would repay the debt and the interest. It had to be 80% or higher to be attractive to a big city. It is normally at 34% for Norwalk and Stamford. CHEFA will finance $18M. Governor Rell has proposed an additional $1M. Norwalk applied for $3.8M of the $18M. There is a requirement of a 10% match on the capital side. The city has allocated $280,000 of CBDG funding, which will be the city’s match, and $100,000 from this year’s capital budget. So the City is leveraging a $4.1M budget with only $100,000 of the City’s money.
Ms. Budrawich stated that anyone who receives CHEFA money has to be aware that the slots that are allocated cannot be reduced, even if a reduction occurs in the allocation that the City receives for school readiness. The repayment of the loan has to be protected. If the allocation is reduced, the Marvin can’t be reduced in slot capacity. This guarantees the number of school readiness children slots at Ely, but it doesn’t necessarily protect slots at Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin, Children’s Playhouse and Room to Grow all had lost 1 slot each. Ms. Peniston confirms that it’s13 slots, not 16 as stated in the letter. Mr. Schmidt said that no additional slots are needed at NEON to implement this proposal. Ms. Peniston suggested an addendum.
Mr. Schmidt said that the correct language for the letter should be as follows:
The School Readiness Council, for this fiscal year, allocated an additional 13 new slots to NEON, which are currently housed at Ben Franklin. Upon completion of the renovation expansion of Nathaniel Ely, those13 slots plus the existing 3 slots, for a total of 16 slots, will be transferred from Ben Franklin to Nathaniel Ely.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
Quality Enhancement
Ms. Wilock reported that there will be a cut of approximately $1,000 this year. Ms. Wilock distributed the program section of the grant.
** MS. BURK MOVED TO APPROVE GRANT.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
Ms. Avery asked where the $1,000 was cut from. Ms. Wilock replied that it came out of Kith & Kin and professional development.
Kids Start Smart: The Norwalk Discovery Initiative.
Kids Start Smart Workplan
Ms. Bain said there was a joint meeting in April. Ms. Peniston said that Kids Start Smart is working on getting information to the public on early childhood. It has joined forces with the United Way on a national runaway campaign. Ms. Frese is working on getting parent input for a parent outreach and advisory group. There is a group of community leaders that includes the Superintendent, the Mayor, the President of Norwalk Community College, and the NAACP, who, along with 20 other people, address issues of youth in general, and more specifically the support of early childhood education. Ms. Peniston read from a current draft of what has been done so far. There will be a meeting in June. Ms. Peniston explained that this is not complete. It is a work in progress and people should feel free to contribute any ideas or suggestions.
Fairfield County Community Foundation Grant
Ms. Budrawich reported that the grant has allowed the Council to utilize the
services of Gail Melanson. She is responsible for identifying children with
challenging behaviors, as well as to increase the capacity of the staff so they
could develop their own strategies to deal with these behaviors. Her services
to date have been underutilized. There is some additional grant money leftover.
There have been two series of awareness sessions conducted, and they have been
well attended.
Regional/State Update
Ms. Budrawich reported that everything appears well. Mr. Schmidt reported that the Governor has allocated $5M for pilot programs. The Appropriations Committee put that money into state contracted daycare centers. Ms. Moritz says that the School Readiness Council has to improve the quality of teachers and the salary issue. Mr. Schmidt suggested that the School Readiness Council work with Norwalk Community College to allocate scholarships. He also said that a letter should be drafted to the Norwalk delegation to let them know how important the School Readiness Council is to Norwalk. It was agreed to put those items on the agenda for the Executive Committee tomorrow. Ms. Moritz asked that a copy of the letter be available to everyone so they could followup with the legislators.
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
Executive Committee
The focus for the last few months has been on analyzing the budgets for the School Readiness Council and quality enhancement grants regarding the revisions for this year. Another area of discussion is monitoring the programs and determining the proper procedure for reporting back to the results to the committee. There will be more discussion on this with the full Council in June.
Informal Care
Ms. Moritz handed out a report at the request of the Council. She said she has attended 3 meetings, and she can provide the minutes to anyone who would like them. There is concern that informal care providers are not interested in becoming licensed care providers. The barriers to licensing are landlords, lead paint issues, and the amount of paperwork involved. Ms. Peniston welcomed anyone to get involved. The meeting is June 8 in Trumbull. Ms. Frese will be the contact person.
Provider Network
Ms. Carey didn’t have anything to report. Ms. Budrawich stated that providers were very much involved in preparing RFP’s. The review and selection committee was very impressed with the proposals. Last Wednesday, Ms. Joy Staples, a consultant for School Readiness Council, conducted a professional development activity open to all early childcare and education providers. The goal was to help providers understand the performance standards involved. The new accreditation criteria is much more specific and stringent. The challenge will be meeting that new criteria.
Review & Selection
At the last few meetings, they reviewed proposals for the upcoming year and discussed the issue of if and when more money becomes available, how would the slots get distributed. The committee will report back in June.
Program
Ms. Budrawich, Ms. Smart and the committee worked hard. A total of 150 people were involved. A summary report will be written. Ms. Paul from Children’s Playhouse had presenters put together a 4-workshop session that included taking the following topics outdoors: early language and literacy, science, conflict resolution, and creative and aesthetic art development. The session was very informative and well presented.
Transition
Rosemary was not at the meeting but provided a one page summary sheet.
Nominating
The nominating committee has not met to date, but Ms. Smart is doing the leg work. The council is made up of people from various organizations. An information sheet was passed around that outlined the membership information and terms. The determination is that you don’t have to be an official member of the School Readiness Council to be part of a subcommittee. The replacement for Lisa Alhabal, from Norwalk Community Health Center, is Scarlett Beltre. Names of candidates will be submitted to the Mayor and the Superintendent.
OTHER
None.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ms. Frese handed out website information.
Ms. Schilling stated that there is a networking breakfast on May 25 from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the community room at City Hall with representative from Help Me Grow, Kids Start Smart, and Norwalk Healthy Family Collaboratives. The goal is for outreach staff to meet and greet others, get referrals, and understand the services that each organization provides.
Ms. Carey stated that there is already a waiting list for September enrollment for three and four year olds.
ADJOURNMENT
** MS. AVERY MOVED TO ADJOURN.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
Chairwoman Bain adjourned the meeting at 11:00 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Carolyn Marr
Telesco Secretarial Services
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