School Readiness Council

Middletown School Readiness Council Meeting Agenda Date: Wednesday, 12:00-1:00PM March 17, 2021 Location: Remotely at our homes/offices Attendance: Monica Belyea x Amanda Donahue x Sheila Daniels x Beverly Lawrence x Christine O’Grady x Wendy Berlind x Sara Alberti x Dawn Dubay x Rohan Manning Michelle Peterson-Aresco x Jennifer Billingsley x Michael Conner x Izzi Greenberg x Donna Marino x Precious Price Jennifer Cannata Rebecca Cuevas Lina Kronenberger Cliff O’Callahan Marla Hinz Also Present: Christina Heckart E.A. Aschenbrenner Submitted/Recorded by: Agenda Item Discussion/Motion Recommendations/ Action Items 1. Introductions Monica opened the meeting at 12:03 P.M. welcoming everyone. & Monica announced she and Beverly, through the Parents of Preschoolers, are offering a Announcements: storytime Tuesday evening featuring “Black is a Rainbow Color” to be read. She also noted there will be several April events including the WOYC Grand Rounds at Middlesex Hospital. Dr. Ron Ferguson, founder of The Basics, will be the guest. All are welcome and information will be forthcoming. Izzi noted the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford is offering a pajama party and story time with the book “Dreamers” being read. She added the Alliance is continuing their Monday and Wednesday zoom meetings. Please send any topic suggestions to Izzi. She said they are still getting a good crowd attending these online sessions. Donna thanked Dawn’s intern for her help organizing books for the bookmobile. Amanda noted the Advocacy Day is taking place on 3/23 from 2:00 to 3:00 P.M. She will  post info. Christine shared a photo of her little grandson in Ireland on his 1st St. Patrick’s Day. 2. Acceptance of Beverly moved to accept the minutes of the February 24, 2021 meeting with a spelling Minutes: correction as noted by Wendy. Amanda seconded the motion. The motion carried. 3. Financial & Dawn announced EA will be presenting on Purposeful Play and Executive Function later in Coordinator’s the meeting. As noted at our last meeting, Dawn is very pleased with this work in our Report/ community. Proposed She noted B2B outreach work is underway in the community and Changes from 6 family day care homes have been enrolled to participate in the program. In addition, she OEC to School is focused on strengthening relationships with family day care homes. Readiness: Enrollment in child care and preschool programs is increasing slowly and steadily. The OEC is putting forth a proposal for changes to Councils and the School Readiness Grant. Information will be forthcoming and in the meantime Dawn suggested we think about how we can be ready for some of these changes. Systems reforms around membership make-up of Councils, making sure they are more representative of their communities, is going to be part of the chianges. Discussion followed. It was noted meeting time at midday is a barrier and meetings can be intimidating and boring. Questions to be considered include: What would an orientation and mentorship look like, should we change we meet. What time would be best for everyone? Compensation for parent volunteers to the Council was raised. It was also suggested that we might target employers to offer staff time and compensation to attend meetings. The virtual format of meetings might be more helpful for participation and the make up of meeting, 4. Legislative Izzi noted the current legislative session is up and running. Due to covid restrictions, virtual Updates: Izzi testimony has been offered as a means of sharing in a safe manner and is proving to be Greenberg very convenient and many are taking advantage of this much easier means to share testimony. Izzi noted the ECS listserv is the easiest way to keep updated on topics. 5. Elizabeth Dawn welcomed EA to the meeting. She thanked MPS, SRC for their willingness to Aschenbrenner embrace and realize the importance of executive function. She noted this initiative started (EA): Sharing as a response to address dysregulated children in preschool and kindergarten. Funded was Purposeful awarded for 2 yrs. to establish this program. It involved a study with UCONN where half of Play/Executive teachers were coached in purposeful play and executive function and half were not, making Function Project this a comparison study. We are now 11 years out from this initial study and are still working on improving outcomes for children. EA went on to share information on the importance of executive function and purposeful play and her work in the District. Dawn and Monica thanked her for her work here in Middletown where we now have 8 of our 10 elementary schools using this platform and many of our preschools as well. The PD trainings have been so beneficial to the topic at hand and additionally in strengthening prek and k staff relationships. 6. Adjournment: Beverly wished a Happy Birthday to Monica, noting her birthday is on Monday. The next meeting of Motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Beverly and seconded by Sheila. The motion the Middletown carried and the meeting was School Readiness adjourned at 1:10 P.M. Council will take place from 12:00 to 1:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 Middletown School Readiness Council Shaping our Children’s School Success