Torrington Early Childhood Collaborative Steering Committee Meeting: September 16, 2011
Present: Heather Dinneen, Elaine Hanscom, Cheryl Klockzo, Donna Labbe, Karla Woodworth
Called to order at 9:05a.m.
Discussed Committee Updates:
Parent Committee –
- CT Parent Power is presenting Regional Meetings and TECC is hosting the one in September.
- Education Connection has applied for funding to run a People Empowering People (PEP) class.
- Karla reported on the status of her research project. She & Cheryl Petersen are working on the Birth to Graduation community birthday party.
- Several TECC members have participated in CT Parent Power’s 2011One on One Listening Campaign. They are collecting themes to be presented at the September Board of Education meeting.
Sustainability –
- TECC Resource Guide has been given to a website development company to enable us to access the info online through our website and have easier updates. Second printing of Resource Guide and reveal of new TECC logo planned for Jan 2012 release date.
- Graustein Memorial Foundation (GMF) is running a pilot for an Early Childhood Data Portal for all CT communities, which includes community plan indicators for Discovery communities. They have asked TECC to serve on a committee as a local rep for this data initiative. This portal has the potential to be used instead of using our resources on a local database or scorecard. Public & private funding is being utilized to create the portal.
Child Growth & Development-
- First Community Birthday Party date set for 1/21/12, with snow date of 1/28/12. Children up to age 2 will be invited to attend. Will be similar to the Kindergarten Readiness Fair in layout & will utilize many community partners to share info with parents.
- Discussed Parent Engagement –vs. Civic Engagement activities.
Education—
- Kindergarten Readiness Fair date set for 3/10/12.
- The Even Start Grant has been put back in the state budget with a line item due to our advocacy efforts. We have applied for a planning grant to collect data on cost savings achieved due to the Even Start program.
- The Family Resource Center has a mailing list of all Family Day Care Home Providers and does periodic mailings to them if we would like to add any materials to a mailing.
School Readiness-
- Grant funding has been received to offer 3 workshops in Professional Development for providers.
- A new grant has been received for Parent Engagement. The Preschools will run a Family Literacy Night.
- The Grandparents As Parents (GAP) group will continue to run out of the Family Resource Center.
Operations & Procedures Manual—Elaine presented a document for review & discussed additional items to include. Approximately 40 work project hours remaining.
Budget- Review of the budget indicates numbers are on target. 12.5K Match from State Dept of Education needs to be distributed.
Meeting adjourned at 11:02am. Next meeting scheduled for October 21, 2011.
Submitted by Elaine Hanscom, Secretary
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