Nevada Head Start Association - 2006 Board Meeting Minutes

2006 NvHSA Conference Call Minutes

February 7, 2006 Minutes

NvHSA Teleconference
February 7th 11:00 a.m.

Those in attendance: Sherry Waugh & Lynn Houghton, Kathy Biagi, Arvelis Byrd, Dorothy MacKowski (Elko), Nicole King, Mary Eldridge & Debbie Block

I. Steps to Success vs. Domestic Violence Training: Paula Russell said that her initial description of the Steps to Success training had not fully outlined the program. She added that it was not a requirement that grantees attend the training to be able to receive the materials, and that Barbara Bernardt will do the training. STS can do the training for individual grantees instead of the previously understood collective agreement with all grantees prior to commitment. The discussion went into a possible choice of training/site; i.e. Domestic Violence Training taking place in the North and STS in the South. Paula offered some dates that were still open for an STS training, most of the spots were either in May or June. After a quick poll, some time during the week of June 5th (there seemed to be a consensus on June 7th-9th). She also said that there would be no cost for the training, there would be two sets of materials for each grantee. Kathy B. offered the PC facility and CSA buildings were also considered as possible training sites. There would not be a large number of people, so the site not seen as a problem. Sue Meuschke will be contacted to get more information on the timeline for the Domestic Violence training, since all sites are very interested in participating in that as well.

The Mental Health core question was considered as a third option in training topic, however, since all grantees are in need of training in Mental Health it was decided that we come to an agreement on the specific topics we wanted addressed in a training and let Marilyn Leonard know so she could put a training together. Kathy reminded us that Marilyn had encouraged us to use the Mental Health protocols in our SAP’s to be in line with the PRISM. Kathy then asked what Mental Health screening tools were being used. Most sites use the ASQ & ASQSE (Social/Emotional). Ely is using DECA-C for 3-5 year olds and Mary thought that the ASQ was being used for the toddlers. Kathy said that she would contact EOB and the tribes to find out what they were using. Kathy also asked if there was a tool available to screen for maternal depression. The participants all agreed that maternal depression was a significant problem, however, no one had any information on what was available to use for that particular screening.

II. 2006 Region IX HSA Conference: It has been decided that the Region IX Head Start Association annual conference be held during October in Reno. We won’t have to be responsible for doing all the arrangements, etc., however, they did request our assistance with registration and area information.

a. The Region IX people told Jane Hogue that they had grant money for state associations and they would like to have the state associations provide ideas as to where (and how) the money would be spent. Nicole suggested an undesignated “mini-grant” or a grant to complete the FDM database. Nicole will write a proposal to submit to Region IX outlining various proposed ways of funneling funds to NvHSA.

III. NvHSA Fund Generation: There is a new initiative to coordinate and support local trainings for Nevada (and Northern California?) grantees as a means of generating revenue as well as provide necessary trainings. Paula said that Northern California grantees were very excited about the possibility of accessible training, and also stated that there should be a limit on the amount of each training session. Sherry stated that we could hold training during the Region IX conference week and that perhaps some of their people or some of the Region IX participants could provide the training and that the Association could take the proceeds from the fees to help bolster up the Association funds. Region IX asked that we provide them with topics for training. There was some question as to exactly when the conference would begin, since the WIFLI would be held prior to the conference days (Wednesday through Friday). Paula will get more information on the specifics, then get a core group together to discuss possible topics for training and contractors to facilitate the training. Nicole will call Deidad for more information. There was a suggestion that we consider training for staff members or support staff members who usually didn’t get to go to trainings. Possibly a “Cook training” for those sites who cooked their own meals? Sites were asked to email other suggestions based on their specific needs.

Arvelis asked about the Child Care Reimbursement involving documentation of citizenship being a requirement for reauthorization. Mary explained that she had been involved in the discussion during her meeting in Las Vegas with Nancy Ford and the Welfare Department. She said that even a birth certificate was not necessarily enough documentation of citizenship. They will discuss it further during the phone conference with Suki, Bob and other Region IX members.

Jane Hoag’s Treasurer’s Report was sent via email to Board members in her absence and is included in these notes as follows:

Treasurer’s Report
2/6/2006

New bank account:
I talked with Bank of America about opening a new bank account. B of A was chosen because it has branches in Las Vegas, Reno, Ely and Elko, which will be convenient for the current treasurer as well as future treasurers.

The banker told me what documents I need to present in order to open the account. As Nicole and I attempted to track down the documents, I became aware that the annual fee to the Nevada Secretary of State (SOS) had not been paid for a couple of years and that the Association was in revoked status.

The paperwork has been filed to bring the Association back to “current” status. I have applied to be the resident agent (using my home address) and will be the one to receive documents and mailings from the SOS. It has been suggested that the treasurer is always listed as the Resident Agent for the association.

We have known that we don’t have an official document that states the EIN (although we do know what that number is!) Nicole has submitted the paperwork to the IRS requesting a copy of that. I’m not sure if the bank needs the EIN or a copy of the IRS document with the EIN.

Once these documents are received, I will make an appointment with the bank to open the new account. I still have the check for $10,000 that Joan gave me at the December meeting and will use that for the opening balance. The Secretary’s signature is required by B of A, so they will “inter-branch” the documents to Ely for Debbie Block’s signature.

Once the new account is established, we will need a plan to close out the Elko account and transfer the remaining funds to Bank of America.

Finance Report:

There is no finance report. I do not have access to the existing bank account and am unaware of what expenditures or deposits have been made.

Respectfully Submitted,

Debbie Block
NvHSA Secretary

March 14, 2006 Minutes

NvHSA Quarterly Meeting

March 14th, 2006 Las Vegas, NV

MINUTES

Those in attendance: Sherry Waugh, President; Dorothy McCloud, Vice-President; Jane Hogue, Treasurer; Nicole King, NvHSA Coordinator; Debbie Block, Secretary; Mary Eldridge, Ely; Arvelis Byrd, CSA Reno; Christi Jacobus, RSIC Reno/Sparks; Lynn Houghton, Reno; Jean Childs, CSA Reno; Janice Moore, CDI Las Vegas; Rory Sipp, CDI Las Vegas; Paula Russell, STG; Barbara Bernhardt, STG.

I. Call to Order: Sherry Waugh called the meeting to order at 9:43 a.m.

II. Approval of the Agenda: Janice Moore asked that the T/TA plans be moved to the beginning of the agenda (after the Treasurer’s report) so that Rory Sipp would be able to provide his input on the suggestions for training.

III. Approval of minutes from the December, 2005 meeting: Janice Moore’s name was incorrect in several places (Joanne); Jan Linn is actually spelled Len. The motion was made by Jane Hogue and seconded by Janice Moore to approve the minutes with the corrections. Motion carried.

IV. Treasurer’s Report: Since the December meeting, Jane said that the NvHSA account has been transferred to Bank of America because they have branches throughout the state. We are up to date with the status on Articles of Incorporation, fees, etc. Joan gave Jane a check for $10,000. to open the account in December. Jane has been able to set up a QuickBooks account with the information available to her at this point and it provided her with the report (distributed Balance Sheet Detail as of March 13, 2006). She is still unaware of the exact amount in the Elko checking account. Nicole King stated that she has spoken with Michelle (former treasurer) and was told that it is somewhere between $8,000-$10,000. and Nicole will have the account closed and a check sent to Jane when she gets back to Reno. Jane asked Debbie Block if she had been contacted by the Bank of America in Ely to get her signature on the account and Debbie responded that she had not. Nicole will contact the InterTribal Council of Nevada Head Start to see if they want to donate their Leadership Institute fees to NvHSA. Jane asked about a budget plan for this year and Sherry Waugh responded that there hadn’t been a budget done for this year, but that it will be done as soon as possible.

V. Coordinator’s Report:

a. Grantee T/TA Training Plans: Nicole asked for everyone’s T/TA information. Some grantees didn’t bring theirs and those that didn’t will be faxing the information to Nicole. During the teleconference earlier in the month, we had discussed using the Region IX conference to train teachers, staff and home visitors and maybe even parents because the main focus of the actual conference is going to be management training. Janice Moore said that due to the reorganization and one-on-one consultations with CDI, they would most likely not be able to contribute any suggestions as to training topics. Mary Eldridge said that a behavioral/mental health would benefit everyone, especially since the focus of the PRISM is the addition of the Mental Health Core curriculum. Rory asked if training on the development of a T/TA plan would be something that would be of interest. All members seemed to be interested in both suggestions, although Paula stated that the Region IX conference did training on that last year and would probably be amenable to doing it again this year. It would be more a management than a staff training topic. Jean Childs asked Nicole King if the final decision would be made after she received everyone’s T/TA plans and Nicole stated that she would go over the information to see if there was a main theme. Sherry W. said that the Region IX meeting was going to be taking place next week and that hopefully she would have everyone’s information by then so that she would be able to have specific suggestions for training topics. Paula reminded us that the reason why we are talking about working with Region IX on the training is so that we can not only target a group that rarely gets intensive training, but also that the Region IX Conference would be doing the advertising and coordinating and would work with us to get the word out to all Region IX grantees. We can also use one or more rooms set aside for the conference for our training. This will also provide NvHSA with the proceeds from fees paid by the grantees for their staff to attend the training. Dorothy asked how many days the training would take. It had been decided previously that we would use the pre-conference day during the WIFLI to have our training, so it would only be one day. The subject of using the conference to do the training is in response to Region IX’s question, “What can we do to help the states programs?” NvHSA has drafted a request for funding which includes several ways that the Regional Association can begin to establish policies to financially assist small associations, like NvHSA: Leverage Funds; Targeted Mini-Grants; Annual Gifts and Conference Revenue Sharing (which is being implemented at the October Conference). Barbara Bernhardt mentioned to Rory that CDI was “blocking” her ability to train the Las Vegas grantee and if Janice could call Suki and request that Barbara come, then she would be allowed to work with the Las Vegas staff. Jean Childs asked if the Region X members had been invited to attend the Region IX Conferences and that perhaps we could advertise the staff training outside our region, we may get better attendance and it would increase revenues from the training. Paula said that there is a lot of interest in the “Steps to Success”, so that idea may work very well.

b. Family Development Matrix Update: Nicole has received Ely’s and UNR’s first assessments, however, there is a glitch in the copy that Nicole has on her computer and it doesn’t receive the entire report. Joanne Asch will be coming over next Wednesday (March 22nd) to check the program on her computer. Sherry Waugh said that the assessment doesn’t actually mean as much as we would like it to. Perhaps some different reports should be generated, or frequencies in each category. Sherry asked if Becky (a knowledgeable IT person) could come to the FDM meeting with Niki and Joanne to learn more about the database. It was mentioned that perhaps we could change the format to reflect more useful information and Niki said that we would not be able to “tweek” the program without paying Joanne more money. Sherry suggested that perhaps Joanne could work with Niki and maybe Bernie from Region IX. The decision was made that Niki and Becky would talk with Bernie while Joanne is available to ascertain the direction all this would take. Paula said that the increased information available on the database would really be helpful for our PIR. Paula suggested that we do workshop training on that (Region IX Conference training?). March 31st is the deadline for getting the first assessment information to Nicole. Dorothy (RSIC) asked to get involved with the FDM and get their staff trained so that they could participate in the program next year. Sherry is going to be doing training for some new staff members next Saturday and invited Dorothy and her staff to attend.

c. Getting our “house” in order: We have received the Articles of Incorporation and changed our address and name so that we can send in for the EIN. Niki is organizing the binders with the financial information that she has received from Michelle (past Treasurer). She would like to request that we update our bylaws to include a new mission statement. It was decided to do that during the June meeting.

What are the areas in which NHSA is most effective? How can NHSA improve those areas?

Are there areas in which NHSA should expand its focus?

Are there areas in which NHSA should limit its focus?

What are areas in which NHSA needs to improve? What are your suggestions for implementing improvements?

e. Region IX Scholarship: Nicole discussed the emails she forwarded to all the members from Mary Dana, who is the RHSA Scholarship Committee Chair. According to the letters, we are allowed only one candidate for each scholarship. Last year Mary Eldridge from the Ely Head Start was the only grantee to submit a candidate and she was awarded the scholarship. Sherry Waugh asked about a National Head Start scholarship since the materials accompanying Mary Dana’s emails only included a regional application. Nicole explained that the National HS application was available online. She also urged all grantees to get as many candidates to apply as possible.

VI. Head Start State Collaboration Report: Kathy Biagi said that she could not attend this meeting, but that she would email everyone a copy of her report of last week’s meeting. Sherry read excerpts from her letter. Early Head Start will not be screened for oral health. Jean Childs asked if the state association still received money from the Collaboration office. There was some discussion as to how the SCO could improve its effectiveness and improve its relationship with NvHSA. Paula mentioned that the carryover amount of $5,000. from last year had been disallowed.

VII. ACF Restructuring: Paula explained the letter from Wade Horn (Administration for Children and Families). This is one of the first times that the administration has responded to questions. What does that mean to those of us in Region IX? (At this time, the “before and after” organizational charts were distributed). Jan Len used to go through Sharon Fuji to the HHS regarding what happens with all the programs that ACF has, now she will report to Washington to the Assistant Commission who then will go to Wade Horn. Janice Moore asked if this would have any impact on the budget cuts and Sherry Waugh voiced her concerns on the direct affect to child care needs.

VIII. 1% Budget Cut Cost Analysis: Sherry asked the members if they had discovered any innovative ideas as to how to take care of the cut. Wade Horn has remarked that he would provide some clarification of the cut and suggestions as to how to tackle it. We certainly don’t want cuts in child services. He said that there would be more information coming. Dorothy McCloud (RSIC) said that they had to take it out of parent services and training since they had to make up their report last week due their funding cycle. Sherry Waugh said that they are having difficulties at UNR due to the State requiring a 4% COLA increase. Since most grantees will probably not be providing any wage increases for their employees as a means to deal with the reduction, their mandate poses a huge problem. Paula mentioned that we really needed to calculate just how much the budget cut would affect the grantees, since increases in utilities; fuel, rents, etc. make the cut a more realistic 3% decrease in funding (some California grantees have already “done the math”). This could be used as an advocacy tool with the Nevada legislators if we approached them as one voice. Kathy Biagi has asked for funding priorities from the legislation and that request has made it to the next level. Hopefully we will be hearing about the outcome soon. Arvelis Byrd (CSA) has had to revise theirs because they already sent their budget in during December. Mary said that Ely and Elko will have to have theirs completed by June.

IX. Head Start Domestic Violence Training: Sue Meuschke and Nicole have discussed holding the training next spring so that the Region IX Conference training and the Steps To Success mentoring program can be implemented this year. Sue said that the training could be moved as far out as the spring of 2007. The cost issue was also discussed and Sue said that the only cost to the grantees would be travel and hosting the trainers, there will not be a cost for the actual training. Sherry Waugh asked the members the question, “Given that information, do we want to go ahead with this?” The time period would be up to us, perhaps a 6 hour/day for three days which would total the required 18 hours of training. Since we are seeing more evidence of domestic violence and that this issue has never really been a focus, we should get some training on recognizing the signs. The membership agreed. There was further discussion about the site for the training, ideas to increase partnerships especially for the rural grantees and the next time we would have this issue on the agenda. Mary Eldridge (Ely) suggested that DCFS should be contacted (statewide) to include their knowledge and resources in this training. Sherry suggested that perhaps the Collaboration office should also work on this process.

X. Steps to Success: Barbara Bernhardt spoke about what was involved in Steps to Success. The Head Start Act of 1998 it is stated that you have to have mentor teachers, so this is nothing new. STS is a tool to use on what is already mandated. Barbara went through the materials in the STS packet: Page two is a memo stating that the Head Start Bureau is firmly behind STS and is looking at a professional development plan. The whole idea of STS is to start with the teachers and be able to have a professional development plan to relate to the entire staff and eventually have a mentor coach in place for all aspects of the program. The third page is the module model. Barbara stated that STS is not mandated, however, mentor coaching is. She also explained that grantees could come to the training and utilize some or all of the materials in the sets, depending upon their needs. She said that since one module is based upon the information from the others all training sessions should be attended, and then the grantee could utilize each as needed. Every site should have two sets of materials by now, some are in Spanish so hopefully the sites who needed the second language materials are the ones who received them since they were sent out based on the NRS information. They are not available for purchase. The sites can, however, make copies of the materials for each of their teachers or trainers. The mentor program is linked to literacy right now and will be linked to math soon. The instructional design and planning tools are meant to help the sites develop their own mentor coaching system. Arvelis Byrd (CSA) mentioned that their program had a good mentor coaching program in place and offered her site to host the training. Paula also mentioned working in the social/emotional aspect and the Mental Health Core questions could work into the STS program. Barbara said that the STS is a great way to develop curriculums that are individualized and it practically eliminates many of the behavioral problems because the curriculum has, in the past, not been appropriate for their age/social group. This can help to identify mental health concerns with children if the classroom lessons are appropriate for the majority. Training is limited to 35 people, so each site should decide who they would be sending and make the copies as needed. The tribal programs will be trained by their TA people. Arvelis said that the room at CSA could hold about 40 people, so that will work out well. The training will take about 20 hours over a period of 2-1/2 days. Arvelis would like to send two staff members, Janice (three), Elko (probably two), RSIC would like to send two if they aren’t contacted by their T/TA person, Ely (three), Tribes (8). Adjustments in numbers can be made and Wendy _____? And Cindy _____ can be contacted about some extra spaces if they can get copies made by borrowing materials.

XI. Child Care MOU: The conference call with Suki Graves, Bob Garcia and Jerry Allen was summarized by the members who participated in the call. Eligibility requirements have worked up until now, the “purpose of care” was the most important issue. Things have changed since then. The income guidelines now depend upon the reporting timeline. The big issue now is proof of citizenship. During the call, Jerry said that the disaggregated information is based on the Social Security numbers, although we don’t have to demand a SS#, that another number could be issued. The TANF reauthorization states that a birth certificate is not sufficient to prove citizenship. This creates confusion, since a birth certificate is required to obtain a social security card. We need clarification! Bottom line is that we will need something in writing specifying what we will need to have to prove citizenship. Lynn said that Jerry suggested we draft an MOU. Niki asked if we already had one in place. Bob Garcia doesn’t have one, although we do have a Part C MOU. Perhaps we can contact the Arizona programs to see what they are doing, since they are under different laws. We all have individual child care MOU’s but they don’t’ address these individual issues. Sherry suggested that we discuss this at next weeks Region IX meeting. Niki asked if we could get some sort of a template and work from there, and Jean asked if most people were satisfied with their local MOU. Jane Hogue said that we needed to have some things in writing due to these new requirements regarding step-by-step eligibility processes so that we don’t have individual situations kicked back to us because there is no written evidence. Niki suggested that we just take the initiative and draft something up. Jane also advised that the wraparound contract needs to be even more stable due to our reduced funding. Jean Childs thought that we should do it ourselves because we have more of a vested interest in the language included in the draft. It was decided to discuss this further during the June meeting. Jean Childs asked how the TANF reauthorization affected the Child Care issue and the reply was that we never really get to see the Child Care budget, so we don’t have any information about what we are working with. Quality Training and Licensing is a sub committee of the State Child Care Advisory. Jean asked if there was a Head Start representative on the State Child Care Committee and Mary Eldridge told her that she was, but there hadn’t been a meeting in over two years. Janice Moore asked if the TANF reauthorization would effect our eligibility requirements. Head Start says that we don’t have to have the proof, but if we wanted wraparound dollars then we would have to use their standards. Sherry will contact Abby ________?

XII. Program Updates:

a. UNR: We have opened our new baby rooms and things are moving slowly. Some newly-hired teachers will be trained this Saturday. We are in the process of restructuring in the management levels. With 8 new teachers and 35 student staff, and very teacher having 10 hours of sick and annual leave things have been tough! We will be re-reviving the Family Community Partnership person and will be going through the process of hiring for that position. We have been working on our self-assessment, community assessment and our grant is due in May.

b. Las Vegas: We are one month into the process which has been very busy and extremely draining. Janice is trusting that it will come out well on the other side of the move from EOB to CDI. All existing staff were offered their positions and all who wanted to reapply were directed to the job fair to apply with CDI. There will be a 60-day assessment. Larry Cerastian is the new site director and there is a team of consultants who come in and out to do assessments and evaluations.

c. CSA: Our new Director is Jean Childs and interviews for our Mental Health Manager and Family Services manager have been held. We are training our team members on the self-assessment process. 7 participants on the Hispanic grant are going to UNR to get their Bachelor’s Degree in ECE. Notes on the Carson City site: We are looking at site possibilities and working with Susan, Mary Liberatti and Kathy Biagi on the 21st to see if there are spaces available.

d. Ely: We are still working on the reorganization project meetings with Kellie Bates and Paula Russell. Paula and Barbara will come out at the end of March to go over the self-assessment materials. Danette Maestes has resigned as EHS Manager and will be working for Nevada Early Intervention Services. Therefore we have an opening for EHS Manager and Infant/Toddler Teacher.

e. Elko (Paula reporting on her visit): Brenna Malone is the interim Director. Applications for the positions are due by March 24th. They have a great management team and are getting through their self-assessment tool. Today they are reorganizing their teachers to work with the recent turnover events. The union is waiting for their audit results to decide if they have to use their discretionary funds for some of the demands. Brenna will be going to Reno next week for three days to meet with the union people.

f. Paula: TA information has been covered on phone conversations. We are going down for our staff meeting at the end of April to set up a case management system. Early alert: Enrollment, attendance numbers, weightless numbers, any recent complaints or negative media, turnover in board/administration, the last time the board was trained (usually around the grant time), PIR results, deficiencies or non-compliance that hasn’t been addressed. After they get this information, then they meet with Joan Ohls. The question was raised if she was the new Commissioner, which is not known at this time.

g. Reno/Sparks Indian Colony: We have been placed on a QUIP (sp?), after the review of the program they corrected 47 deficiencies and they have 5 or 6 more to correct. One of the items that had been suggested was that they hire a Family Services Advocate, so Frances Sullivan came on board as of yesterday. They lost their bus driver, there is a vacant teacher aide position. The Tribal Council has been a great support of their program, they come to all the meetings and have cash match for everything. It is a good challenge for us and I think we can really do a good job of getting this program up and running. The National Indian Head Start Association will be meeting in June (Dorothy is the Treasurer) and hopefully they will be able to meet with the director at that time.

VIII. New Transportation Regulations: NHSA has new regulations that have affected our in-kind documentation. If you are claiming parent transportation, the parents will have to meet the transportation requirements (documentation of insurance/license, safety training, seat belts/car seats, etc.) Jane asked how that had affected other sites. Paula said that some sites are keeping a roster of the compliance by parents. This issue will definitely cause a drop in in-kind eligibility.

Note: Sherry said that she was contacted from the website from a woman who has written a new book called “Vegetable Soup/Fruit Bowl” and would like to share her book with each grantee. Sherry distributed the book to each member representative along with an order form.

Mary Eldridge stated that we should work on a stronger connection between Head Start and Welfare. Sherry will talk with Gary Gobleman about that.

IX. Adjournment: 1:43 p.m. Next meeting will be on June 13, 2006 in Elko. On June 14th, the Collaboration will be meeting in Reno. The next teleconference will be on April 4th at 11:00.

Respectfully Submitted,

Deborah D. Block

NvHSA Secretary

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Nevada Head Start Association
Supporting Each Other. Advocating for Children.

Supporting Each Other. Advocating for Children.

2006 NvHSA Conference Call Minutes

February 7, 2006 Minutes

March 14, 2006 Minutes

Nevada Head Start AssociationSupporting Each Other. Advocating for Children.

Supporting Each Other. Advocating for Children.

2006 NvHSA Conference Call Minutes

February 7, 2006 Minutes

March 14, 2006 Minutes

Nevada Head Start Association
Supporting Each Other. Advocating for Children.