MINUTES

MANSFIELD ADVOCATES FOR CHILDREN

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

6:30-8:00 PM

Council Chambers- Town Hall

 

PRESENT:    K. Grunwald (staff), J. Greene, R. Leclerc (staff), J. Higham, D. McLaughlin, V. Fry, Lisa Holle (guest), Terry Berthelot, L. Buczynski, F. Baruzzi (staff), S. Baxter (staff), S. Daley, L. Young, J. Stoughton (staff), J. Goldman, G. Bent, L. Dahn, Jill Coughlan (guest)

REGRETS:    C. Guerreri, A. Bladen, A. Bloom, R. Miller, K. Paulhus, MJ Newman

 

ITEM

DISCUSSION

OUTCOME

 

Open Meeting and Welcome

 

-S. Baxter Welcome Judy Stoughton as new Co-Chair with Gloria along with

 -Welcome new members Gloria Bent, Terry Berthelot, and Vicki Fry,  S. Baxter asked members to call the Governor’s office to request that she veto a proposed bill that will raise the fees for birth-3 services.

 

S. Baxter will send out an email with the number to call at the Governor’s office.

 

Actions Needed

-Adopt Minutes of 9/2/09:  J. Coughlan requested that minutes be sent out as soon as possible after the meeting as a reminder re: action items.

 

-Adopt new School Readiness Policy on 2nd Child in Care: S. Baxter explained that the School Readiness Council (MAC) is required to adopt a policy regarding a second child in care.  A draft policy was provided, which has already been in place as a practice for some time. Discussion regarding what the impact of this is on the program, other families, and the Centers.  S. Daley suggested that we eliminate paragraph 1 in the policy.  Others thought it should be left in as a preamble.

 

Minutes adopted as written.

 

 

Policy adopted as written.

For Your Information

 

-Stone Soup Conference- October 20th, 8:30AM-4PM,Cromwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Candidates Night 10/27/09 Town Hall-

 

 

 

 

-UConn Spouses Network: J. Goldman asked that someone contact the Spouse’s Network at UConn to report on MAC.

 

 

 

-Updates re: Know Your Town Fair: J. Stoughton thanked J. Higham for notes from Know Your Towns Fair, and reported that fire laws make it impossible to close off the children’s area, as suggested.   D. McLaughlin reported on the status of the children’s play group that her agency had been operating in collaboration with Mansfield Parks & Recreation.   J. Goldman suggested that MAC may want to work with the Community Center Staff to make the space more “child friendly” for the play group.   L. Holle raised a question about the use of open space at the Mansfield Downtown. 

S. Baxter thanked members who were at the MAC table at the Fair.

Contact S. Baxter if you are interested in attending the Stone Soup Conference.

 

Please submit question on EC issues for Candidate’s Night

 

 

L. Holle agreed to attend.

 

 

 

Will discuss these issues as part of the Community Plan.

 

 

 

New Business

-Discussion of Governance: J. Stoughton brought up the issue of wanting/needing to merge the Discovery Action Plan with Mans field’s Plan for Young Children.  The goal was to attempt to develop “action teams” to support the three subject areas identified in the Community Plan: Health, Successful Learners, Connected to the Community.  She then went on to explain how these three groups would absorb the functions of the existing committees.  Some discussion regarding the change to the term “action teams.”

-Discussion of MAC By-Laws Revisions: G. Bent reviewed proposed by-laws changes.  J. Goldman suggested that beyond parents, we should empower “community members” to move the public will…  Suggestion to consistently substitute the term “comprehensive early childhood issues” for “early care and education.” Discussion around the new purpose to serve as a conduit for ongoing professional development.  It was agreed to change the wording on this and combine it with #8.  It was also agreed to change the term “Action Teams” to “Teams.”  Add the term “Providers” to “Birth to Three.” Some discussion about limits on membership from any one organization.  New wording was agreed to on membership.  J. Stoughton asked that we only focus on the proposed changes for this meeting, and review other sections of the by-laws at a later date.

. 

-Prioritize Focus Group area to start on: K. Grunwald presented an overview on the sub-group that did preliminary work on prioritizing which area of the plan we will choose to focus on first for purposes of our grant application.  Prioritizing does not mean that we will not focus on other areas, and there are many areas of overlap here.  J. Coughlan reported that the Knight Foundation is looking for ways to fund community efforts, and this may be a source of funding.  She believes that someone at UConn received one of these grants.  J. Goldman feels that we have the most data in the area of Successful Learners, and also have the most likelihood of having an impact and showing progress. 

 

Members were asked to consider or decide which committee to join. 

Agreed that we will send out the changes to the by-laws that were agreed to at this meeting so that the entire group can review and approve them. Comments should be sent to S. Baxter. 

 

We will send out a summary of these three areas to members for review.

 

 

 

 

Consensus for focus is on the issue of Community Connectedness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indicate interest.

Next Meeting

Meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM.  -Next meeting:  Wednesday, November 4,2009- Town Hall, Council Chambers

Agenda Items to recommend for next meeting: no discussion.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Kevin Grunwald