FMC EMPOWERMENT BOARD

Minutes of May 19, 2003

The meeting was called to order by Virgil Pickar Jr., chairperson, at 6:45 P.M.. Members present were Virgil Pickar Jr., Frank Rottinghaus, Sandy Koch, Sara Hejlik, Cheryl Jahnel and Jennifer Bauer.

Roll call was completed. F. Rottinghaus moved to approve the agenda and was seconded by V. Pickar, Jr. The agenda was approved.

F. Rottinghaus moved to approve the April minutes, J. Bauer second. Minutes were approved.

Sara Hejlik was introduced as a possible board member from Chickasaw county full-filling the business member from that county. It was moved to add Sara to the board by C. Jahnel and seconded by S. Koch. Sara was added to the board by unanimous vote.

F. Rottinghaus gave an update on the status of Lori Nettleton on the board. He has attempted to call her. Lori has not made contact. It was decided that the board should send her a letter that we are considering her off of the board and then find a new member to fill her place. That would need to be a Floyd County citizen. S. Koch moved to send the letter, J. Bauer seconded. It was approved.

Laurie Edson gave an update regarding the State Empowerment funding. There will be a decrease in the School Ready funding for FY 2004 of $16,197. There has not been any concrete news regarding the Early Childhood funding, however it sounds as though the funding may remain at the FY 2003 level.

An update was given regarding the minigrants. The new program is in place and the catalogues are ready. Laurie stated that they are working out the kinks and have found some areas of the rework that will be changed next year. They think they will break down more categories in the future.

Joanne Lane was available for questions regarding the proposed CCR&R budget that was emailed to the board. There were no questions.

The board reviewed the Crisis care discussion from the previous board meeting. It was discussed that there could possibly be a program to help set up that type of care (for 2^nd and 3^rd shift, as well as on weekends). The question was raised how to expand the quality programs that are already in place. It was discussed that there are currently only a few providers in the three-county area that provide care during those times. The original intent of part of the Empowerment grant was to assist in increasing this type of childcare. Possibly we could compensate providers that are willing to provide the service. C. Jahnel suggested that this be a goal for the Empowerment Board. Joanne Lane added that the money would need to come out of School Ready funding instead of Early Childhood. Her understanding is the money can only come out of Early Childhood funding if the childcare is being provided so that the parent cane obtain or maintain employment. Joanne said she would print out by county the providers that are currently available to provide care during those difficult times. That could be the pool to start with that may provide crisis care.

Amy Mitchell from Families Together gave an update. She said that they have 18 families on the waiting list for services. She didnít have Aprilís numbers but will fax them to Laurie. Amy said she is thinking about cutting back time with her current families to take on new ones. She is also thinking about looking at each family and going through the initial packet of information to determine who should continue with the program and who may be able to be discharged. Right now she is serving 28 children between the ages of 0-5 and 12 children the ages of 6-18.

There was discussion about how the Advisory committee is going for Families Together. Amy said she felt that todayís meeting was the most successful of all of them. They made some changes with the paperwork and the structure. They have decided that the program doesnít need to have the purpose or delivery of the service changed. They discussed that the program needs to find a home. At the next meeting, the committee is going to formulate an RFP to send out to possible agencies or individuals. There was not a committee developed to write the letter. Jan Rohweder said she would take that on. C. Jahnel suggested that the families that need nurturing assistance be referred to the Public Health organizations. C. Jahnel also asked if they have defined what type of families they are going to serve. Amy said that needs to be determined at the next meeting. J. Bauer will be attending that meeting. The meeting will be held June 2 from 2-4 at the DHS building in Floyd County.

Diane Casto gave a report regarding her HeadStart area. She referred to the Quarterly Project report. C. Jahnel asked how they are doing with partnering with preschools. Diane discussed that Nora Springs will be doing that next year. She would like to see it happen in Mitchell county as well, however it takes some education and buy-in with the preschools for a longer day.

David Boss gave a report regarding the Chickasaw Headstart area. They have 3-5 Empowerment funded children. They have done recruitment for next year and have 13 kids in both classrooms at this time. They are going to need a center in Postville. Will close one of their current centers in order to provide that. It was discussed that there was high staff turnover in New Hampton over the past year. There were some terminations that made the year difficult. David submitted an invoice for the last five months. It was brought up that the contract states the invoice will be submitted monthly. David said he will try to make sure that happens.

Devon Schueth gave a report for EAGLE. She gave the Board the results of a survey that is given at each Library program. She also showed the evaluation that Daycare providers fill out. Devon then reviewed the book bag rotations. She has 250 book bags in the three county area. She has been able to gradually increase the numbers. There are still four preschools that donít have any. She has been working on getting them put together. It was then discussed that Devon has submitted her resignation and is done effective May 30, due to health concerns that her daughter is experiencing. Mary Schrandt-Prouty went over the FY 2004 budget projections for the program. F. Rottinghaus asked about the numbers served through the program. Devon said that each county has over 300 family names that access the book bags and trainings. She said the newsletter is mailed out to 2800 addresses. Mary will get more data and email to Laurie.

Jeanie from Chickasaw gave an update on the Public Health agencies. She submitted a written report from Jennifer Bouillon. S. Koch made the comment that the detailed report was helpful. There was a written report from Mitchell County Public Health as well. Linda Klemesrud from Floyd County said that the homecare aids are using training for nuturing to provide to families that are referred from protective services.

The FMC preschool scholarships were discussed. In the past we have divided the preschool money up 1/3 per county. The question was brought up regarding whether money could be given per child to make the division more equitable. C. Jahnel brought up using the same allocation formula that the state used to divide the money up among the Empowerment areas. F. Rottinghaus moved that we follow the formula for preschool scholarships that the state utilized for allocating the funds to the Empowerment areas. J. Bauer seconded. There was some discussion about broadening the formula to all school-ready. C. Jahnel stated that she wants to continue to see that the each county have the ability to decide how the scholarship monies will be utilized. The board approved using the formula in allocating the scholarship monies among the three counties.

Laurie gave updates about the Expo. She thanked those that assisted. She thought that there was a lot of interest in Empowerment. There was a good amount of information. F. Rottinghaus said that there didnít seem to be a lot of public interest in the Expo itself. It will be examined for the future. The annual report and redesignation work groups will be emailed to the board members. Will set up various meetings in the different counties. The board members should attend when they can. There will be a core group for each. The state meeting is on May 28. June 2^nd is the last Forum at the Charles City library.

It was discussed that the Annual Report is due in September. We will need the FY 2004 budget to the state at that time. F. Rottinghaus volunteered to be chair for the budget committee. Sara Hejlik will assist. V. Pickar, Jr. or C. Jahnel will also assist. The budget committee can then be in charge of the compensation package for Laurie Edson. It was then discussed that Laurie doesnít have a copy machine. She has to go to the Floyd County DHS office, the Auditorís office or the community building in which CCR&R is. It is very inconvenient and she would like to look into the prices. J. Bauer moved to have Laurie look into prices and receive bids on copy machines, S. Koch seconded. It was approved.

C. Jahnel moved to adjourn, S. Hejlik second. The meeting was adjourned by chair at 8:55 PM.

Respectfully submitted,