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March 3 & 4, 2003
DoubleTree Lloyd Center, Portland, OR
Monday, March 3 - 8:30 - 4:30 | |
| 8:30 | Call to Order Additions/Revisions to the Agenda Minutes Finance Report Conference report |
| Lunch with Regional Staff - Nancy Hutchins & Steve Henigson Strategic Plan State Reports—Emphasizing Advocacy | |
| 3:00 | Break Budget Committee Assign Scholarship Presenters |
Tuesday, March 4 - 8:30 - 4:30 | |
| 8:30 | Notebook Revision—Yvonne NHSA Structure—Communication Network |
| 12:00 - 1:30 | Lunch Reports: President, Board, January Meeting Set August Agenda Adjourn |
Members Present:
| Dir. Rep. | Staff Rep. | Parent Rep. | Friend Rep. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | Pam Gingue | Kristine Armstrong | Absent | Not Elected |
| Idaho | Lou Landry | Darlyn Gravatt | Virginia DeSpain | Jay Thurber |
| Oregon | Absent | Shari Shell | Mandy Markham | Yvonne Roberts |
| Washington | Suzanne VanOrman | Diane Hollstrom | Marty Varela | Not Elected |
Technical Assistance: Debbie Ellis, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Call to order: Suzanne VanOrman called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m.
Additions/Revisions to Agenda
Move: Conference Report from Cari to this afternoon.
Add: 7:00 Tuesday - Dinner Meeting (Regional staff wants to meet with the association, and include state presidents, executive directors, etc.)
Delete: Budget Committee Meeting
Meeting Minutes
Review the November 2002 meeting minutes overnight. Make changes/revisions and approve in the morning.
Financial Report
Yvonne Roberts gave the financial report. When she got the numbers from Barry (to access the dues), Oregon had gone up 3200. She is now taking the time to get confirmation of numbers from program directors to double check their enrollment and get accurate numbers from each state. When she has more accurate numbers, she will send out the letters requesting the dues.
The line item for President's Travel includes trips to Seattle, and one national trip. One-third of the NWREL contract had been paid. The line item for NHSA Travel reflects travel for the national reps.— Yvonne, Jay, and Marty.
Marty Varela moved to accept the financial report as given. Shari Shell seconded. All approved. Motion carries.
Strategic Plan The Strategic Plan may need to be redone based on the current political climate. Discussions were held about the possibility of getting a facilitator, creating a subgroup to work on it outside the meeting and bring it back to the entire group, or adjourning to have a working session. Since so much of the work on the plan had already been done, the group decided to finish all the business for the day, then move on to the Strategic Plan.
RSHSA wants all four state associations operating and highly functional. They would like to have caucus times at the National Conference and Regional Conferences. They would like to be able to maintain the Regional Training Conference.
Issues:
Set up a List serv. For example, giving out ways to influence delegation. Sending stuff to legislators as well and meetings with the Governor's offices. Sharing what was learned from those encounters. Sending out information on how to effect change? Can we put something together that will help people within the states in making a change. Increasing our learning curve.
Long Range Planning—see the future and try to align with it. Strategic Plan—trying to influence the direction of the future/condition the future that will arise.
Create a video to show to the states that says what has happened for the states because of the work of Region X.
From the current Strategic Plan, leave mission statement and purpose. Under goals, change numbering 2, 1, 3.
Goals: March 3, 2003-August 7, 2003
After a review of the changes, Shari Shell motioned to accept the goals. Yvonne Roberts seconded. All approved. Motion carries.
Assign Scholarship Presenters: All scholarships and awards will be presented Thursday evening, around 7p.m. The published list will be revised, since two people were omitted.
All four of the Northwest states keep taking turns being the state with the highest unemployment rates in the nation. (Oregon is currently the highest with 7 percent unemployment.) There has not been the out migration that was expected, plus many people do not have the money to move (first/last/security).
Alaska—(Kristine Armstrong and Pam Gingue gave the report.)
In Juneau, the AHSA put on a mini-conference for parents that was a really big success. Parents went down not knowing who they were going to see, or where they were going to go. Sally Meade, former director of the Quality Center, kicked off conference. They had literacy, and father involvement sessions. At the end of day, at the closing, they talked about the next steps of making appointments with legislators, what they wanted the legislators to know (the parents would be telling their own stories. And they brought art work from their programs. In the morning, they visited the legislators. It was a great success! "They got it!"
The directors met a couple days before the parents' meeting. They were informed that some people had not paid their dues—out of 17 programs, only 6 had been paying dues. There are only 5-6 Region X grantees in the state, with the other 11 in Region 11. AHSA does not have their 501C3 yet. (Since they do not have this yet, they do not have an official seat with of the Regional Association, nor the National Head Start.)
During the director's meeting, four main issues came to the forefront:
Pam brought a paper from the commissioner that talked to the schools about how to use their funding and how to create partnerships—"Building and Strengthening Partnerships Between Head Start and School Districts: It's ALL About Relationships." Meeting Proceedings (October 26, 2003). (This commissioner is leaving; hers' was a position that was appointed by the last Governor.)
Discussions have been held regarding the structure of the Alaska Head Start Association. One big concern was how to keep everyone involved and be an effective organization when there is only one face-to-face meeting yearly. It costs a lot of money to travel for the board to come together, so how can they strengthen staff and parent participation. They send newsletters and information to the members. (Technically they have 15 people on the board, but it is hard to have a quorum at most of the meetings.) Options discussed were having monthly teleconferences or virtual conferences.
Another concern was that some programs felt they were paying a lot for dues and didn't know what they are getting from it. Others were troubled with the advocacy/lobbying efforts—with some legislators concerned with what money people were spending to visit the legislators.
The State Awards were given at the meeting with the legislators there. They used to hold them in the Governor's Mansion, but this year they were going to charge a fee, so they held them at the Capital Café in the Motel they were staying in. The Lieutenant Governor came to the hotel, saw that Head Start was meeting, and came in to see what was going on. Other representatives followed him into the meeting.
The advocacy power point from National (courtesy of Yvonne) was used for the advocacy session.
Alaska brought a quilt (smaller pink and white patterned) to raffle for the 2003 conference.
In AHSA's Strategic Planning, Alaska is still planning to be the host site for next year's conference. (They were asked if they would be able to handle the national conference. Another question, Who would be left holding bag if RXHSA doesn't have the conference?, was asked.
Idaho—Jay Thurber gave the report.
Idaho brought a very large quilt to raffle. It has Head Start blocks and three kids holding four hearts that are representative of the four states.
At the meeting on January 14-15, 2003, they held the elections of officers. (Virginia DeSpain is the President; Jay Thurber is the Vice President and Member at Large.) They talked about the format and content of their meetings, and discussed the need to make some definite changes.
IHSA held a whole-association session in the general meeting where they did an analysis of the current administration, how they viewed Head Start, and their view of children and families. They examined the Bush Administration's position on the long-standing philosophy of Head Start and what is good for children, and how they appear so child focused that they are forgetting the families. ISHA discussed the possible theories that are being used regarding the different treatments of Early Head Start and Head Start. Participants wrote on flipcharts on the walls to identify trends that have become proven practices such as children born ready to learn, school readiness, long-term benefits, second language development, child directed versus teacher directed. They also discussed how environments have changed [for instance, children's art has been taken down to allow room for letters]. They discussed how this administration was bringing down a system of academic pressure that will be put on all children, even though research has been shown that it takes a comprehensive, nurturing environment to make good learning happen. (Attendees felt the session was so helpful. It gave them the idea that citizens need to go talk to their legislators about what is really important to them.)
At the conference on Friday, it was advocacy day. Someone gave the staff perspective on visiting legislators and what is an effective way to communicate with them.
In January, they wrote a letter to their Congressman letting them know about the state-wide issues. In February, copies of this information was given to the Governor. In March, it is Head Starts Reading Day where the legislators read to kids. In April, they will hold door-to-door campaigns, getting legislators out to the homes of families. In May, there will be Head Start graduation events. In June, they will send newsletters to local papers. In July, they will enroll people into year-round (full-year, full-day) programs. In August, they will send faxes and fact sheets to Congress. October is National Head Start month. In November, they will coordinate the Head Start Conference. In December, they will close 2003 with a staff recognition celebration.
Virginia DeSpain met with DC legislators. She received over 100 letters from Idaho giving their support to Head Start—not just Head Start parents, but others as well. The Rocky Mountain News Service (the group that does the progressive news—both radio and newspaper) interviewed Ted Kennedy and Virginia DeSpain.
Oregon—Yvonne Roberts gave the report.
At every state meeting, OHSA puts on advocacy presentations. They take the whole association to the Capital and talk to legislators all day long. Some of representatives are advocating for not taking any more existing funds from Head Start. (There was a purposeful reference made to these funds and the value of the legislative visits.) The current tax measure lost 2.8 million dollars of existing funds. (For instance, in one program over 200 children lost $55 thousand that has to be absorbed in the next couple of months.) One representative from McMinnville put together a bill to fully fund Head Start. Three senators have signed on for not moving Head Start, while the other 5 have expressed wanting to sign.
The Oregon Charitable Check-off is once again on this year's tax returns.
March 13, is National Call-in Day. We need to call the 7 Oregon representatives in DC and thank them for their support. There will be a rally in April. Representatives have taken in report cards from Kindergarten with comments about readiness. They are taking in the proof, from a parent's point of view, that Head Start works!
Oregon parents are not supporting the move of Head Start. They are also quite happy with the current assessment program, and do not want to have an assessment that will punish the teachers or "defund" the programs. Parents are able to sign a waiver so their kids don't have to take the new assessment test, or it can be passed on to the policy council and parents will never see it.
Scholarships are now being coordinated by Shari Shell.
Washington—Marty Varela gave the report.
Things have been a lot better of late. WHSA has been discussing removing their term limits and getting a friend affiliate for their state. Marty is in charge of setting up the friend affiliate, and is looking at Ohio and Texas to see how they have set up their programs.
Robbin Dunn, the new executive director, is very well respected. She used to be a program director in the past. Her goal is to ensure WHSA is maintaining dollars for training in the state. Currently, in Washington State, ten percent of training dollars goes to the state association for state-wide training.
They are planning a retreat in June. They plan to contact 11 legislators. Two Congressional Delegates have signed on and have been meeting with people from programs in their region.
Programs have become more committed to getting information from the list serves and then sending it on to their members.
They have formed a strategy committee on national issues.
Parents are also really fired up. They sent comments out in Spanish and send letters to Congress in that same language.
Conference Report—with Cari Olmstead, Quality Center...
ECTC Conference Services are helping with the 2003 conference, but only their name will be on the program. There is good news about the conference: we guaranteed 250 at the hotel and have met the number for overnight guests, so there is no contract number that will have to be reimbursed. As of Friday morning, there were 250 registered plus another 60 plus came in that afternoon. Now we are at 310, plus a few more that have come in today!
The quality center talked to all presenters with five or less attendees signed up and asked if they wanted to close their session. One vendor (Discount School Supplies) called today. He will not be able to attend so he is giving his stuff (seven boxes) to the regional association to do with what we like. We need to pick up the boxes from the hotel where they are being delivered.
700 bags were ordered. They are plain blue bags that say "Region X Head Start Training Conference". They are more generic so we can sell them for $5 and make a profit, or save them for the next conference.
There are still questions regarding the music for vendor night. Will there be a band or a DJ? (Informed Tuesday morning that the band would not be playing, that they would be going with what they already had.)
Volunteers are needed to sell bags at exhibit area and "man" the vendor table during breaks. They will need to take bids on the stuff from states from Dollar per Child (nothing from Washington, Idaho has a quilt and stuff in the basket, Oregon has brought several items, Alaska has bought quilt). Half of the money will go to the regional association and the other for DPC.
Presentations at the banquet have to be very crisp. There needs to be one award after another. The dance floor will need to be cleared, with it open until nine. Salads will be on the table when conference participants arrive, so people can start eating when they arrive. Dinner will be served at the tables. There will be reserved signs on about four tables for the Board and awardees!
The Quality Center will be closing and all staff have been given notices. But the Early Childhood Training Center (ECTC) will not close. By September, they will know more about their jobs. (Cari will not be retiring as soon. She will work part time, starting in early summer, as long as there is something reasonable and interesting for her. Chuck will be running the training in collaboration with Tennessee State.) Policy Council Leadership Conference will be held in the fall. They will also be holding an infant/toddler conference in the summer. ECTC Conference Services will be there on a fee for service business. We may be able to negotiate something we can afford.
For future conferences, we may need to stop paying presenters. (NHSA does not provide any money or the AV.) Hotel charges are based on sleeping rooms and food. Cari will call for bids and send a copy to the AHSA. We should have a good idea regarding the 2004 conference by August.
The new testing programs will be starting soon, by March 15. One program in this region will be tested. They should know by tomorrow evening. In one set, anyone but the teacher can administer the test. In another test, the teachers can administer the test. In the third, one other person, other that the teacher, can administer the test.
June 5th is the National Teacher's Summit, only a one-day conference. It may be a teleconference with the National Testing Battery a part of the day. (It might be broadcast as Wendy's conference call was set up, and broadcast at selected locations.)
Twenty grantees have been chosen for a social/emotional foundations and family literacy training (a program from Kentucky). Some locations include Alaska (Fairbanks/Anchorage), Everett, Seattle, Portland, Yakima, Pendleton, Spokane, Boise, and Pocatello. Dates include: March 4, April 4, and May 4. The training is targeted at mid-management; it is not a hands-on training for teachers.
National Health Institute will be held in April (the Friday after Easter).
The Regional Office will be meeting with Directors tomorrow to discuss what is happening in the future, COLA, Quality Set Aside, STEP Project and Health Institute, and Transportation Regulations. The fiscal assistant answers any questions that you have about financial matters. Appears to be an excellent TA opportunity for programs, they have all the forms and regulations online.
NHSA President's Meeting. Voting was a major topic. Visits to Cantwell and Murray are done. Patty Murray is doing everything she can do to oppose the testing.
Today, the director representatives were in the director's meeting. Present: Darlyn, Virginia, Marty, Jay, Kristine, Shari, Yvonne, Diane, and Mandy.
Scholarships and Awards
Copies of applications were handed out to presenters. Shari Shell gave instructions to pick out one or two good quotes and speak for about 1-2 minutes per person. After receiving the award, the winner can say a thank you. (Information on the application is confidential. Give the application back to the winner. Certificate goes to their program. Recipient gets a plaque.)
Change wording regarding discussion on elections.
Change wording in Alaska report: Effective July l, 2003, program memberships to NHSA will include staff members. Parents and other friends can join for an additional $1.
Shari Shell motioned that the minutes from the November meeting be approved with the changes. Diane Hollstrom seconded. All approved. Motion passes.
Discussion was held about Friend/Member at Large Reps. Currently, Alaska and Washington has no such rep. Member at Large can be any member that has a vested interest in Head Start. A director, parent, or staff person can go to the state association and apply for that position. They do not have an affiliate entity. Only some programs have "member at large" positions. All four positions are on the governing board. Member at Large goes to the meetings as a staff position.
For Alaska, their disability coordinator would like to be the friend rep. She can be a paid/staff person. (Federal dollars can not be used to support a "friend".)
Oregon has three friend's organizations. They operate separate from the program. They have their own financial structure. The friends operate on their own time, not during paid time. They have used their time to get donations, help the program, etc. Oregon's friends association has an annual membership drive with different categories of dues. Last year, they brought in about $1000 dollars. They want to come up with something that can be replicated nationally.
In Washington, if the state association does not fund the Friend/Member at Large position, it will not happen. Washington feels that the Member at Large/Friend position should not be staffed with Parents. The Directors don't want to let parents get too much power by having them in two positions, while there is only one director rep. Washington programs don't want to pay more money for Friends/Members at Large, and neither does the association. Washington has an Associates position but it has no vote on the governing board. Marty is looking into a framework that they can buy into. (The next Washington State Meeting is a retreat in June in Olympia. Robbin Dunn is trying to help make changes in association, and wants a friend affiliate in place by October.)
In Idaho, the programs pay for the Member at Large to go to state, the state association pays for the member to attend the regional association meeting, and the Regional Board pays for the National Reps to go to the National Meetings. Almost all of the "friends" reps on the national level are done like Idaho's Member at Large.
Maybe the regional board can offer leadership, suggestions, and ideas to help state associations find ways of empowering affiliate groups.
Facilities survey
Idaho will to develop a facilities survey and bring back to board. From this survey, a fact sheet will be developed to highlight the liabilities for buses, facilities, and other real property and ask what happens to equipment, supplies, etc. if Head Start is moved to the Department of Education and state block grants. Survey will be completed in the next couple of weeks, by March 20th. The region will get it out by April 15th, and request it back two weeks later.
August Agenda (plan for evening meeting... to work on Strategic Plan... )
Virginia and Darlyn will be organizing the raffle, and Kristine will help. The raffle will be broken into three sections ($1 for little stuff, $2 for little quilt and Idaho stuff, $5 for large quilt). They will only be selling tickets during break time. A sign needs to be set up. Shari and Yvonne will bring back manila envelopes and three colors of tickets.
Wednesday: Before first session (8:00-11:00) Marty and Diane
4:30-6:15: Shari and Kristine
12:45-1:30: Jay and Darlyn
Thursday: 8-8:30—Shari and Yvonne
Noon - 1:30: Darlyn and Mandy
Thursday night during banquet, we will pass the hat. Marty and Jay will walk around the room with the quilt, while Yvonne talks about Dollar Per Child. (There will be a prize for the one who donates the most.) Names will be drawn Thursday before the dinner (4:00 p.m.) at the Raffle Table.
Meeting adjourned at 11:15.