South-Central Oregon Early Learning Hub

Regional Governance Council

Friday, February 26, 2016

9:00 am – 10:00 am

Minutes

Council Members:

Michael Lasher, ESD Superintendent
Barbara Johnson, DC Governance Council
Jeremy Player, KC Governance Council
Ken Kestner, LC Governance Council

Staff Present: Gillian Wesenberg, Jessica Vaughn, and Nora Avery-Page

Others Present: Steve Schenewerk (Douglas), Amy Boivin (Klamath) and Bob Nash (Lake)

Topic / Discussion / Decisions/Action/Next Steps
Welcome/Introductions / Michael Lasher convened the meeting at
Introductions were made.
Discussion topics /

Role of Regional Governance Council – Draft funding principles

Michael Lasher stated that at the last meeting the Regional Governance Council asked Hub staff to come up with funding principles. He asked all in attendance to review the draft principles and asked for any comments/suggestions.
Ken Kestner said that it captured the theme.
Amy Boivin said she agrees and said it looks like some good base language to start working from.
Barbara Johnson and Steve Schenewerk said they had no changes.
Michael said that this will be considered the first reading of the principles.
Michael said we will take this document out of draft form and will adopt it at the next meeting.

Requests for funding

Michael asked council members for suggestions on how funding requests should be handled.
Amy said that in the past a mini grant process was made through an advisory board. If the requests were under a certain amount and met a certain criteria and then the board, would review and fund if it fell within the guidelines.
Steve said all our funding is very specific to moving the metrics. He said he likes the idea of a mini grant form, but it must be tied to the metrics.
Barbara Johnson said that her understanding that it is mandated that everything we do as a Governance Council it moves the metrics or we may be in jeopardy to not be funded in the future.
Michael said the Hub may receive incentive funds. These funds which will not be designated to move the metrics, how will we handle these funding requests? He said he is interested in having some ideas how to do this in the fairest and most transparent way.
Gillian Wesenberg said there will be incentive funds if the metrics are met. This may be the pot of funds that are more flexible.
Barbara said that her concern is that how often is the Hub going to be approached for funding requests and if it overtakes the actual jobs have to do for the betterment of the region. She suggested that there be a limited amount of time that people can approach the Hub for funds.
Nora said it wouldn’t hurt to have a request for funding process in place because that would be ready to go and review why they want the funds without having to do extra work. Amy suggested that if for example a request was less than $500 request then that could be something that the staff reviews, if it is more then it goes to the Regional Council.
Bob said he agrees with Nora. Steve said he thinks the Regional Council should be informed about all requests, even small ones that the Hub staff funds.
Ken Kestner said communication is important.
Michael asked if the members are comfortable with having a limit on the funds that Hub staff can approve without Council approval. Everyone agreed.
Pat Sublette said that the local Community Governance Council should have a role in the RFP process.
Michael suggested taking the RFP’s to the local Community Governance Councils to sign off on them before awarding the funds to the applicants.
Bob said he agrees with Pat and said that all the requests should be supported by the local Community Governance Council. Steve agrees and suggested an email vote and adding a part to the RFA that the application has been approved by the local councils.
Michael asked Gillian to talk about the funding handouts.
Gillian said that the Hub is responsible for a request for proposal process. Not a universal piece. These funds are for the highest risk families, unserved or underserved.
Gillian briefly went through all the funding streams and their service requirements.
Amy said that because of the limited amount of funds available for the funding streams, would there be an opportunity to add seats to existing programs? She feels like there are not enough funds to fund new initiatives. Amy asked if the reporting for each funding stream is separate. Gillian said yes, the Hub is responsible for reporting numbers and dollars spent separately.
Michael said that Amy’s comment was valid and that since this isn’t a lot of funds. If it went to an existing program and it was going to high at risk kids, would that be an appropriate funding proposal?

Update on Hub/ELD

Gillian shared that her and Nora went to McMinnville to take part in the ELH quarterly collaborative meeting. She said that they shared the Equity Assessment Tool that each Hub will be responsible for completing with their partners by June. Gillian said she would send it out to everyone. She said there were some great ideas about working with CCOs. Liz Stuart from UHA was on hand to speak about linking CCOs and ELHs. Gillian said that the Clackamas County CCO is funding a Family Resource Management system through the ELH.
Gillian said the state is asking for drafts of sub contracts from the Hubs to ensure all contractual requirements are met.
Nora will be applying to be part of the second cohort of the Oregon ELH Leadership Institute that Gillian took part in last year. / Adopt funding principles at the next meeting.
Gillian will send the Equity Assessment Tool to the Regional Council members.
General Discussion / Bob said that Lake County has been approved for their Regional Achievement Collaborative. A majority of the resources will be used to fund kindergarten camps across their region. He said they have buy in from the schools and the schools will help fund the transportation. The camps will be taking place during the summer. Last Friday, visit from UCAN regarding the Healthy Families program. Lake is excited for Healthy Families to come to their county.
Amy said that Klamath County had a meeting with the UCAN Healthy Families staff to talk about the Healthy Families RFA. Good turn out and representation from the early learning community. Nora said that Maureen Short went through the data that was being included in the application.
Michael said that the Parenting Hub has applied for expansion funds to include Klamath and Lake. We will know end of May if the funding has been approved.
Pat shared that the Ford Family Foundation invited Douglas ESD to apply for a home visiting grant that would fund a HV Coordinator. The grant included Klamath and Lake counties. She said we will know more soon.
Wrap-up / Michael adjourned the meeting at 10:08 AM.
Next meeting / Council should meet soon so the Regional Council can approve the application process for funding.
Next meeting – April 1 – 9:00 AM / Next meeting – April 1 at 9:00 AM.
Jessica will send out a meeting notice and make arrangements for V-tel set up.