School Readiness Council

Middletown School Readiness Council Meeting Minutes Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2019 Location: Bielefield School, Room 21 Attendance: Monica Belyea x Amanda Talbot x Sheila Daniels x Beverly Lawrence x Christine O’Grady x Wendy Berlind x Amy Clarke Dawn Dubay x Rohan Manning Michelle Peterson-Aresco Jennifer Billingsley x Michael Conner x Izzi Greenberg x Donna Marino x Precious Price x Jennifer Cannata Rebecca Cuevas x Lina Kronenberger Cliff O’Callahan Marla Hinz Also Present: Kathy Thompson, Dominique Thornton, Sarah Alberti, Mayor Florsheim, and Bobbye Knoll-Peterson Submitted/Recorded by: Agenda Item Discussion/Motion Recommendations/ Action Items 1. Introductions & Rebecca chimed the meeting to a start at 12:05. Openings at Snow Announcements Introductions were made and EHS programs Izzi Greenberg noted the census will be the topic of discussion at the next Coalition meeting. She added the December Coalition meeting was well attended and thanked Dr. Conner and Dawn Dubay for their early childhood presentation. Guest, former mayor, Dominique Thornton announced the local AAUW Middletown branch has taken universal preschool up as their focus project and the group is willing to help out in any way to see every Middletown child has the opportunity of preschool. Jen Larson - current interim director of Snow Preschool was present on behalf of the S.R. Grant programs this month. Jennifer Billingsley was pleased to announce two new hires at Russell Library; Shannon Wild, Youth Librarian and Ayanna Wright, Teen Librarian.  Donna Marino - announced the next Community Conversation will be held on 1/22 at MxCC and the topic will be on ensuring our graduates are career and college ready. She also shared news that the SDE awarded funds to support family/school connections and there will be a new PLTI training program beginning on Jan. 11th. There will also be an offering of CLTI training at the same time. Amanda Talbot shared FRC January events calendar flyer, along with another flyer for a toy give-away at Macdonough Monica Belyea noted O.K. work groups are meeting on Jan. 6th and she and Beverly Lawrence will be hosting a POP Session on Jan. 11th. In addition, on Jan. 15th she will be facilitating a “Baby Behavior” workshop in conjunction with the rescheduled December workshop provided by Christine O’Grady. Dawn added 5 home daycare providers will be attending this workshop. Monica said all are welcome. 2. Minutes Approval Wendy Berlind moved to approve the minutes of the November 20, 2019 meeting. Donna Marino seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously with abstentions from Jen Billingsley and Precious Price. 3. Public Session Ms. Thornton noted the organization is focusing on Kindergarten readiness, mentioning the importance of preschool for readiness, especially with the rigor of Kindergarten. Discussion followed. 4. Financial & Please see summary report. Coordinator’s Report Open spaces at the Macdonough Y site. A lot of outreach has occurred to no avail at this point. Family fees and transportation continue to challenge parents and those spaces may not be filled. Snow preschool has lost 3 children this month. Discussion followed. Cut-off date from the state is December 20th, thus pushing the need to address the issue before that deadline or possibly have the state take the spaces away from the community for the remainder of the school year. Introductions for new city leadership Mayor Florsheim and Bobbye Knoll- Peterson, his Chief of Staff.  Monica brought them up to date in the discussion the group was having on the issue of open spaces that could be lost. It was asked if we had this experience in the past and we have not. There is a need for a full-day program. It was suggested we make sure SDE knows the barriers to space usage. It was noted we should consider what has changed? The decline of staff, funding at the FRC, barriers to outreach impacted by the lack of FRC funding. In addition, priorities of the FRC should be identified? Can outreach be part of their higher priorities? A reminder was made to include Farm Hill School district in the North End, as some of the neighborhood’s children attend that school. Amanda noted CDI Head Start care, which is free, is taking children from paying programs. Suggestion of flyers going home to families in our elementary schools announcing preschool openings for younger siblings. Rebecca noted trend in families moving outside of the EHS catchment area. Dawn shared the new enrollment age of 2.8 yrs. eligibility for preschool entry. Other SR programs have not offered to take any spaces.Reimbursement rates and regulations around SR are keeping programs from accepting the additional spaces. Monica noted the interest from Dominique’s group is very timely. In addition, if ACES is awarded the HS program grant award, that will help support families challenged by financial constraints. Dr. Conner added the school district will be providing transportation to alleviate that challenge. Monica noted a scholarship program may be something we might consider and look into to support families along with grant funding and community partners to support this financial need. Regarding family daycare; providers are contacted to see if we can support them and also involve them more in the MECN offerings. Discussion around supporting these providers followed. 5. Updates from Jen Larson, interim director of the MPS preschool program at Snow School The SRC is wishing Programs noted noted the program has 3 openings. Dawn Abrahamson a Also noted; Preschool director, Dawn Abrahamson, had successful surgery quick recovery. yesterday. Snow PreK staff is involved in the curriculum writing.  Winter Challenge for the Bridge2Brilliance program was announced. 6. Early Childhood Dawn noted we are deepening lines within this work Strategic Plan Updates Dr. Conner noted the goals of the plan for those present, noting this is a major including opportunity to close the education gaps. The schools see a lot of the symptoms transportation of the opportunity and achievement gap. SEL work is aligning systems and structure. Some questions: How can we align early education SEL with the school district’s work? Project aware and SRC are working collaboratively and some materials were purchased for the school readiness programs (Second Steps). How can we provide access and opportunity for children, birth to 4 yrs. of age? This is being addressed. There are literacy variances of children entering Kindergarten. Work is being done to expand their exposure to books and promoting F2B. Dr. Conner plans to attend the meeting around early childhood at Snow School organized by Dominique’s group. All are welcome to attend this meeting on January 21st at 6:30 at Snow School. . He noted there is national level interest in what Middletown is doing around early education. The University of Michigan shared info via tweets! He also noted the Boston Basics Campaign and the Harvard achievement gap initiative. Discussion followed. 7. Legislative Updates Izzi noted a finalized legislative agenda was voted on last week. She will forward it to Dawn for distribution. A 2 Generational Task Force created last year and comments were submitted from communities, including Middletown. EHS program model was noted in the comments, along with Even Start, and Circle of Security. Izzi said it is worth looking at the plan. Equity initiative is part of the plan as well. The self sufficiency standard index is being used as a point of reference. 8. Program Monitoring Dawn informed the Council that Town & Country will have their NAEYC visit in & Supports the next 2 days and asked members to send positive thoughts their way. Christine O’Grady has been offering parent engagement trainings with preschool staff to improve support of families and children.  Trauma Informed and Restorative Practices for EC teachers on January 16, 2020 - training will be offered with initial introduction followed by expanded training that will suit the community. Greater Hartford Fund Award will support B2B in our programs for tech to level the playing field. This grant funding will give opportunity for equity in technology and ambassadors to support programs. 9. Other & The meeting schedule for the upcoming new year was distributed to those Adjournment present for review and approval. Wendy Berlind moved to accept the calendar of meetings. Jen Billingsley seconded. The motion carried unanimously. Monica noted the Dept of Labor and Early Childhood is meeting with Middletown Works to discuss childcare that is affordable and offers high quality care. She will be attending the meeting. Concerns at the Alliance level are shared by the Council and include: Kindergarten entry age and homeless families not being supported while looking for a job. Care4Kids eligibility would help those families during that critical time between jobs. Dawn noted Beth Bye’s concern around raising the age for Kindergarten entry because of the need for preschool in that added time frame if Kindergarten entry is lifted. This supports the need for universal preschool. Dr. Conner noted we are educating a generation of different children and we need to adjust and change our education offerings to the needs of those children. The Mayor noted that there is potential for our community around early The next meeting of childhood education, mentioning his exposure to the needs from previous the School position under Sen. Murphy. He and Bobbye along with the new Common Readiness Council Council are excited to work on supporting early education and families in will be held on Middletown Wednesday, January 15th, 2020 The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 P.M. with thanks to all those in attendance. from 12:00 to 1:00 Happy Holidays to all! P.M. Middletown School Readiness Council Shaping our Children’s School Success