School Readiness Council

Middletown School Readiness Council Meeting Minutes Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2021, 12;00 - 1:00 P.M. Location: Remotely at our homes/offices Attendance: Monica Belyea x Amanda Donahue Sheila Daniels x Beverly Lawrence Christine O’Grady x Wendy Berlind Christina Heckart Dawn Dubay x Rohan Manning x Michelle Peterson-Aresco x Jennifer Billingsley x Michael Conner Izzi Greenberg x Sarah Mack x Precious Price Jennifer Cannata Rebecca Cuevas x Lina Kronenberger x Cliff O’Callahan x Marla Hinz x Also Present: Shannon Wild Submitted/Recorded by: Agenda Item Discussion/Motion Recommendations /Action Items Welcome Dawn opened the meeting via Zoom, reminding members we did not meet in October and in September we did not have a quorum, so had a non-meeting with the few people that were on the meeting. Monica called the meeting to order at 12:07 noting it was good to see everyone albeit remotely. 1. Introductions & Introductions were made and announcements shared. Jennifer noted hours of operation at Announcements: Russell Library and is pleased it is now open to the public. Children’s Librarian, Shannon Wild joined us for the first time. She also noted how nice it is to have the public back visiting the library. Lina noted Even Start is very busy serving young families. Michelle reported State staff are teleworking about 60% of the time. Izzi reminded the Council that the Coalition for Children is meeting tomorrow in person at the Hazen Room. Monica announced the Parents of Preschoolers Tuesday eve Family Story Time will be next Tuesday, November 23rd. She will share the flier with any interested members. Rebecca noted a shift in Early Head Start home visiting withTerry Ayala leaving. Sheila noted Terry was a Council member years ago and Terry’s leaving will be a loss to Middletown.  Rebecca announced they hired a new home visitor and they are getting very busy. Their center based classroom has 3 openings and Rebecca added they are looking for more engagement with families this year. Jennifer added they are trying to maneuver plans to resume in person gatherings at Russell Library. Comparisons are being made to children attending preschool, but Jennifer noted there is a difference and not sure what the process looks like. She’d like any suggestions. Her impulse is to wait until after February to open play groups and other activities at Russell Library. Monica noted Jennifer’s opinion seems valid. Rebecca acknowledged they are juggling all the compliances of ACES, the local school systems, and the federal gov’t. in her program. Rebecca noted they have slowly been having in person gatherings with families and home visiting is in person with all safety measures in place. 2. Acceptance of Minutes from the last full meeting of the Council occurring in June will be shared for Minutes: acceptance at the next meeting. 3. Financial & Dawn opened her report informing the Council that discussions at the state level are taking Coordinator’s place around Council membership and membership reflecting the communities it serves. Report She shared a survey via email for Council members to complete in an effort to gather opinions on this topic. Dawn told people when you open the google survey, please note questions about meetings, there are times when we absolutely have to meet, but we might entertain meeting less, not every month. She also noted representation at the table is another consideration, reflecting on the diversity of the Council. Please let Dawn know if you did not receive the survey via email. Dawn announced Karyn Hurlbert has joined the Y as their new director in light of Amber’s departure. The Council wishes Amber all the best. Dawn reported Karyn is already working hard and currently admitting 5 new children into the program. She went on to note other programs are working on enrollment as well. As a side note on enrollment, Dawn shared that there are currently up to 15 families in the part-day BOE program that would like to get into the school-day classrooms. Marla added the Head Start waitlist has issues around the restrictions of enrollment compliance, ie. children not being age eligible for enrollment. She also mentioned transportation is an issue for some families, adding Head Start currently has 1 opening in its Middletown classroom at Snow School. Dawn noted they are currently looking at preschool experience data in an effort to support preschool needs matching community needs. Their criteria is a factor for enrollment. She shared that the BOE preschool program is working well in the new locations at Spencer and Bielefield schools. Quality Enhancement: work is ongoing and there will be a BCBA presentation this eve for preschool classroom teachers. Fifteen people were trained in the CHILD tool this past week. Marla noted the presenter was very good, elaborating on questions he was asked. She noted Head Start uses a similar tool, but they would like to add this to their tools. Sheila noted the tool will be beneficial and information could be taken and shared with teachers as a means of helping them improve the overall tone of their classrooms in terms of supporting equity and SEL. This could be added to the Transition to Kindergarten work of the School Readiness Grant. Dawn added there was representation from every preschool program, which is great. Case Consultation: consultant Kristen Lariviere will be conducting training on adult-adult interactions for preschool staff. Purposeful Play/Executive Function: work continues in all SR programs and in Kindergarten classrooms throughout the city. SR Fee Policy: Dawn shared this topic was brought up by providers at their meeting last week, specifically around the policy guideline on families with outstanding balances leaving one program and going to another program before settling their outstanding balance with the former program. Our policy states programs should notify Dawn when a family leaves with a balance allowing Dawn to notify all programs of the issue. Problems arise when there is a lapse of time from a family leaving one program and going to another program, Dawn being notified and then sharing that specific information with all directors. The current policy directs the new program to restrict entry until the balance has been paid to the former program.She asked the Council for any thoughts/suggestions on the issue. Suggestions made included: a realistic payment plan, creating a scholarship fund to support families, parameters developed around payment issues, the Council consider waiving the policy to allow the child to continue to have preschool experience, explore how the information that a parent is behind in payments is shared, the Jones Fund as a means of helping struggling families, consider partnering with the Racial-Justice Coalition to discuss solutions, could a short-term possibility be found with the Covid-19 support funds, look into a long-term solution, enroll and encourage others to enroll in the Childcare for CT Campaign. It was asked if we want to entertain a motion to change the policy. Rohan suggested Dawn reach out to program directors. Dawn suggested we pause and deliberate on options, noting providers do work with parents when issues arise but the problem should be addressed. She added these suggestions have been documented for future discussion and we can gather information from directors on the number of delinquent incidents, departures and new enrollment. Monica suggested a subcommittee  working on this topic. Let Dawn know if you are interested in joining the committee. Dawn asked members to complete the survey. 4. Legislative Izzi noted the change in venue from the Dekoven House to the YMCA’s Hazen Room, Updates: Izzi explaining the latter is free to use. A brief discussion around meeting in person and online Greenberg took place. Izzii shared that Meeting Owl is about $1,000. for hybrid meetings and this might be something to consider partnering to cover the expense. At the state level, Izzi reported they are trying to garner a broad group to support the Childcare for CT Campaign. Anyone can sign on and get on the email list and also view the opening meeting. 5. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 P.M. with thanks to all those in attendance. Next Meeting: December 15, 2021 from 12:00 - 1:00 P.M. Middletown School Readiness Council Shaping our Children’s School Success