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MEETING MINUTES |
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Minutes by Steve Manchester, Michigan AEYC; Brenda Wakefield, NEMCSA-Head Start. ***
SUMMER/FALL SCHEDULE for the TASK FORCE *** September
& November Meetings: State of Michigan Library ***** ***** ***** Co-chairs Lisa Brewer and Kristen McDonald-Stone called the meeting to order at 9:30. Each person gave a self introduction and the group adopted the agenda. HERO-FROM-ZERO BUTTONS - Bob Redmond, Branch ISD, kept his word from last month's meeting and had available for each person attending this meeting a "Be Their Hero from Age Zero Button." Bob reminded the group of the need to raise awareness of early childhood issues through use of the "Hero from Zero" brand. GOVERNOR'S EDUCATION SUMMIT, "Great Start, Great Finish" &emdash; The ninth annual Summit will take place on September 30 in Lansing. The Governor asked that this summit focus on children age zero-to-five. The Summit hosts are the Michigan Foundation for Education Leadership and The Education Alliance of Michigan. A large number of sponsors have made this summit possible through generous cash contributions. One can obtain information about the Summit and register online at www.masb.org/page.cfm/41. MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Early Childhood & Parenting Programs - Judy Levine reporting: 1. Michigan School Readiness Programs - final decisions about grants for the next school year must wait for the Legislature and Governor to adopt the school aid and Department of Education budgets. The department is guardedly optimistic that no cuts from the current year will happen for fiscal year 2004. 2. 21st Century Community Learning Centers - The department received 87 grant applications, which were evaluated earlier this week. 3. Even Start &emdash; The second round of funding is underway now. Readers are needed for two panels, one on July 23 and the other on August 13. To become a reader go to: http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5234_6809-20426--,00.html. Scroll down to "Grant Readers Needed" and follow instructions. Deadline to apply to be a reader is July 3. 4. Sue Carnell from MDE has been selected by Governor Granholm as the Education Advisor to the Governor. LIBRARY OF MICHIGAN - Kristine Tardiff reporting: Ms. Tardiff reported on zero-to-five services available through libraries. There are 43,000 children's programs provided annually in public libraries across Michigan. She shared a handout titled, "Michigan Public Libraries and Children's Library Services at a Glance." Libraries want to partner with early childhood organizations to provide services to children and families. As one example of partnering, the State of Michigan Library is sponsoring an emergent literacy workshop three times in August in Southfield, Cadillac and Marquette. You can reach Kristine Tardiff at: ktardiff@michigan.gov; 517-373-4457. You may download the registration brochure for the emergent literacy workshops at: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/hal_lm_mahoneyflyer_65824_7.pdf HEAD START REAUTHORIZATION - Kristen McDonald-Stone reporting: On May 22, HR 2210 was introduced in Congress in the House of Representatives. The legislation would consist of two parts, Title I and Title II. Title I gets good reviews from early childhood people because it calls for higher teacher and program standards to be phased in during the next few years. Title II gets bad reviews because it appears to be a block granting approach in which federal Head Start funds go to the state for state implementation. The standards that have existed through the years and the improved standards of Title I would not be required for states that opted for Title II. Some people suggest that only about seven states would meet Title II requirements to become a block grant state; others think the qualifications are so weak that 48 states would qualify. Congressional work on HR 2210 will begin very soon. However, this reauthorization will take many months if not longer before it's over. Many child advocates will work for substantial change away from the language in HR 2210 as introduced. DAY CARE LICENSING - Patricia Hoag reporting: 1. Pat expressed her pleasure at being the first Day Care Licensing staff person to appear before the task force in some years. 2. There will be a rule change hearing on June 13 regarding a requirement for child care centers to provide developmentally appropriate emergent literacy experiences every day for each child. The rule will call for at least 30 minutes per day, spread out across the day as the provider deems best on that day. Pat pointed out this is routinely done in high quality child care. 3. The child placement contracts have been changed. Child care contracts for children who not infants and toddlers will not have to contain language detailing how infant/toddler care is provided. 4. Details about screening of staff and volunteers must be in all contracts. 5. Exemption decisions regarding director-to-program ratios for school age child care will be made by July 1. 6. Licensing consultants will have control of case files as was the practice before last fall. Fee payments and applications will still come to Lansing. 7. The move of child care licensing to the FIA has been announced by the Governor, but the actual executive order has not been issued and the date of issuance has not been determined. At 10:15 a.m., the task force recessed so that the FIA could conduct its public hearing on the above referenced state plan. The hearing was not conducted by the task force and these minutes do not cover what people said. Information about the hearing may be obtained from Kathy Pioszak at: 517-335-6186; pioszakk@michigan.gov. The task force reconvened shortly after 11:00 a.m. 1. The task force communication network has 1292 email and 140 snail-mail members for a total of 1432 members. 2. Michigan has 700 people subscribed to the NAEYC advocacy listserve. Michigan AEYC will push to increase this number significantly. Anyone wanting to subscribe to the NAEYC and/or Children's defense Fund listserves can do so directly at - http://capwiz.com/naeyc/home/ and/or http://capwiz.com/cdf/home/ or send their name, mailing address and email address to: smanchester@miaeyc.com - (indicate the listserves wanted). 3. Two important papers were recently released that indicate that early learning and care issues are reaching beyond our profession; they are: "Early Childhood Education: A Call to Action from the Business Community" by the Business Roundtable, a national organization composed of CEOs from 150 of the nation's largest businesses. You can download the paper at: http://www.brtable.org/index.cfm - Click on "Publications"; scroll down and click on "May 7, 2003" next to the title of the paper. The NEXT MEETING will be on SEPTEMBER 3, 9:30 a.m. - noon, State of Michigan Library in Lansing, the Lake Ontario Room. SPEAKER: LYNNE MARTINEZ, Children's Ombudsman - Lynne, a long time friend of this task force, served almost seven years in the Michigan House of Representatives. Through hard work in the legislature she helped establish: The Michigan Ready to Succeed Partnership, ASAP-PIE, awareness of child- and brain-development issues, awareness of how family and community efforts interact with early childhood development and etc., etc., etc. Ms. Martinez will discuss her new role as Children's Ombudsman, new powers that her office will have, and current issues in the protection of vulnerable children. o Budget
updates - including MSRP - Great Start o and more . . . Thanking You
for Your Support: o Please
FORWARD THIS NOTICE TO OTHERS; we invite people to join this
email network.
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