Torrington Early Childhood Collaborative Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
03/12/10
Called to Order by Co-Chair Mary Cecchinato at 12:35p.m.
In Attendance: Donna Labbe, Cheryl Kloczko, Elaine Hanscom, Mary Cecchinato, Cindy Guerreri, Doreen Deary
Minutes from the 2/12/10 Steering Meeting will be sent out for approval by email.
Discussed:
2010 Graustein Memorial Fund (GMF) Grant Application-
We should receive response to our grant application by April 19th, with funding retro to 4/1/10. Funding period is two years, with budget payments paid twice a year.
15 communities applied for Option 1 funding (including Torrington), 19 communities applied for Option 2 funding. Funding will trickle down, so if a community is not eligible for Option 1 funding, they may receive Option 2 funding. 51 proposals representing 53 communities have applied for funding and 10 will receive Option 1 funding. 20 will receive Option 2 funding and 21 will receive Option 3 funding.
Community Liaisons are available through Option 2. Cindy Guerreri will be available to TECC until 4/30/10, but may be reassigned to another community. Technical assistance funding will still be available and a community liaison could do the assistance in a specialized area.
Other Funding-
We did not receive PEW Foundation grant for Spanish speaking paraprofessionals.
CT did not receive Race to the Top federal funding.
ARRA funds ($8K) to prepare for additional funding streams will be spent by May.
GMF Training-
GMF offers communities training in several areas, including Capacity Building, Facilitative Leadership and Performance Measures and Accountability (PM&A). We need a team of 4-6 members to attend all 3 sessions of PM&A. We would like each work group to be represented in the team. We will send out an email to all TECC members to garner interest in these trainings.
By-laws Updates-
Added work groups and descriptions, changing terms of TECC Chair and Secretary to increase to 8 years, changing language about fiscal year based on our funding grant guidelines. Will distribute proposed changes to all TECC members and vote on changes.
Review Consultant List for Data Management System-
Data management is a key component of our community plan. In order to move ahead in this area when funding is received, we need to consider what consultants in this area are available to us. List distributed and interviews will be set up with at least 3 consultants.
Need to have sustainability work group members represented at the interviews as they will be working with data as the community plan moves forward.
Current Budget-
$5180 left through March 31st. This is enough to meet our administrative needs until new funding is secured.
New Discussion-
We have been asked by Head Start to clarify if Head Start accreditation is sufficient for School Readiness sites. This is a local decision, but we must follow the language given in the 1997 Public Act regarding School Readiness. This will be moved to the Education work group agenda since they will need to give a recommendation to the Superintendent and Mayor. School readiness providers can give input into the discussion, but may not vote on this issue.
Next meeting scheduled for April 9th.
Meeting adjourned at 1:45p.m.
Submitted by Elaine Hanscom
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