MEETING TITLE: Washington State Association of Head Start/ECEAP – Board of Directors Meeting

Date: October 26, 2015Place: Red Lion Spokane, WA

Attendance: Mary McDonald, Graciela Madrigal, Romy Pruneda, Sandy Junker, Mary Ellen, Ginger Williams, Erin Douglas, Jerrin Fironi, Julianna Johnson, Joel Ryan, Katy Warren, Hana Gregory,Ryan Pricco, Meagan Anderson-Pira, Drayton Jackson, Dominique Alex,

Absent:Steve Leahy, Victoria Hilt

AGENDA / DISCUSSION / DECISIONS - ACTION
Call to Order / Mary McDonald Called to Order 1:48pm
Minutes / October 10th Minutes / Ryan Priccomoved to accept the October minutes. Meagan Anderson-Pira2nd. Passed unanimously,no abstentions.
Board Positions / Sandy Junker only one going off of the board.
Final Budget 2014-2015 / Ended the year with a deficit of $6361.00
Some differences were in the Parent Ambassador section, WSTC dues – one program doesn’t participate. WSA dues – advocacy/office expenses/A-day/Winter meeting (anything related to Advocacy), WSTC – training events/Directors meetings on EHS/HS programs.
Complex Trauma – we did a track at the Summer Institute still haven’t gotten paid for
STEM Institute we partnered with Thrive on that.
PA is going to start in March and going through February.
-Joel is working on the income side of things to keep things moving forward
-Expectation to Directors around how much each program pay for their PA
-Looking at making the investment of PA the collective good of the whole
-Board members who would like to be part of thinking about PA, Ryan Pricco, Graciela Madrigal, Shannon Griffiths and Ginger Williams
Expense side: Lower board expenses
When income is lower so are the expenses
Dues: We are going to get more dues because we have more ECEAP kids and they are going. ECEAP programs are going to be getting more money because of the 10% bump and the tiered reimbursement.
-We have been having old number for dues and now we have new ones
We have invested 25% of our assets into conservative stock funds. We will have regular reports from Corina.
We will present our final 2014-2015 to WSA members and the new proposed 2015-2016 proposed budget.
Proposed Budget 2015-2016 / Approved temp version at the last Sept meeting. This new one has a couple of changes. Including adjusted WSA team income.
Did a survey of Directors and asked them about three different options, Leadership cohort, data oriented or Ed managers. People really liked a leadership cohort. – Being really clear about what/who this is for. Dominique Alex, Mary McDonald would like to help. Travel, per diem and cost for programs. Also talked about training for Directors and looking at something to do around then.
Mary – went over salary increases. Working with Joel and salary and compensation. Executive committee and staff concluded to increase the salaries of $10,000 within the staff of WSA.
Katy- Looking at fundraising options and sponsors and diversifying our portfolio. / Meagan moved to accept the proposed budget. Sandy Junker 2nd. Passed unanimously, no abstentions.
Early Start Act-
Ryan went over the new things happening with the Early Start Act. Looking at what is doable and what is not. One of the biggest not doable thing is that March Level 4 ECEAP/childcare providers. What DEL can do with interpretation of the bill, looks like their hands are tied. Underlying issue is that not enough people are not applying to ECEAP, one issue of this is that the level 4 requirement. Debating on requirement and how to reach this. As of last week we have 29 licensed childcares that are at level 4. Most of the new supports through the Early Start Act are not in place yet.
We are waiting for the evaluation of Early Achievers to see what we are going to be changing for EA 2.0
Mary McDonalds experience is: that there are 10 programs carrying 35 sub-contracting with the hybrid sites. The hybrid project developed end of Feb and was told about it early March. Was given sites 4 months to implement. At that time DEL leadership said that they just wanted to see what would happen.
12 month authorization- there is a rule making that goes along with this and some people are going to be looking at exceptions. We are keeping an eye on this.
Encourage people to get involved in standard alignment process. ECEAP, Licensing and EA. We are asking them to look a little more broadly like around Head Start. True alignment not a crosswalk.
Looking at center based WAC’s.
Talking points needed around alignment. Katy will send some around for people to use at the local meetings.
Working with childcare partners who serve kids on subsidy need to apply before August. So please let them know to apply early.
Parallel coaching structures. Coordinated coaching system.
Ginger Williams has a big concern about infant/toddler care, Early Achievers levels, etc. This is an important area of advocacy.
Proposed: ECEAP – 1000 new slots
Legislative session: Gov. Jay Inslee.  Asked for more ECEAP spaces, money for schools, levy swap. This session is 60 days and it is a lay low session. There are a lot of plans to plan.
We need to ask ourselves what does ECEAP look like, and be in a conversation with Ross Hunter.
Going into the next session DEL is going to be asking around childcare rates. We want to raise childcare center rate alongside with family childcare. Along the lines of ECEAP, we are looking at around 1,000 kids we could serve in ECEAP this next year. What the legislator/Gov is hearing about is there enough space?
Board discussion:
ECEAP ask should include:
-Combination of full schoolday, extended day, and part day.
-Should provide opportunity for conversion to full or extended day.
-Should backfill existing full day program so they are getting $12K.
Proposed: Child Care Subsidies changes
Access to subsidy for students attending 2 and 4 year programs, not just technical programs.
It costs about $6 million.
Change number of hours required on top of school (currently 20 hours, could change to 16).
Extension of CPS child care after case is closed. 12 month authorization for that kid.
Board discussion:
Could be good to get CASA workers involved in the CPS issue.
Proposed: Get rid of the ‘cap’ for Working Connections
Some estimate that we’ll hit the ‘cap’ for WCCC in August, and then a waiting list goes into effect, which was a disaster last time.
Ryan suggests we push ELAA on things that we really want this year, and put stuff that’s a more long term focus in another bucket.
Could have an ask about delays or other changes to Early Achievers requirements for ECEAP.
Board Recommendation:
Priority items:
Working Connections Rate & Cap
ECEAP slots
Other issues are also important, and may be pursued in cooperation with TANF coalition or other partners, or could be a part of our own WSA Advocacy Goals if we don’t adopt the Early Learning Action Alliance’s goals.
The advocacy agenda, whether it is the ELAA agenda or our own, will be brought to the board at the December/January conference call meeting for approval.
Federal Update / A deal is close to being struck between White House and Congress for another 2-year ‘fix’ for the sequester. This would raise the ‘caps’ for both defense and domestic spending, including Head Start & Childcare. Would be paid for by future undefined cuts to Medicare and SSI.
Head Start standards are being worked on now. Office of Head Start is working on what to do with the full/extended day issue. They don’t really want to budge on this or on the partnership agreement or policy council issues. NHSA is figuring out strategy – trying to go over them, or grassroots strategy.
Designation Renewal – NHSA wants to replace getting rid of the bottom 10% with clear thresholds, and looking at the seriousness of the deficiencies rather than just any deficiency.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act – Sen. Murray is trying to negotiate with Republicans on this. They’re still trying to get Obama Pre-K into ESEA, and Republicans are against it. They asked about the potential for another pre-k program at HHS.
Fund Development
Adjourn / Mary closed the meeting at 5:00pm

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