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Following introductions,
Kristen McDonald Stone recognized Elaine Williams who
requested assistance from all MCCTF members in "spreading
the word" on the Ends of the Rainbow conference (Saturday,
September 22).
Jackie
Wood, Consultant at MDE,
made a presentation on ASAP-PIE, which does not stand for as
soon as possible-pie in eye but does mean All Students
Achieve Program-Parent Involvement and Education. Jackie
reported on who received the $45 M in grants and used
examples from the grantees to explain the goals and
objectives of ASAP-PIE.
One goal is to create/foster community collaboration among
service agencies to work better for families by building new
or expanding existing services to improve school readiness
by:
Encouraging
positive parenting skills
Enhancing parent-child interaction
Providing learning opportunities to promote intellectual,
physical and social growth of children
Promoting access to community services
Providing information on child development. (Handout)
Jackie also enumerated a
number of challenges to the initiative. These
include:
1) making
collaboration work,
2) implementing the evaluation,
3) funding,
4) addressing the needs of the non-funded
communities,
5) involving parents as partners,
6) changing the public's understanding about the
importance of early childhood education and
7) presenting ASAP-PIE as an agent for systems
change.
In the question and answer
period, Jackie reiterated the department's definition that
"quality preschool" refers to center-based programs that
offer a "preschool" curriculum. Representative Pan Godchaux
confirmed that the department had to make an interpretation
of the legislation and, given parameters, they went with
"preschool."
Representative
Pan Godchaux also
commented on the budget and explained the reason that the
Senate and the House had not worked out a conference
committee resolution (the approaches to cutting the budget
were SO different). Representative Godchaux encouraged ALL
members of the MCCTF to contact their legislator and let him
or her know how important the earliest years are for a
child's success.
Kristen
McDonald Stone reported on the Michigan Head Start
Association-initiated
health insurance program. The goal was to create a health
insurance pool for people who work in and for child care.
Kristen believes that the plan they have found with BC/BS is
approximately 20% lower than BC/BS' lowest rate.
Kristen turned to discussion
about the Task Force mission. First, she announced that
there would be nominations and elections of a new co-chair
for MCCTF at the October meeting. She reported on
recommendations for improving procedures at MCCTF meetings
(provided to her from Jennie McAlpine).
Jennie's
proposal outlined
procedures in three areas:
1. Use the agenda
to publish all ACTION items and announcing that the items
will be voted on by MEMBERS PRESENT.
2. For last minute items,
notify all via e-mail and ask for a sense of MCCTF
members. Take a vote (adopting or rejecting) the
resolution at the next board meeting.
3. Communicate the
policies on decision making to every MCCTF member and
provide copies to new members.
Barbara Roth
recommended that MCCTF
adopt the policies. Dan Gerrity suggested that going from an
informal approach to a "Robert's Rules"-type group should be
studied carefully. He recommended that the Chair assign the
responsibility to a steering committee that would present
their recommendations to all. The Task Force agreed to table
(which means to take off the table of discussion) the
proposals for now.
UPDATES
ON THE BUSINESS OF THE TASK FORCE
Barbara Roth
(MDE) reported that
there is nothing to report on actions related to the MDE
budget. Unless the legislature makes and passes changes to
the budget, the Governor's executive order &endash; in which
the Governor announced a 5% across the board cut &endash;
will stand.
Lisa Brewer
provided an update on
T.E.A.C.H. Lisa reported
that they have sent out 1,400 applications for T.E.A.C.H.
scholarships. (T.E.A.C.H. There are more than 70 providers
who have received awards; another 100+ applications that
arrived incomplete. T.E.A.C.H. plans to attract and support
about 300 providers per semester.
Steve
Manchester gave an update on HB
4617-9 in which he
reported that Senator Hammerstrom's committee may (or may
not) take up the bills.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Michigan League for Human
Services conference will be November 7. For more
information, call the League at 517-487-5436.
MSACA meeting will be (was)
September 10. MSACA conference will be in October.
Steve Manchester reminded members of upcoming
speakers:
OCTOBER
- Jim Sinnamon from DCIS/Child Day Care Licensing; Donna
Gent and Brad Long from Kinderstreet
NOVEMBER
- Lisa Brewer will make a presentation on
T.E.A.C.H.
DECEMBER
- Carol Zimmer from ZimmerFish, a media firm, will report on
a statewide zero-to-five media campaign
Minutes (which took an hour
to type up) suspectfully submitted: Mark Sullivan, Michigan
4C.
Next
Meeting: Wednesday,
October 3, 2001; 9:30 am; State Library; Lake Ontario Room
(3rd floor); Lansing
Guests:
Jim
Sinnamon, Director,
Division of Child Day Care Licensing, Department of Consumer
& Industry Services. Mr. Sinnamon has held this position
for just a few months. He will discuss directions the
Division will take in regulating child care facilities.
Donna
Gent & Brad Long,
CEO/Pres. & Vice-pres. of Kinderstreet, Inc. They will
present research findings in two areas: (1) Child care
center time spent in business processes and how that can be
streamlined to save time for child care; (2) How parents
like to communicate with child care providers.
Steve Manchester, Michigan
AEYC and Kristen McDonald-Stone, Michigan Head Start
Association; Co-chairs, Michigan Child Care Task
Force
Please FORWARD THIS NOTICE
TO OTHERS; we invite people to join this email
network.
Comments, suggestions, or
requests to be removed from this list should be directed to
smanchester@MiAEYC.org.
This message is made
possible, in part, by generous support from the Frey
Foundation of Grand Rapids.
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