Suffolk Early Childhood Development Commission Meetings

Date: April 5, 2023 Time: 2:00 to 4:00pm Location: City of Suffolk City Hall 442 W Washington St Conference Room 3 April 2023 Commission Meeting Members Present Members Absent Mark Furlo Catherine Pichon Sarah Townsend Gin Staylor Henry Dixon Marie Baker Shawna LoMonaco Terrance Johnson Kaitlyn Newell Guests Present Carol Wilson Lisa Milburn Stacie Prine Tamie Rittenhouse Jennifer Conner Elle Harris I. Introductions/Welcome– Tamie Rittenhouse called the meeting to order and the commission welcomed new member Dr. Elle Harris and new ECDC PT Coordinator, Kaitlyn Newell. II. Review Minutes- Commission reviewed minutes from February 2023 meeting. Lisa moved to accept, Carol second. Passed to approve was unanimous. III. Coordinators Report: A. Child Care Numbers: Child Care Numbers: Dee’s Little Den became licensed, addition of recently licensed, Boys and Girls Club no longer listed as licensed. Total number remained the same B. ECDC Update – Shawna shared the following: 1. ECDC Resource Room approved, funds have been deducted, and there is no date for install at this time. The space will include workspace for early educators, 12 room conference room, and a small study room. More  information of an unveiling/celebration to come. 2. Mini Grants have opened and will close Saturday April 8th. Gin, Lisa and Henry will review applications and send feedback to Shawna. 3. Week of the Young Child – April 1 – 7 – Kaitlyn has planned a parent info and activity table at the libraries with resources for families. City Council proclamation read at the April 5th City Council Meeting. 4. ECDC and Parks and Recreation hosted Preschool Gym Time in February. Family day homes and families attended. ECDC provided a musician and STEM/sensory based activities. We are planning another Preschool Gym Time in the Fall. Shawna and Kaitlyn attend the Parents & Partners event with SPS. Upcoming outreaches include Earth & Arts Festival and three Suffolk Farmer’s Market visits in the summer. 5. The Identity, Diversity & Inclusion Workshops will take place at both the May and June ECDC meetings. Paula Bazemore with the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities will facilitate. Shawna will include certificate for members that attend. 6. Shawna reported the ECDC survey is still open and can still be completed. She will resend the link with the April meeting minutes. III. Other Business: A. Finance Report: Shawna LoMonaco provided the most up to date budget. Remaining spoken for with mini grants and Growing Up Suffolk B. Partner Update: Ready Regions – Carol reported that spring observations are still going and suggested the Readiness Newsletter is shared with the Commission. Shawna will send with follow up email. Suffolk Public Library – Storywalks are currently set up at Bennetts Creek Park and Lakeside Tot lot though April 25 and along the Suffolk Seaboard Trail at the Driver entrance starting on April 25 – May 16. Spring Break Kits are available at each library location for children to enjoy, and the Explore Suffolk Spring Break scavenger hunt is happening now through April 16th for adults and families. The hunt includes clues through the city and a chance to win a themed botanical prize. IconiCon is a large yearly SPL sci-fi/comic/fantasy event and will be held at North Suffolk Library on April 22. The Dinner & a Story program is continuing and offers families an opportunity to enjoy a dinner based on the book read, Afternoon Snacks are available to children at our Morgan Memorial Library throughout the school year and is an expansion of our Summer food program, there is an SRHA kiosk set up at Morgan Memorial Library. The kiosk is for public housing and Housing Choice Voucher clients but the general public is able to use it in order to access sites like Dominion Energy and IRS.gov. Suffolk Public Schools – Stacie reported the Early Start Registration has 565 applications so far and they are still accepting applications. Kindergarten Registration opened on March 1st and can be completed online. SPS has partnered with the Children’s Center to support Kindergarten transition and included a virtual Storybook Night. Families enjoyed it and are hoping to attend more similar events. SPS has also partnered with Pruden Center students by giving them classroom experiences at Oakland Elementary. SPS is seeking community input for Title II & IV grants. Please look for a survey to identify needs of SPS students & staff coming via email soon.  Suffolk Social Services – Shawna reported that Child Abuse Prevention Month is recognized in April and signs & pinwheels are available for Commission members and early learning locations to display. Children’s Center – Tamie reported that The Children’s Center has officially purchased the Head Start Building on Davis Boulevard and have completed the addition to executive building. Obici – Lisa informed the Commission that Lakeland high school students are coming in to Obici to complete mock deliveries. Obici is planning National Night Out at Kings Fork. Starting PPD support group. Opening up Arms of Love volunteer process. (Debbie Williams in charge of volunteer services). Bereavement Coordinator at Obici follows up with any family that has a loss. Angel Tree every Christmas for any family that has had a loss. Parks and Rec – Mark encouraged members and guest to attend the upcoming public meeting for Suffolk Seaboard Trail and mentioned the option to take feedback online. The trail will eventually connect with trails to other cities. SPR is hosting a Mother Daughter Tea at East Suffolk on 4/15, Paint Night on 4/28, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on 5/6 at Booker T, Bike In Movie on 5/6. and reservations to reserve a community garden at East Suffolk are available. Bennetts Creek Rec is about to open on 5/5 with the ribbon cutting at 2pm. SPR has partnered with United Way on creating the Born to Run trail. There will be a ribbon cutting on 5/11 and another one is going in at Lake Meade Park. These are the first ones being installed in Virginia. IV. New Business: A. Obici Grant: o We purchased two-year subscriptions of the Gee Whiz VDOE approved curriculum for six Family Day Homes and still have funding for four additional locations. We will print to copies of the IT and PreK STREAMin3 curriculum and will be made available in our Resource Room for early educators to make copies of. Shawna is working with two STREAMin3 representatives and has received a booklist to use in procuring those titles. The Commission discussed the best place for storing these books, within the RR or library collection. o CLASS Training – The commission discussed the best way to offer CLASS training to the EC community and agreed that starting with the basics and building from there would be the best strategy. It was noted that the RR’s meeting space will be useful for the trainings. Carol mentioned that Ready Regions is supporting more location specific CLASS training with currently participating locations based on observations. She also mentioned there will be two opportunities in May and June for CLASS kit training and will share that information with Shawna to share with the Commission. o Discussion – What are the most needed areas of CLASS support for early educators? The Commission agreed that Instructional support and Feedback loops, and Language modeling are the areas needing most support. An idea was shared to offer something for new teachers entering the field. V. Adjourn: Our next meeting will be May 3, 2023