Childcare Committee

Cornell Childcare Committee Meeting
B12 Day Hall
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
10:00 — 11:30 p.m.
MINUTES

Attendees

KC Rose, Amy O’Donnell, Elizabeth Stilwell, Abe Stroock, Mark Jasinski, Michelle Artibee, Brenda Marston, Cassie Joseph, Amy Richter

I. Accessibility statement — discuss and vote. (10–10:30)

a. Quorum? No. Voting members present: KC, Amy O, Amy R, Brenda. 4 of 10. Decided to discuss, send out additions/changes by email, and vote by email.

b. Discussion:

Abe suggests sending this to someone in DOS. Dean is Kent Hubbell.

Michelle: add Family Service Committee.

Michelle: student committee has just prioritized a list of recommendations. She’ll share this document with this group.

Elizabeth: Regarding the recommended survey, should we focus survey on needs of underserved groups? “targeting students and low-wage workers”

Mark J: “with particular emphasis on�”

Mark J: add “no Cornell parent pay more than 15% of income”

Amy R: Suggested wording for new recommendation: “University strives to provide support so that childcare expenses are no more than 15% of household income.”

Brenda proposed 10%, but majority felt we couldn’t reasonably achieve this.

Mark J: having this number gives us a mark to evaluate our services/programs.

Michelle: people will change childcare arrangements if we subsidize more; will move to higher cost care. Concerned that it won’t work if we guarantee no one will have to pay more than 15%. It could make Cornell responsible for paying a lot in some cases, such as multiple children in high cost centers. Elizabeth says we actually do want people to be able to move to higher quality/cost centers, but there seemed to be consensus that it wouldn’t work for Cornell to promise to pay all expenses over 15% of any family’s income.

Abe: rework algorithm for childcare grants? Reconsider cap?

Abe: recommend we work with Board of Trustees to increase pool of $. “To achieve this goal, we suggest we consider a new algorithm and cap of childcare grant.”

Brenda suggested asking Board of Trustees for more funding to offer sliding scale at CCCC.

Amy R., Abe, others think it is fairer to provide affordability through childcare grant, even though grants over $5000 will be taxed and lower the benefit to the family. People want to make childcare more affordable for all, whether they go to CCCC or not.

Michelle: HR got news that student childcare grants won’t get increase this year. Income cap for students also much lower.

II. Committee Business

a. Membership updates. Harry’s appointment. Brenda will call and ask him to officially resign. Call Brian Cornell on UA to appoint KC. Amy O still looking into getting Rachel appointed, and will put her on listserve. Brenda will also ask Brian Cornell to appoint Elizabeth as a voting member in Bob Harris’s place. Now that she’s not with ECC or HR, she should be able to be a voting member. Her attendance will help us meet quorum regularly. Patti from BH was a voting presidential appointee. Patti should not stay a voting member since with BH. She agrees. Michelle talks with her weekly and has her contact info. Abe will help if this membership business needs a letter to the President.

b. Approve minutes of last meeting. Committee agreed they are in good shape. Will vote approval by email.

III. Updates and reports

a. Family Service Committee (Mark J.) — delayed for next meeting.

b. Update from Human Resources (Michelle and Cassie)

i. Cassie: Report on “Caring For Quality Project,” Cornell’s Family Life Development Center. Goal of program was to improve quality of home-based child care centers. Did home visits from trained professionals. Researchers willing to come talk to us. Done by Cornell Early Childhood Program of FLDC, a program which has been discontinued. Elizabeth noted this research relates to one of our goals, assuring quality care; but are we ready to consider this now? Abe: this could be a model of low cost, effective way to subsidize, improve quality of home based care. Cassie: researchers could tell us what they found worked, didn’t work. Their interest was working with unlicensed providers. Abe: for us to implement this, maybe our Childcare Council could be involved. Elizabeth: there are a lot of models for this. The Baby Ph.D. program Yael shared is another. Agrees with Cassie we don’t want to reinvent the wheel. How great that we might use research done at Cornell and apply it to our needs. Mark J: would like to hear from Sue Dade Hall what the Daycare Council already does in this regard. Cassie says that these researchers worked closely with the Childcare Network in Rochester. Amy R: asked KC about her partner’s center, West Hill Educare. KC says WHE is licensed. State inspectors may show up anytime. Mark J: state inspectors focus on health and safety, not quality of programming, the issue of this research. Discussion of how Cornell may help improve quality of local daycares without them being officially linked to Cornell. Mark J: let’s keep this as topic for future discussion. Michelle: maybe better to discuss these issues at beginning of next year? Elizabeth likes fact that this ties into our goals — do we take on trying to create another daycare center, or focus on home day cares, etc�. Michelle: relates to Family Services Committee goals too.

ii. Update on computer use policy and practice at CCCC. Cassie: Charlotte, interim director, will be meeting with teachers to discuss and formulate policy, and then all staff will be trained. Mark J: will they involve parent group? Cassie: will discuss, but focus initially was on staff.

iii. Director search and other Center developments. Have hired Patricia (Patty) Sinclair. Will start March 2. Charlotte will stay through May for better transition. Committee reaction: Excellent! Patty lives in Ithaca; started childcare career in 2003; BA in elementary ed; MA in education. Was working at IC as Residence Director. Certified trainer of the adult learner. Was Lead Assistant Director at Running Brook Day Camp in Mass. Was at Wellesley Hills Children Center 2003–2005 as lead teacher and 2005–2007 as lead teacher Director of Information Technology, and Assistant Director. The CCCC parents will be notified this week via special newsletter of the new director and of scheduled meet & greets.

iv. Speed limit and “child at play” signs are up.

v. Michelle: Cornell sponsored summer camp won’t continue this year. Runs at huge shortfall. Had 50 families last year. Used to serve 200 children. Tuition has increased. There are more local options. Have let last summer’s attendees know about change.

vi. Michelle: Child care grant survey being completed with City and Regional Planning. Research Review Board has delayed release. Hope it will go out by end of the month. Every Cornell employee with dependent under age __ will get the survey. Going out electronically. If notice response rate is low in some areas, will distribute paper copies (trying to avoid this due to cost).

vii. Drop In Center experienced flood in old part of building. Eight families there; 14 with Cornell affiliation. Able to transfer 9 of them to CCCC.

viii. Michelle: Layoffs. Policy is that if someone has child in center and gets laid off, can keep child there for one month after layoff. If get hired back, they will have priority for getting back into Center. Wants to help provide network support services to help them in the interim, especially for childcare during job interviews. Elizabeth: there may be a hardship grant available? Michelle: CU looking into reduced hours as way to retain people but cut costs.

ix. Michelle: Asks colleagues for policies on reserving spots for faculty. MIT reserves 12 spots; provost can reserve up to 9. Asked if they have negative feedback. No. Faculty pushing for more spots, but holding as is now. Provost office or dept will cover any costs to hold the spot for time until faculty person arrives. Have 260 total spots. Other colleagues said they have same problem, but no official policies. Issue has not yet come up to our HR. Abe says it has already been compromising dept chairs’ negotiating with candidates. Abe suggests making a recommendation. Abe will bring draft of 2 possibilities to next meeting: either that we keep it a strict lottery or that we reserve up to 6 spots for Provost. Elizabeth: could Cassie ask Charlotte if she has received any requests like this; this is the season this may start happening. Michelle: need to resolve quickly. Abe: can push through, and be ready to implement next year. Will discuss at next meeting. Michelle points out that since we have long waitlist and we just opened and there’s big demand, people will be upset to find out there are reserved spots. Mark J and Abe say the important thing is that whatever the policy is, it be well communicated.

c. Update on research/education and Universal Pre-Kindergarten involvement at CCCC (Elizabeth) Feels like it’s been a good partnership. The Center is welcoming the well-prepared students. CCCC is now a universal pre-K staff. Elizabeth now wearing 2 hats over there, as staff developer for universal pre-K. Wonderful that they are part of universal pre-K; it’s a funding stream; it’s another level of support for CCCC. Doesn’t change tuition paid by parents. Helps with program enhancement. All CCCC staff can join in on the staff development offered by universal pre-K program. Mark J: will probably be a model that will continue next year. Michelle: what does this require from CCCC in terms of reporting? Mark J; this year it’s minimal. As far as negotiating contact for next year, �? Mark J will send copy of current contract to Michelle. Contract will specify what money can be used for. Michelle wants to be sure UPK money is being used by CCCC as a supplement, not replacing what CCCC has already budgeted.

IV. Where do we stand and where are we going? (11–11:30)

a. Position Statements inventory. Make a plan for putting together a compiled version that can be passed to appropriate groups and make sure that individual ones go or have gone to the appropriate people.

Abe: are position statements that have been approved on our website? Amy

O: no. Brenda will send final copies of statements we have to Amy O. Computer statement not finalized. Michelle would like to get it finalized so we can share it with them. Ask Mark L to email final draft for us to vote on. Members present approve of him sharing it right away with CCCC since they want to discuss and address this issue now.

b. Future priorities document (Abe) — next time!

V. Adjourn (11:30)