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MEETING MINUTES |
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MINUTES of February 5, 2003 Co-chairs Lisa Brewer and Kristen McDonald-Stone called the meeting to order shortly after 9:30. Each person gave a self-introduction and the group adopted the agenda. GUEST SPEAKER: There was no guest speaker this month to allow time for the group to work on its legislative agenda. NEXT MEETING: March 5, 9:30 a.m. - noon, State of Michigan Library in Lansing, the Lake Ontario Room. The Michigan Head Start Association and Michigan's Children will conduct a one-day Fatherhood Conference in late April. Contact Kristen McDonald-Stone at kristen@mhsa.ws for information. Dr. Bruce Perry, the internationally acclaimed brain scientist and expert on early childhood abuse/neglect, will be at the Lansing Center on April 23. Cost is $55. Forms & info are available through the Michigan Trust Fund by calling 1-800-CHILDREN or going to www.michiganschildren.org Dr. Perry will also be in St. Joseph, Michigan on February 27. Admission is $20; space is limited. Call Mitzi Jones at 269-471-7725 for information. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - Judy Levine reporting: Michigan School Readiness Competitive Grants &endash; Two technical assistance (TA) sessions are coming up: (1) Lansing on March 14 at the State of Michigan Library; (2) Gaylord on March 19. Michigan School Readiness funded by the School Aid Act &endash; The Governor recommended a 3.8% cut. The cuts equal 836 pupil slots of which 500 are already covered through vacancies. This leaves 336 slots, equal to $1.1 million, needed to cover the spending cuts. MDE will have a count date in the near future and hope to find additional vacancies to help cover the funding cut. 0-3 Secondary Prevention Grants &endash; These will also be affected by the 3.8% cuts this year. Forty-two programs are now receiving funding. 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant Program &endash; 13 programs were awarded grants totaling just over $11 million. We should anticipate funding cuts in fiscal year 2004-05 of almost 40%. Even Start on the federal level looks like it may be reduced from $250 million to $200 million of less. You can obtain information on early childhood programs at: http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5234_6809-22847--,00.html. Information on MDE grants is available at: http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5236---,00.html. GOVERNOR Granholm's first State of the State address is Wednesday, February 5, 2003 at 7 p.m. The Governor is still mentioning a "Children's Action Network" that would bring various children's programs under one umbrella for purposes of policy making. The head of the C.A.N. may have cabinet status in Granholm's administration. LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES have been appointed. Information on committees are available at: House - http://house.michigan.gov/Committee/committee.asp and Senate - http://senate.michigan.gov/senatecommittees/standing.htm. FEDERAL REAUTHORIZATION OF HEAD START, TANF, CHILD CARE & DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT: The President proposes moving Head Start to the U.S. Dept. of Ed. and giving programmatic control to the states. This has serious implications for Head Start. Currently, Head Start funding and control flows from the federal government to local programs. The President has proposed sending funds and programmatic control to state governments. Many Head Start proponents fear that the comprehensiveness of Head Start will be in jeopardy: nutrition, health care, parental involvement and such could be compromised. The state may use a "one size fits all" approach whereas, now, Head Start is culturally sensitive to local needs. In Michigan, thousands of families could be affected. We may see a combining of all pre-K at-risk funds, particularly Head Start and Michigan School Readiness Programs. This would create significant changes in currently existing programs. A new assessment is being mandated for Head Start children. They will be assessed in the Fall and Spring. Head Start does not opposed the assessment, but wants it slowed down a bit; let experts look at the assessment to make sure that it is being done right. The current plan to develop the assessment and begin its implementation in six months is too rushed. All of these proposals seem certain to cause lively discussions in the coming months. Some people believe that Head Start may not be reauthorized this year with the current program continued into 2004. In the early stages of reauthorization, Congress has voted not to cut funding for Head Start, which puts it in a better funding situation than many other federal ECEC programs. TANF REAUTHORIZATION is moving. Congress and the President want increased work requirements for parents but a cut in child care funding. RIGHT START, an update from Jane Zehnder-Merrell, Michigan League for Human Services: Various children's programs are being cut. The good news is that Michigan overall has improved in maternal health. But, there is still a lot of work to be done. The bad news is that Detroit ranks at the bottom in almost all categories. A child has a better chance of being born pre-term and at a low birth weight in Detroit than in any of the other 49 cities in the study. Carol Grates sent a letter to Dave Hollister, newly appointed director of the Department of Consumer and Industry Services (DCIS) expressing concern over child care licensing. People can't get licensed. Centers are waiting for a licensing person to come out but nobody shows up. It was suggested people call their state legislators and ask them to intervene. A letter from Granholm to state employees that praised their hard work and stressed the importance of working together and respecting one another was distributed. The Michigan Ready to Succeed Partnership held a reception yesterday (2/4/03) and 47 legislatures, or their representative, attended. The second phase of the "Be Their Hero from Age Zero" awareness campaign was rolled out. The awareness campaign raised almost $750,000 for media buys, which has been matched by media firms to produce a $1.5 million campaign. The campaign starts in mid-February. It features a toll-free phone number, 888-BE A HERO, which parents and other citizens can call to get a wide range of information about children. The task force broke into three groups to brainstorm on advocacy agenda items that the task force might adopt. Each group dealt with a different topic area: Availability, Affordability and Quality. Each group reported back to the entire task force at the end of time allotted to this task. The task force Steering Committee will take the results of this group work and report back at the March 5 meeting a recommended policy agenda for the task force to adopt. The recommendations will be available at the March 5 meeting. The meeting ended at 12:00 noon. SPEAKERS FOR MARCH 5, 2003 MCCTF MEETING: NANCY WILLYARD: Director, HEAD START STATE COLLABORATION PROGRAM - an overview of the program's goals and activities LAURIE NICKSON: Professional Development Coordinator, Michigan AEYC; Co-chair, MICHIGAN EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSIONALS CONSORTIUM (MECPC) - an overview of MECPC's work in building a professional development system for early childhood education and care. ALSO: Thanking You for Your
Support: Minutes taken by Joyce Blais, Consultant, Work|Life Benefits; Steve Manchester, Michigan AEYC o Please FORWARD THIS NOTICE
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