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Emergency Policy Council Meeting June 5, 2007
REVISED PER JUNE 21, 2007 MEETING The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Christine Ross at 6:15 p.m.
Roll call was taken by Vice Chairperson Denise DeLoach. A quorum was met for the purpose of conducting business.
Those in attendance were: Denise DeLoach Annette Long Christine Ross Liesl Rozniarek Michelle Thompson Chris Gregorich - Administrative Assistant to the Executive Director Kathy Guajardo - Executive Director Pastor Greg Robertson - Parliamentarian available by cell phone and upon request of the Council
Absent from the meeting were: Carmen Butts Robin Bontrager Lisa Pace Mauricio Quintanar Mateo Ramos April Taylor Brandy Trosper Genevieve Waldron Tearra Wright
Agenda:
A motion was made by
Michelle Thompson to approve the agenda and second by
Review Restructure of Organizational Chart:
Kathy has been working with Health and Human Services and the Board in preparation for the grant application since February and they have been working on helping us find ways to identify the quality services that we need and support the transportation costs for the Consortium.
Kathy disseminated the current and the proposed organizational charts. The Directline Services can not be touched because we need staff to provide the services to the children or we will not be able to have a program. Kathy’s proposal is as follows:
Program Services Manager responsible for ensuring the Early Prevention and Child Services (i.e., Health, Nutrition, Mental Health Disabilities Enrollment are met according to the Standards). These services will be supported through consultants, community resources and school corporation personnel. This position will supervise the FACS, and Support Staff in the Grantee Office and work with outside agencies for support such as: Special Ed departments will assist Head Start and a plan is being prepared to meet these criteria. Such as:
Training Development Federal Quality Assurance Person will be responsible for training parents and the Staff, Monitoring, Self-Assessment, forms etc. Grant money will be earmarked from T/TA funds and the grant to support National Initiatives for Healthy Marriages, fatherhood, and Hispanic Parent Activities. We will also utilize community resources for support.
Additionally, Head Start employees wanting to obtain their Child Development Association (CDA) there is a TEACH scholarship that pays up to 80% of the class and Head Start pays the remaining 20%. If parents would like to obtain their CDA they would pay the full 100%. The Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children (IAEYC) grantee located in Indianapolis.
FACS Staff will be returning August 6, 2007. Acceptance letters will go out on August 3, 2007. Families will either receive an acceptance letter or a postcard stating that their children will be put on a waiting list. A handout will also be included regarding Educational Opportunities available to parents and what Head Start can do for families.
We will have two County Coordinators rather than five site coordinators, one for Elkhart and one for St. Joseph counties to make communications more efficient. Teachers, Assistants, PARA’s and Substitute Staff will have a shared relationship with the County Coordinators and school Principal, but according to Head Start regulations for HR we still have to hold everyone’s HR files at the Lafayette Site.
Jobs are being abolished. Positions are no longer needed. There is enough in the budget to give staff who will no longer have positions their unused vacation days, insurance etc. the cost will be under $45,000, that figure is still being adjusted. There is a pocket of funding for Temporary Clerical Staff. The other staff members listed on the Human Resources Report are being released from their positions due to poor job performance. We do have a few openings; four to five FACS and one teacher so anyone can apply for these open positions. This reorganization is expected to save at least $700,000 on the future budget which will assist in transportation support. Job descriptions are being revised due to duplication of duties. We are looking to hire by the end of June to fill the open positions so that personnel can be trained by the end of July. The goal is for training manuals and forms to be available online for staff and parents to access as needed. The Council was concerned with the people being released and inquired if they will be able to apply for the open positions. Yes, they can apply and the jobs will be posted for other applicants.
The Policy Council would like to be a part of the interviewing process for the new hires at the managerial level or higher from this point forward for any hiring taken place.
A motion was made to accept the new organizational structure and terminate the staff in those positions by Michelle Thompson for approval and seconded by Liesl Rozniarek. All were in favor. Review Upcoming Budget for Grant:
The original grant had provided very richly in in-kind, transportation, food service, Special Ed Staff services and we covered snacks. Gas prices are high and we need to refigure our budget and transportation is running around $1 million a year. We are only $5.2 Million a year grant out of that $1.5 Million needs to be in-kind. Prices were received for the LaVille School and their part time driver was running around $30,000 per school year. This includes benefits and gas. Wa-Nee’s bus driver is costing the school system $45,000 per school year and if we can’t come up with as much as possible then we may lose sites as a result. They are looking for around $30,000. The Policy Council was wondering how much it would be to get our own buses. New buses will cost around $77,000. and then to support the drivers, we would not be able to take that additional cost as well.
A motion was made by Annette Long for approval and seconded by Michelle Thompson. All were in favor.
Adjournment:
A motion was made by Liesl Rozniarek for adjournment and seconded by Michelle Thompson. A vote was taken and all were in favor. The meeting was adjourned.
The next regular meeting will be held on June 21, 2007 at 5:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Chris Gregorich
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