Nevada Head Start Association

Supporting Each Other. Advocating for Children.

2005 NvHSA Board Meeting Minutes

February 24, 2005 Minutes

July 28, 2005 Minutes

October 6, 2005 Minutes

NvHSA Board Meeting Minutes from October 6, 2005 forthcoming.

December 15, 2005 Minutes

NvHSA Quarterly Meeting

December 15^th, 2005              CSA Bldg., Reno

MINUTES

 

Those in attendance:  Sherry Waugh, Jane Hoag, Kathy Biagi, Joanne Moore, Arvelis Byrd, Nicole King, Joan Anderson, Mary Eldridge, Debbie Block, Leanna Dyer, Paula Russell, Tedra Mandell, Dorothy McCloud, Christy Jacobus, Henrietta Toby.

 

Meeting was called to order at 9:14 a.m. by Sherry Waugh

 

I.                   Approval of the Agenda:  Paula Russell asked that PIR calls be added to the agenda.

II.                Introductions:  Sherry Waugh introduced herself to the group and thanked CSA and Nicole King for hosting the meeting and setting up the delicious snacks.

III.             Minutes from the October 6, 2005 meeting:  Although the minutes were missing many of the people’s names who made and seconded motions, the motion was made by Mary Eldridge and seconded by Joan Anderson to accept the minutes as read.  The motion carried with Dorothy McCloud abstaining because she was not present at the October meeting.

IV.              Treasurer’s Report:  Joan Anderson said that she had just received all the treasurer’s information from Michelle (former treasurer) the previous night.  Deposits:  5 agencies have turned in their dues so far, however, they will need to send in the appropriate paperwork so that we can send the money to NHSA.  We sent a check to Region IX.  Jane explained the Grass Roots Advocacy Grant money break-out.  The cost was a little higher because Joanne had had to do a lot more work and the program had changed.  It was agreed that this is money well-spent.

a.        The tuition reimbursement checks were distributed to the different grantees at this time.

Sherry Waugh asked if there were any further questions regarding the treasurer’s report, there were none.

V.                 Coordinator’s Report: 

a.       Family Development Matrix:  Nicole King asked if everyone had received the CD-ROM from Joanne Asch with the database.  The Reno/Sparks Tribe didn’t and Nicole said she would let Joanne Asch know.  She also asked if anyone had any difficulties in downloading the CD to their computers (Nicole was unable to download it) and no one else had, although Joanne Moore said that she would have to check with her FSP’s to see if they had encountered any problems.  Nicole stated that March would be the deadline to get the first assessment data to her and June would be the deadline for the second assessment data.  Kathy Biagi asked if Nicole would give her a short report outlining the FDM monies provided to Head Start by the Collaboration group.  Nicole agreed.

b.      Consultant Contract:  Nicole suggested that perhaps we should extend the existing contract through March or even further and cut back on the hours from 10 to 7 hours per week.  After some discussion, it was moved by Mary Eldridge and seconded by Jane Hoag to extend the contract through June at 7 hours per week.  The motion carried.

c.       Letter of support for voluntary dental services:  Nicole asked everyone what services they used in their areas.  The letter of support was approved.

VI.              Head Start State Collaboration Report:  There is no report available yet on the “research to practice”.  Regarding Jamie and the FDM training, they haven’t had an opportunity to discuss the next training so there is no definitive answer yet on when and where.  Jerry Allen came to the Collaboration meeting on December 14^th and spoke with the group.  Kathy will contact Suki and Bob Garcia to go ahead with the MOU, but Jerry wants to clarify the co-payment option.  She spoke with Shannon (?) about whether an MOU or a separate agreement would be better in this issue and Shannon stated that an MOU would be better and stronger.  Purpose of care is still the most important aspect of this issue.  Eligibility requirements in other states are at least once a year and the Child Care Board would like to mandate that we re-qualify annually as well.  There is some concern regarding the accounting system for co-payments and if that would be cumbersome.  Bob Garcia is very knowledgeable in that area and Kathy with talk with him about that.  When we have our next teleconference with them, that will be one of the topics.

a.       Other collaborations and grants:  Johnson & Johnson came out to do an oral health training in Kansas and Kathy was wondering if we would be interested in something like that for our sites.  She will investigate this further and let us know.

VII.           Head Start Domestic Violence Training Information Update (Sue Meuschke):  Ms. Meuschke is the Executive Director of the Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence and is working with service providers throughout the state. They offer services such as Hotlines, shelter, peer counseling, training and technical assistance to name a few.  Sue spoke of their hopes to get a partnership going with the state Head Start grantees on a training initiative to help the Head Start and Early Head Start issues regarding violence/substance abuse and other factors of domestic violence.  An example was given of a battered woman unable to leave the abusive situation and being able to have affordable or useful homes/facilities for them to go to.  We want victims to know what kind of resources are out there and how we can provide them with access to the necessary information and support.  There is a Head Start grant from Winwood in cooperation with the Muskee School for this type of program.  The NNADV would like to develop a multi-disciplinary approach in training the Head Start staff in this program and train people who would then go out and do the training at the sites.  Erin Branch has talked to Sherry Waugh and Nicole King about this already.  The NNADV have done a little fundraising and have a small grant from Dermody Properties ($10,000.) and they believe that this amount would be enough to do most of what they would need to do for Head Start.  The training would consist of 9 separate modules, each one 2 hours long (18 hours total).  They will be bringing together a team of domestic violence counselors, Head Start staff, substance abuse counselors and perhaps another facet of this issue.  Sue asked if we would be interested in this program?  A discussion ensued: 

Paula:  What would be the size of the training group?

Sue:  16, in groups of 4 teams.  We would train these teams and they would then go out and train the Head Start sites.  There would be two of these trainings.

Sherry:  Is the site training in the 9-module set-up as well?

Sue:  Yes.

Sherry:  That might be difficult considering staff turnover.

Nicole:  How long is the training?

Sue:  18 hours over a period of two days.  The actual delivery of the training would be up to the site and their time format.

Nicole:  Your office would pull all this together?

Sue:  Yes.

Kathy and Sherry:  If we did our own venue and travel expenses, would the cost be reduced?

Sue:  Yes.

Kathy:  Isn’t the time frame for the training pretty intense (two days, 9 hours per day)?

Sue:  Yes, it is quite intensive training.  We could do it in May or June if that would work with your groups.

Paula:  Is it only limited to 4 groups?  We could expand or be flexible (in regards to bringing a group from Northern California). 

Sue;  I will check on that to get a top figure on the number of groups that could be trained.

Sherry:  Does this sound like a good idea?  Who would be the partners?  Would February be a good timeline to get back to Sue on what the decision is on this? 

It was decided that we would talk again with Sue during the teleconference the first Tuesday in February at 11 a.m. (Sherry told Sue to check the NvHSA website for all the information on getting “in” to the teleconference).  After Sue left, Sherry asked if anyone wanted further discussion on the subject.  Dorothy McCloud said that she thought it would be a good idea, but the training would be difficult to arrange with each grantee and which person they would send.  Paula asked Nicole about the Children’s Trust Fund Grant and Mary Eldridge suggested the CPS Grant.  Kathy Biagi said that the grant for education money just came in and she would check that out as well.  Nicole King asked if “Can Prevent” provide money for things like this?  Kathy Biagi said that Toby and Betty may know of a money source.  Sherry suggested that we all do some investigating and think of who we would send to the training.  Jennifer Bascomb has worked with Head Start in the past and would be a logical partner in this endeavor.

VIII.        Slate of Nominees for 2006-2008 NvHSA Board of Directors:  Due to Sherry Rice’s resignation, we still need nominees for Vice President.  Dorothy McCloud said that she would offer to become the Vice President if Sherry promised that she would never miss a meeting (a little humor…).  The offer was accepted and the slate is as follows:

President:  Sherry Waugh

Vice-President:  Dorothy McCloud

Treasurer:  Jane Hogue

Secretary:  Debbie Block

The motion to accept the revised slate of nominees to the Board of Directors for the 2006-2008 term was made by Mary Eldridge and Joan Anderson seconded the motion.  The motion carried.

IX.              Steps to Success:  Paula Russell explained that the packets were handed out at the meeting in Ely, but explained the program to the members who were not at that meeting.  Steps to Success is an early literacy mentor coaching program that Region IX is doing.  It is a commitment, though.  They are looking at doing a facilitator training with 4 modules and units.  The only way anyone can receive the materials is if they attend the training.  It can be used in Early Head Start and up.  There are a lot of different options and could be used as a professional development/diversity training.  Nevada would be it’s own cluster training (2-1/2 days, 4 facilitators).  We may be able to have more people, but no more than 18.  Two sets of materials would go to each facilitator.  This is seen as a foundation for teacher training and improvement.  Paula asked for feedback.

Sherry:  Is anyone interested?  A minimum of two people should be sent.

Jane:  Who would be the trainers?

Paula:  Barbara Burnhardt would be one, I will not be a trainer, however.

Sherry:  Are we going to have to have this?  Since there is no money available, which one of the programs (Steps to Success or the Domestic Violence) would be most important and more useful at this time because we can’t fund both.

Paula:  Suki is very involved with this program (STS) and went to the pilot training.

Sherry:  Since there isn’t any funding, why don’t we go back to our sites and discuss both programs, then when we do the conference call in February we can make the decision as to which one to go with.

Paula:  Are there any sites that want to go to the training in San Francisco next week on their own? 

CSA answered that they would be interested as was Dorothy McCloud and her group.  Paula said that they could download the information about the program from the website: www.step-net.org and they could also get the forms to fill out if the decision was made to attend the training either individually or as a group.  If we decided to go with Steps to Success, we would need to figure out who would be the host and what would the training schedule be, etc.

X.                 PIR Calls:  Jan Linn has asked the program specialist to look at last year’s PIR results.  Kathy Biagi said that she got the results for the entire country, but was not allowed to disseminate the information as yet.  She thought that she could provide only the specific grantee information to that grantee.  Perhaps Suki could send the information out electronically.

a.       Suki has communicated the dates that she will be available for conference calls.  The following are the dates and approximate times that each site has chosen:

January 9^th, 12^th, 13^th and 23^rd each call tentatively taking an hour. 

January 13^th at 9:00 a.m. for UNR Head Start

January 13^th at 10:30 a.m. for Elko

January 13^th at 2:00 p.m. for EOB

January 23^rd at 10 a.m. for Ely

January 23^rd at 2:00 p.m. for CSA

 

BREAK

 

XI.              Mental Health Core Question via conference call with Marilyn Leonard:  After everyone introduced themselves to Marilyn, the question was asked:  Can you give us any information that would be helpful to the grantees about the new Mental Health Core question?

Marilyn:  Do you all have a copy of core question #11? 

Group:  No. 

Marilyn:  There are 13 pages of protocol and you can download this.  The reason is that when we were at the reviewer training, the Mental Health people were being trained as reviewers as well.  The larger grantees will have a Mental Health person as their reviewer, the smaller sites will probably just have the review staff.  All of the reviewers have a background in mental health.  Has anyone seen the performance standards?

Tedra:  We have, we took it to our board.  They restructured their Mental Health Board last year and they seem to be in pretty good shape, according to the #11 protocol.

Marilyn:  You will need to have performance standards that are linked to mental health services.  There are 40 performance standards that support mental health services for grantees and that is in the materials.  The reviewer will look at all documents, training, parents, observations, service staff, classrooms, etc. to see that mental health performance standards are integrated in the system.

Paula:  Could you give us an interpretation on the periodic inspection, etc.?

Marilyn:  Not precisely.  What you need to do on that is to make sure that your Mental Health Consultant is at your site frequently enough to insure that parents and staff are familiar with the person and the services they can provide.  That way they wouldn’t necessarily only be called upon for crisis intervention, because if they are also familiar with the HS staff, the families on site and their needs, then they can offer training, access or help and services as needed.

Paula:  Who would the Family Service Providers mental health person at the site be supervised by? 

Marilyn:  It is vague.  You can have a Mental Health Coordinator within your organization if they have a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood and they can do screening for social/emotional wellness and they can promote social and emotional confidence and behavior management in the classrooms.  They would report/refer to a licensed mental health professional.

Paula:  Would an intern in Mental Health Services with a Master’s Degree be sufficient?

Marilyn:  As long as they are supervised by a licensed person, they could do a session.  If an agency had a contract with a mental health therapist and they are working with staff in the center, the mental health therapist would need to observe the children.  The MH therapist would have to have parental permission to work with the children who needed therapy or further work.

Sherry:  In addition to the 45-day screening and assessment, we would also need an ongoing examination of observed problems (internal referral process) to assess concerns, improvements and needs on an ongoing basis (of course with parental permission) to develop a plan for the child.

Paula:  MH for post-partum women?  There are 3 MH standards and two issues that are commonly ignored, post-partum women and Infant/Toddlers in classroom situations.  Are we being proactive?  If we integrate the mental health issue into all aspects of community education, alcoholism, abuse, and record keeping and reporting, we could make great strides toward improving the MH issues in these situations.

Marilyn:  I would also suggest that you get the downloaded material and use it in the self-assessment.

Paula:  Look at the SAP’s, job descriptions, record keeping, program services and how they match up with the MH protocols.

XII.           Child Care MOU:  (See section X for the dates and times that Suki and Bob Garcia will be available for telephone conferences). 

XIII.        Region IX Conference:  It was decided that the manner in which the Region IX Conferences are managed by the hosting grantee needs to be addressed.  The meeting that was supposed to take place to discuss this was cancelled, however, there are some ideas that could help make the Conferences easier to host and not such a burden on the management teams at the Conference sites.  The office staff could provide more support and do more of the venue and leg-work around local speakers, etc.  Staff could be available for on-site registration.  Paula asked if the NvHSA had offered to host and Sherry answered that yes, they would like Nevada to host a conference, and we wouldn’t mind doing it if we could benefit from hosting, but the decision hadn’t been finalized yet.  It is difficult to be the host of the Region IX Conferences because of the cost and time investment, however, if the associations could get a portion of the proceeds from the conference, it would definitely make it more attractive for future hosts.  Paula suggested drawing up a proposal stating that we would host the Conference if we could get X% of the monies gathered.  Sherry asked Nicole if she would get with Paula and come up with some kind of a proposal after figuring out who would take one which tasks (if we hosted a conference) and what would need to be accomplished and at what cost.  That way they could come up with a figure that would be feasible for both parties.  Nicole and Sherry decided that they would meet around the second week in January to go over the information.  Sherry stated that it really would be great to hold the conference here because it would be an excellent way to get training and information.  They will keep the members updated as information is gathered.

 

XIII.        Program Updates: 

a.       UNR – Jane Hogue says that really nothing new has happened since our October meeting.  They have two teacher openings that will be coming up soon.  If anyone has an Infant/Toddler Teacher they would like to send over, please feel free!  They will also be hiring a home visitor soon.  Jane’s group is considering some internal reorganization of roles and responsibilities in staff.  The UNR site built a beautiful playground and they invite everyone to come and see it.  The playground was designed by a consultant from New York in conjunction with staff and parents in a 5-day process.  The fundraisers gathered raffle prizes, had bands and a really fun celebration day at the Hacienda Del Sol.  More monies were obtained from UNR Alumni, former faculty members and from the EL Cord Foundation grant.  The project cost $51,000.00 total.

b.      CSA – Arvelis Byrd also has some employment openings.  The vacant position for Head Start Director will close January 15^th and there are a few openings for teachers as well.  They have had Steps to Success panel participation, playground upgrades and they have obtained billboard space through a donation.  The billboard will be used to advertise Head Start spaces available (none at this time) but it is a great way to get the word out!  7 of their teachers will be attending UNR to get the bilingual training using the grant money.

c.       Reno/Sparks Indian Colony – Dorothy McCloud is new and rarin’ to go!

d.      Elko – Joan Anderson has had quite a bit of turnover.  Michelle (Canning) has left and they hired a new teacher.  Josette, their Mental Health Disabilities person quit and they have since hired a man from Las Vegas with a degree in Special Education who started a few weeks ago.  They have also hired an Early Head Start Education Manager.  They had some turnover in teachers this year, but now they are fully staffed.  The union negotiations are in their second year, and not much is taking place.  It took Joan a long time to convince the Teamster Representative that the money in the grant was ALL that was available.  The union has actually considered going out to find more sources of money and they are working on bids for jobs, wages, seniority, health benefits, etc.  Nicole asked if the staff members were paying union dues and what did they see as the benefit of having the union in place?  Joan thought that they seem to think they will get more money.  Nicole responded by stating that they already get benefits from Head Start, so what they get other than that is really questionable.  Paula wondered what the union will do when the legislature mandates BA’s for teachers.

e.       STG – Paula Russell said that there is nothing much in the way of good news from the NHSA 40^th Anniversary celebration Conferences.  There is a TA meeting for all TA networks in January, but the rest is pretty dismal.  She talked about the PRISM and the fact that it will be evidence-based.  Three California programs went through their reviews and all three were O.K.  They had some non-compliance issues, but it wasn’t as bad as they had thought it would be.  The reviewers copied TONS of papers which they took back to send via the website to Washington and the lawyers who would go over compliance, etc.  Paula wants everyone to remember that EVERYTHING is based on EVIDENCE!  If a program doesn’t have documentation of everything involved in the PRISM process, they are non-compliant regardless if they actually have that particular function in place.  The PRISM review process is not going to involve “pats on the backs” for a job well-done, it is solely based upon compliance (or lack of).  If a grantee has a non-compliance, they are required to follow up with a certification of compliance when the situation has been corrected and the regional office will come out to verify.  The reviewers will tell you at the end of the review that you could be selected for a re-review, however this seems to be a regular practice so don’t think you are being singled out.  Paula hasn’t heard anything else on the Mental Health Core question.  The Feds are being trained to work with grantees on risk assessments (some possible risk situations would be:  PIR results, management changes, Board relationships, etc.).  They would use a red, yellow or green color code to identify each site’s risk and then address the red and yellow sites for case management requirements.  They will not look at our strengths, just compliance and accountability.

f.        Ely – Mary Eldridge spoke of the ongoing work with SEI and our organizational review.  Paula Russell and Kellie Bates came out in November and are working on job descriptions, policies, etc.  During this reorganization, different people have taken on some of her workload and she had been able to have more time to work on more important tasks because of this fact.  It has made a huge difference!  Everyone feels very positive about the strides that have been made in working with SEI and the contract will continue through June.  We have a teacher’s assistant vacancy and have had one round of interviews.  The next round will probably be in January.

g.       EOB – Janice Moore said that most of the activities occurred prior to her arrival.  Since then there has been significant restructuring with Quality Assurance and the staff and parents have participated in some trainings.  They completed a community assessment from the PRISM and are analyzing the data from their self-assessment.  Hurricane Katrina evacuees have been a significant factor during the last several months and they are awaiting reimbursement for their part in helping the victims, many of whom are still in Vegas.

 

XIV.        Adjournment:  Sherry Waugh adjourned the meeting at 12:00.  Everyone proceeded to the Silver Peak Restaurant for lunch and a farewell party for Sherry Rice.

 

 

Respectfully Submitted by:

 

 

 

Deborah D. Block

NvHSA Secretary