Torrington Early Childhood Collaborative/
TECC Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
9-12-08
In attendance: Michelle Anderson, Cheryl Kloczko Lucille Fines, Brandy Grant, Cindy Guerreri, Elaine Hanscom, Alison Jeannin, Donna Labbe, Cara Manegal, Abigail Rabinko, Sue Vivian, Kathleen Wilmes, Karla Woodworth
Meeting called to order by Co-chair Alison Jeannin at 12:30p.m.
Minutes from the 6-13-08 TECC Executive Committee Meeting were reviewed and approved.
Grants:
PEP/APEX People Empowering People/Aspira Parents for Excellence
Grants for both programs have been renewed. Day & evening programs will be offered in the fall. Heather Kosmulski & Cara Manegal will act as facilitators.
Regional Northwest CT Community College Course
24 registrants for fall course. We have funding for 20 spots.
Discovery 08/09
Need to update our action plans and send summary to William Graunstein Memorial Fund.
Reminder that Donna’s hours as Outreach Coordinator are 20 per week until December, reduces to 15 in January.
Committee chairs need to take more responsibility for agendas, meeting reminders and coordination to allow Donna to focus on recruiting members for Partnership Grant.
Stone Soup all day conference date is October 21st.
Partnership Grant
Donna’s hours as Outreach Coordinator are 5 hours per week until June 2009. Will look at budget to see if hours can be increased. Need to recruit for 4 more committees.
Focus groups all wrapped up. Presentation to community where draft plan will be unveiled is September 25th.
Committee Updates:
Kindergarten Transition
Kindergarten Readiness Fair- year 2 plan- would like to use the High School to have more space. No date set yet. March 2009 probable. Need to concentrate on advertising. Would like to involve Warner and Nutmeg to add an arts component.
Public Awareness
October 1st Anita Ford Sanders will be coming to present background information on our Strategic Communications Plan at the all TECC meeting.
Alison talked about what the TECC website will entail:
Info on Kindergarten readiness, info from our TECC brochure, contact page, number of visitors to the site, resource pages with links to available early education programs and to National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), committee information with buttons for each one, pictures of events.
Need text info from each subcommittee by the end of September.
Would like to incorporate other forms of media into the website in addition to text. Would like to videotape committee chairs and have interviews on the site.
Professional Development
Will offer a Conscious Discipline 5 week DVD training series for parents in the evening in October. Parents on waitlist will be offered class first. Hope to use this session as a model to continue to offer the series. 15 participant capacity at Torrington Child Care Center. Will have multiple facilitators who have taken the training.
Workshop on Sensory Integration, special needs topic, will be offered to child care providers in November.
Received info about community program offered on recognizing child sexual abuse by Family Strides on October 28th.
Parent
Committee working on Community Resource Guide to be published with PEP/APEX graduates.
Clothing drive completed, served more than 600 people. Secured storage facility for next year. Looking to secure larger funding for event. Connected with Friendly Hands Food Bank. Presented numbers to the city council.
Executive
TECC won a $200 grant to use for Family Day event in September. We will partner with the Torrington Day event on September 27th to mann a table, giving out info on community resources and providing face painting.
School Readiness
Committee wants to go out into town and reach out to other providers and invite them into discussion on the topic. More personal approach. Application process for new funds has been created. Committee would be needed for selection process if new funds become available. Will continue to do site monitoring and all state requirements.
Budget
We are right on target, $30K will be spent by the end of December.
City has given us $5K from their budget.
William Graunstein Memorial Foundation to give us $25K next year.
Next TECC Executive Committee meeting scheduled for October 10th at 12:30pm in City Hall second floor auditorium.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:53p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Elaine Hanscom
TECC Secretary
MINUTES HAVE BEEN APPROVED
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