SEPTEMBER 14, 2006

ATTENDANCE: Betsy Bain, Chairwoman; Victoria Schilling; Mary Peniston;
Donna Rogers-Jones; Paula Trujillo; Jeanne Hard; Pat Balaban;
Linda Wilock; Curtis Law; Marie Ange-Nicolas; Patricia Kieriecki;
Gerri Degnan; Beatrice Krawecki; Marilyn Lewis; Migdalia (Mindy)
Garcia; Susan Bonk; Devon Rayment; Elaine Andersen;
Marlene DeBellis; Jen Schriver; Shari Konn-Andrade; Rovitta Paul; Mary
Budrawich

STAFF: Barbara Smart

OTHER: George Hensinger; Sally Grose; Aida Frese; Jill Lamberti;

CALL TO ORDER

Chairwoman Bain called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.

MEETING CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME

Chairwoman Bain had everyone introduce themselves, and she welcomed Ms. Jen Schriver and Ms. Mindy Garcia, the two new members of the Council. Chairwoman Bain explained that the Council operates with a subcommittee structure; therefore, each member of the Council is asked to serve on a subcommittee. Ms. Smart is the coordinator for that effort.

APPROVAL OF THE MAY MINUTES

** MS. BALABAN MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF MAY 2006.

The correction to the minutes is as follows:

On page 2, under Quality Enhancement, change the word “ECKERS” to “ECERs”.

** MS. DEGNAN SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

UPDATES

A. School Readiness Grant, Programs and Issues

1. RFP (Minor Capital Improvements & Wiring)

Ms. Wilock said the Council received the grant award in the amount of $2,605,756, which represents a slight increase. The Review & Selection Committee and the Executive Committee held a joint meeting prior to receiving the award in order to establish some priorities. The first priority for any additional funding was to give it to a program that was able to open a new classroom that represented increased capacity. Based on that, they were able to award 10 full-day, full-year slots at Room to Grow, which just opened a new classroom this week. They had just enough money left over for one part-day slot at Naramake. That left them with 303 full-time slots and 22 part-day slots, for a total of 225.

Ms. Wilock said the Marvin is still awaiting the Minor Capital Improvements grant that they were notified about.

2. Monitoring

Ms. Budrawich said that all the programs were visited and monitored. During the summer months, a verification visit was conducted by the Connecticut School Readiness Pre-School Program Evaluation System, which is the State evaluation system for the School Readiness Program. A report is then sent to the State in August. Ms. Budrawich distributed information on the top 3 issues within the community. She said that the re-accreditation system is now very advanced and they are on a sharp learning curve to get the programs re-accredited, some as early as March of 2007. They have pledged to provide as much support as possible, including training and technical assistance. Through quality enhancement, every program receives $700 to the purchase of the accreditation materials. In addition, every program will receive another $700 as soon as the quality enhancement award is received.

Ms. Budrawich said that they were able to add 4 volunteer classrooms to the ECERs list this year, bringing the total to 14. She said that ECERs is available to non-school readiness programs as well, and they will try to focus on them in order to have them become school readiness programs.

Ms. Budrawich said that if the goal is to have all children have access to pre-K, then the focus should be on expanding the capacity to serve the children.

She mentioned that the retention rate for staff in Norwalk is better than that of some surrounding communities, which is as high as 30%-40%, and she said Norwalk should be congratulated for doing such a good job of keeping staff.

B. Quality Enhancement

Ms. Wilock said that they still have not received the letter of award. She said they expect to receive a small cost of living increase. Ms. Budrawich said the money would go to accreditation support, ECERs, the early childhood conference, professional development activities, Building Bridges, transition materials, and informal care providers (10%).

Ms. Paul said she has been a recipient of some of the award money, and she said it was very helpful.

C. Board of Education Activities/Updates

Ms. Budrawich explained that the central registration process is still being discussed. It would be held at another location other than City Hall, and it would be registration for K-12. A position entitled Parent Information Registration Officer, for a period of 12 months, was posted, and they now expect to begin the interview process with a goal of having the person in place for Kindergarten registration only next Spring. She said that they will not move into central registration, citywide or districtwide, immediately.

Ms. Budrawich spoke about the kindergarten screening process. The State is in the process of developing a kindergarten screening that Norwalk will be required to use, but it won’t be in effect until Fall of 2009. She said that in improving their current kindergarten screening, Norwalk wanted to address some concerns that kindergarten teachers had.

D. Kids Start Smart: The Norwalk Discovery Initiative

Chairwoman Bain distributed the mid-term report to the Graustein Memorial Fund. The second edition of the community report was also distributed. Ms. Peniston discussed the report, saying that it reflects areas of progress and what needs to be addressed. She said the joint collaborative meeting will be held on October 11 in the Forum at Norwalk Community College. Ms. Peniston said she had received a copy of Bridgeport’s report.

The United Way, along with Kids Start Smart and the Norwalk Education Foundation, will hold a Listening Forum on October 5 at 6:00 p.m. at the Grace Baptist Church on West Avenue. The Forum is about the Ready by Five, and Fine by Nine, which requires some homework on the part of the attendees. Ms. Friese said she will send the information to Ms. Smart so she can send it to everyone.

E. Regional/State Update

Chairwoman Bain said that she recently was involved in a conference call regarding advocacy and promoting early childhood. She said that the legislators want to hear from the parents, or those that are being impacted. They are looking for hard data, outcomes, impact of programs, etc.

Mr. Hensinger said that on October 20, there will be a nationwide telecast by the organization called Pre-K Now, on the subject of Effective Advocacy in the Pre-K Movement. Mr. George Stephanopoulus will be the host, and Gov. Rell will make an address, along with the Gov. of Tennessee. A panel of three Senators will be discussing various topics of universal Pre-K. The telecast will begin at 12:45 at the Forum at Norwalk Community College.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

A. Executive Committee

Chairwoman Bain said the Executive Committee’s focus has been on monitoring. They have also been discussing the strategy of expanding capacity for existing providers as well as reaching out to new providers should the funding become available.

B. Informal Care

Ms. Trujillo said that they went on 9 special trips with last year’s Quality Enhancement Grant. A CPR class for providers was held in June. She said there are 181 informal care providers in their database. Chairwoman Bain said that the School Readiness Council is required to expend 10% of the Quality Enhancement Grant towards Kith & Kin, or the Informal Care providers. She said this was overseen by Ms. Sadlon at the Fox Run Family Resource Center.

C. Provider Network

Ms. Degnan said they are busy getting ready for re-accreditation by doing study groups, which have proved to be very helpful. The application has to be submitted by October 18. Ms. Budrawich said that the organizers have taken this on themselves.

D. Review & Selection

Chairwoman Bain said this Committee meets in the Spring when they receive proposals and applications for programs for funding. In June they had a joint meeting with the Executive Committee to set the parameters for expending monies they were told they would receive from the State.

E. Program

Ms. Budrawich said the Committee hasn’t met yet. They will plan the Professional Development meetings and Building Bridges.

F. Transition

Ms. Budrawich said the Committee hasn’t met yet.

G. Nominating

Chairwoman Bain said the Nominating Committee will meet in the Spring.

OTHER

A. Brighter Futures Summer Meeting

The video from the Brighter Futures Summer program was shown.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ms. Schilling said that the Human Relations Commission and the Norwalk Healthy Families Collaborative worked together on the Resource Directory for Spanish speaking parents. She said it is a mini-version of the Norwalk Resource Directory. She said copies were available at the meeting. She thanked Kids Start Smart and United Way of Norwalk and Wilton who funded the translation of the directory. She mentioned that if anyone found any errors, to bring it to the Commission’s attention.

Ms. Konn-Andrade said that the “211 Info Line” will now be known as just “211”.

Ms. Krawecki said that there is a dramatic increase in the words “Pervasive Developmental Disorder” and “Autism”. If any parents have had their child labeled in this way, she offered to have them call her so that she could connect them to the proper people. She said that it is a nationwide issue, but in many cases they are finding that it is misdiagnosed.

Ms. Wilock said that everyone is invited to attend the groundbreaking ceremony at the Ely Center on Monday, September 25, at 1:30 p.m.

Ms. Budrawich distributed information on the Summer Program, and she explained the summary sheet. She said that the additional staff was essential, as the program was expanded and had the capacity to serve 120 children. They ended up with 81 children, which was very diversified and had class sizes of between 6 and 8. Portfolios were completed for every child, which included photographs of the child engaging in a variety of activities. She distributed the portfolios that Ms. Schriver had gathered for her. The pictures were taken by Briggs students. Ms. Trujillo spoke of the many benefits that her children experienced at Brighter Futures. Dr. Grose asked if there was an official analysis of last year’s 22 children through their first year of Kindergarten. Ms. Budrawich said that it wasn’t available at this time.

Ms. Smart asked anyone to contact her if they had corrections to the membership list.

ADJOURNMENT

** MS. DEGNAN MOVED TO ADJOURN.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:10 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Marr
Telesco Secretarial Services

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