Childcare Committee

Minutes
Cornell Childcare Committee Meeting
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
10:00 � 11:30 a.m.
B12 Day Hall

Present: Brenda Marston*, Mark Lewis, Michelle Artibee, Rachel Wallace, Elizabeth Stilwell, Cassie Joseph, KC Rose, Amy O’Donnell, Amy Richter, Sue Dale-Hall, Abe Stroock

• Minutes recorder

Unable to attend: Mark Jasinski, Sharon Sassler, Yael Levitte, Deondra Rose

I. Welcome. Update on Membership Issues

a.) Membership Issues
We’re still working through the red tape of getting Rachel, KC, and Elizabeth appointed as voting members.

II. Vote on Computer/Media Use and Accessibility statements.

a.) Computer/Media Use statement
Votes in favor: Mark L, Amy O, Sue, Brenda. Amy O. said we need more than half of the sitting members to vote. We really need Rachel, KC, and Elizabeth as voting members, but until we iron that out, will the remaining voting members — Amy R., Mark J, Sharon, and Yael — please cast your votes by email by tomorrow so we can get this bit of business checked off? Thanks. i. [4/9/09: votes in favor by email: Amy R. 4/22/09 vote in favor by email: Yael L. Total yes: 6 of 13 voting members] b. Accessibility statement. i. Substantive conversation about the situation of undergraduates, their difficulty securing independent status, and need to get more financial assistance to the lower earners in general. ii. Discussed whether to address the global economic crisis and the impact on Cornell and its families, and decided against it since we are making general points that need to be addressed through tough times and good. iii. We revised the wording on the first recommendation to make it more general, not exclusively focused on the child care grant. (Thank you Amy R. for the wording.) iv. Michelle supplied the current number of children on the wait list, and I’ve added that to the version attached. v. Michelle let us know that ongoing supplemental funding is available for low income families at the CCCC, covering up to 50% of costs. Also, Cornell is looking into a U.S. Dept. of Education grant to help undergrad parents who are U.S. citizens and who get Pell grants. Currently, they only know of 7 students who meet these criteria. Elizabeth: terrific to be actively pursuing other possible revenue streams, and if we get the funding, we may attract more students who fit those criteria. vi. Michelle: the Yellow Ribbon initiative of the VA may send more returning veterans to college. vii. Mark L. suggested revising the document to put the bullet points under general categories so that it will be easier to see the main points. Rachel suggested headings such as “Financial Accessibility,” “Flexibility,” and will work with Brenda to create a new version to share. Vote postponed.

III. CCCC tuition increase — discuss options. (Mark L.)

a. Michelle: Hearing this suggestion, administration is already in discussions about a lower % increase, but it affects the center’s 5 year financial plan and possibly teacher salaries. Loud consensus that we don’t want to shortchange planned increases in teacher salaries. b. Brenda suggested as a way to enhance staff’s pay and benefits package revisiting the idea of Cornell providing these staff free parking. Elizabeth supported the idea, mentioning the morale boost it would give in addition to the financial benefit. Michelle will give it a go despite the known difficulties of getting such an agreement from Transportation.

IV. Sue Dale-Hall: Child Development Council services to daycare providers, state trends on quality assessment, etc.

a. Mission of the Child Development Council is to support the healthy development of children at home, in care, and in the community. Serve about 200 families a year through home visits and services. Are lots of barriers to people getting services they need. “Early care and education” is new preferred term for day care. There are various regulated forms of care. Includes Head Start and Racker Center. Mark J. is part of the committee. School Based programs are overseen by State Ed. There are different funding sources and regulatory bodies. b. Where is the community with supply/demand now, after increase in supply due to opening of CCCC? c. Will do another parent survey. Had 700 responses last time (2000 or 2002). d. Economy hard. Hard for centers to lose enrolled students. Hard for families when they lose work; don’t want to lose their space but can’t afford to keep it� Hearing from family providers that they are having openings for the first time. e. State level push for family daycare providers to be able to unionize and do collective bargaining if they provide services for kids whose care is subsidized by DSS. f. State wide push to do more to improve quality of non-accredited child care providers. The state is looking for a rating system for all regulated forms of care, including those who are accredited — it would go beyond NAEYC accreditation. Called Quality Stars New York. Planning to rank places 1–5. State’s Children’s Cabinet (started by Gov. Spitzer) is pushing this. Would provide incentives to get more stars. g. Sue thinks places most likely to get higher star ratings are centers. Worried a quality rating system will bifurcate the system more into haves and have-nots. Child Dev. Council works with 190 legally exempt providers. Opportunity still to affect how this plays out, and get more funding to help improve quality� h. What they already do: 1) Access, 2) Help providers get licensed, technical assistance and support, 3) plus, a wide range of quality improvement initiatives, including home visiting, intensive technical assistance, food program, business support and professional development for providers/teachers. i. Issue of helping kids with behavior issues stay in care� seems to be coming up more.

V. Updates and reports

a. The Cornell Child Care Center i. Cassie: The Center’s new PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) met, 8 parents, Director facilitating meetings until co-chairs selected. Decided parents will drop off feedback forms at front. ii. CCCC’s Assistant Director gave 2 � weeks notice and will leave this Friday. Job already posted. Charlotte will be filling in for her. iii. Cassie is planning a diversity workshop for all the Center staff to make sure they know Cornell’s point of view on this. Sue pointed out that they could get training credit for this if HR gives out certificates. iv. Michelle: The Center now has 34% faculty, 45% staff, and 21% student families, a total of 205 parents. v. Michelle: The Center has provided 191 days of emergency care. Of those, 126 were for children displaced by the flood at the Drop-In Center. vi. Michelle: The Center’s administrative staff took an HR class on “Handling Difficult Situations.” Since these HR classes are funded by the benefits pool, Center staff cannot regularly partake of them, but an exception was made to get them this important training. b. Michelle, Human Resources i. HR has Advocates Group for student parents. Have great new webstie via DOS, with links to resources. See: http://studentparents.dos.cornell.edu/ Great accomplishment! Got good cooperation from DOS. ii. Gannett has agreed to ask questions on their survey of incoming students about whether they have dependents. Will add parenting classes link. c. Rachel: Undergrad students met with Skorton and Murphy on Wed and with Dir of Financial Aid, and they were receptive to moving ahead with their policy initiatives. Rachel will send us the list of their initiatives. d. Issue of holding spaces: i. Michelle spoke with MSU about issue of holding spaces over the summer. They don’t guarantee spaces if you don’t pay, and sometimes parents have lost a space. National Coalition of Campus Childcare Centers say all the centers struggle with this. MSU doesn’t hold spaces for recruitment of staff/faculty. ii. Abe: talk with Provost about issue of holding spaces, and need to make it clear with directors and chairs so they don’t make unfounded promises. Maybe do this when we are ready to turn in all the position statements. e. Update on research/education and Universal Pre-Kindergarten involvement at CCCC (Elizabeth) - things are going great! f. Brenda — finally visited the Center yesterday. Patty Sinclair offered to have us meet out there sometime, but others thought there wasn’t a workable meeting place during the day. g. Cassie says Patty would love to give tours to all the committee members who haven’t been able to visit yet. Feel free to contact her: 255–1010 or patricia.sinclair@brighthorizons.com