South PAC meeting, February 19, 2009
Attending: Catherine, Trisha, Heather, Rachel, Tony, Christy, Jessy, Sarah Sl, Sarah Sh, Angie
Treasurer’s Report – (Trish) Trish got $1000 check from Best Buy for volunteering with PAC. Whoohoo!
LAC Report – (Christy) Year-end ECFE picnic: always features Teddy Bear Band, should we change it? Any ideas for another option? Consensus is: let’s stick with the Teddy Bear Band. Perfect for kids. (Tony) DNR Take a Kid Fishing Weekend (June 5-6-7) coming up in spring; Tony would like to promote ECFE Goes Fishing in pond behind Wilder – poss a Friday night or Saturday morning. Would be aimed at ages 3 and up – maybe require one parent per kid for safety. Might be a problem to get staff support – PAC should be able to provide some additional help. Tony will look into details with DNR.
Budget Task Force report – (Trish) Issues with payment/fee collection process; how can it be improved? Ideas: have site liaisons collect installments on regular basis; provide addressed envelopes (PAC could help label envelopes); start taking online payments (maybe with online notification of classes!). Catherine offered database setup help to improve process. (Sarah Sh.) Process was interesting; identification of fee issues was important; budget is looking kind of bleak this year. Report will come out before our next meeting, so there should be more info then. (Trish) Parents at the 1st meeting appreciated learning about the budgeting process and the different line items; however, many parents thought there would be more opportunity for input rather than just reacting to the information presented. Trish would like to get more systematic feedback from parents, teachers, etc. to see if these reaction were common and if there’s a better way to solicit input and create realistic expectations. (Rachel) could PAC members who attend Task Force meetings come back and share info with the rest of the PAC? How can we better communicate this important information out to parents? (Elise) If ECFE admin could create 1 page “fact sheet” prior to Task Force meetings that could be distributed in PACs or poss even in classrooms (?), maybe quality of feedback would be improved and more useful. Need to be better about educating rank and file ECFE parents about overall budget picture (Angie) would be nice to have wishlist either per site or for the whole with big and little items (signage, office equipment, classroom supplies, etc.) Also could we have a place on the payment form where you could pay additional money to help sponsor another family or contribute to a scholarship fund? Christy will get OK from Helen for us to go ahead on wishlist item; Elise, Angie and Rachel will coordinate on implementation.
Advocacy - (Christy) Rally Day at the Capitol 10-10:30 am. March 19th for all early childhood programs; parents and kids encouraged to show up and be visible support for the legislators. More kid-friendly events this year before and after the rally. There will be some bussing available; still working out the times on that. Be on lookout for more info in your classes.
Newsletter – (Catherine) Looking to put more advocacy info in the newsletter; will contact Sheila. Rally Day will go into the newsletter. (Possibly with mock phone script for people who want to call in their support.)
Website: Things to do in the Cities with kids – tabled for next time. Or email them to Elise!
Spring Events:
Vehicle Day – Angie will chair. Need to pick a date. Poss May 30th? Angie will coordinate with Sabathani to see if this date works.
Cinco de Mayo – Tues, May 5th at Wilder. We pay for some food, otherwise potluck. Will need PAC members to staff event and help with crafts.
PAC Night Out – sometime in April when Elise and Sarah can drink. ☺
Speaker Events – Still working on signing workshop – Angie does it!
MPS strategic plans – Changes are coming to school choice! Go to Mpls K12 site for more info and to leave comments.
Next meeting: Thursday March 19th
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