The Joint Board of Directors of the Head Start Consortium of Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties met in a regular session on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 in the Board Room at the
Lafayette Center, 245 North Lombardy Drive, Suite A, South Bend, Indiana, 46619.

I.                   Call to Order

As President of the Head Start Consortium, Mark Mow called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.

II.                Roll Call

President Mark Mow called for the roll call with a reminder to the Board members to identify themselves when making a motion or seconding a motion.

Jim Conner                                    Middlebury Community Schools

Kathy Guajardo                            Executive Director, Head Start

Steven Mills                                  School City of Mishawaka

Mark Mow                                    Elkhart Community Schools

Larry Phillips                                 Union-North United School Corporation

Dick Reese                                    John Glenn School Corporation

Dr. Bruce Stahly                           Goshen Community Schools

Jerry Cook                                     Baugo Community Schools

Dr. Jerry Thacker                          Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation

Dr. Robert Zimmerman                 South Bend Community School Corporation

George Dyer                                 Concord Community Schools

Joe Sabo, Wa-Nee Community Schools was absent from the meeting.

III.             Public Speakers

No one from the public requested to speak at today’s meeting.

IV.             Adoption of Agenda

President Mark Mow asked for a motion for approval of the adoption of the agenda.  Dick Reese made the motion for approval and the second was made by Steve Mills.  All were in favor.

V.                Approval of Minutes

President Mark Mow asked for a motion for approval of the minutes of the last meeting which was held on September 19, 2007.  Dr. Bruce Stahly asked that the minutes be revised.  The approval to amend the Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties Head Start Consortium Budget, the increase of 1% toward the retirement fund should reflect that not only is it retroactive, but from here forward.  Jerry Cook made the motion for approval to amend the minutes and the motion was seconded by
George Dyer.  All were in favor.

VI.             Communications

A.    Executive Director’s Report

Kathy discussed the following:

We are at full enrollment (1020) for September and October.  The waitlist is approximately 300 per month.  The program-wide average daily attendance is at 96.51% for September and 98.91% for October.  A few of the sites fell below the 85%.  The justification for the low attendance is due to the change of status in addresses and some of the children were able to move to Kindergarten. 

On November 1, 2007 the End of the Month Report, which is a requirement, was filed with HHS. 

We are currently serving 102 special needs children (10%) for the month of September and October and we are continuing to taking referrals.  The preschool coordinators will be following up on the children that need to be rescreened. 

The Fiscal report includes the Financial Assistance Award (FAA) letter which allows us to draw down our funding as of November 1, 2007 which is only for the partial amount.  The full amount for the T/TA funds has been awarded in the amount of $70,417.00. 

The Budget was finalized and we are at zero.  The 269 is due at the end of November and we are prepared to submit it once we have Mr. Mow’s signature.

HR Update: One Para position is open at Middlebury and Bristol.  The individual currently in that position is being promoted to a FACS position with the Elkhart City Schools.  The 90 day reviews will be done in November for our introductory staff.

The monitoring has been done.  We reviewed all 1020 of the children’s files, including their educational and social services information as well as their health information.  A report will be complied to see where we are with the data.  The data will also be compared with the electronic data to make sure we are always in compliance.

The regional conference was held at the end of October.  Chris T., Julia, and Kathy attended.  Chris and Julia focused on the health and monitoring.  Kathy attended the new fiscal training to learn more on how to make sure we stay in compliance.

Kathy attended a PreK Now satellite conference in Indianapolis.  All school systems that have the PreK Now were listed and what type they are involved in (a Title 1 structure or a private daycare).  Kathy stated that she is very proud.  The Consortium has quite an influence and Mr. Cook was called to see how the program was working in the Baugo School system, and was very complimentary of us.  Part of the project is that we link our arms with the schools systems, community, and child care.  Hopefully they will be interested in how the program works for the future.

A Family Summit for St. Joseph County was held this past Friday and the Elkhart County Summit will be held this Friday.  The topics that were discussed by the
St. Joseph Hospital were Smoking, Your Heart, and Diabetes Management.  Another session was healthy families and fatherhood.  The third session was an interaction session with the parents and children on literacy development in the home.  Families First and Public Broadcasting was the model used and they gave us a five series topic on how to do the literacy.  The next event will be held in January 2008, m2D “men to Dads.” Fathers will learn how to be a more effective father in their children’s lives.  Kohl’s has donated stuffed animals with coordinating books.  When their series runs out they donate these items to us so we can give them to the parents at these events.

A meeting was held with Dr. Neats in working with the Principals and nurses to make sure all the information and systems are working for the children to transition into Kindergarten.  We had wonderful and meaningful dialog and will be developing more systems.  Hopefully in the future we can work with this team and other teams to continue to plan for the future.

Community Outreach - In September we held our Advisory Committee meeting.  Chris T. is in charge of the Social Services area.  Goodwill and Salvation Army are on this committee.  Deb and Damon are in charge of the Education and child services area.  This involves preschool and education coordinators from various school systems along with preschools and the Community Foundation in Elkhart and
St. Joseph Counties.  Julia is in charge of the Health area.  Lead Initiatives, Small Smiles, and the school nurses participated.  Kathy is in charge of the Governance and the Policy Council; finance planning is discussed as well as HR for Head Start.  The Policy Council will meet in November to seat the new Policy Council Members.

Staff training will be held December 21, 2007.  Included in the training will be: Fiscal Training, Brain Based Training, and Stress Management Training.  Also, monitoring and any other general updates will be discussed.

Parent Leadership training will be held December 15, 2007 and we will be going as a team to help with the seminar and conference.

Mr. Mow had a question for Kathy; he asked if the waitlist was larger than last year’s numbers.  Kathy said it is close to last year; some months did go down to 250.  We try to maintain 10% or more, most of the children are from the South Bend area. 
Mr. Mow asked how we can serve more children.  Kathy replied we need to develop partnerships and look at our fiscal realm to fund more children.  Mr. Mow asked if we can get more funding from the Federal Government.  Kathy stated that funding it tight right now and it is not expected to provide additional dollars in the near future.

B.     Policy Council Chairperson’s Report

Christine Ross was unable to attend today’s meeting.  Mr. Mow asked if Kathy had anything to report.  Kathy discussed that they met in September to go over the HR and the fiscal report to make sure we reconciled our budget.  The Policy Council elected not to hold an October meeting; there were no items to discuss.  Also, the Parent Leadership Training that was scheduled for November 13, 2007 was rescheduled to be held November 30, 2007 along with the changing of the Guard.

C.    Board Member Communication

They had nothing to discuss at this time.

VII.          Action Agenda

07-1114-01            Approval of Personnel Actions included in Human Resources Report

Dr. Bruce Stahly made the motion for approval of Personnel Actions included in the Human Resources Report.  The second was made by Steve Mills.  All were in favor.

07-1114-02            Distribution of Payroll, Summary of Actual Expenditures

Larry Phillips made the motion for approval of Distribution of Payroll, Summary of Actual Expenditures.  The second was made by Dr. Jerry Thacker.  All were in favor.

VIII.       Adjournment

Dick Reese made the motion for adjournment.  The second was made by
Larry Phillips.  All were in favor.  The meeting was adjourned. 

Respectfully submitted by:

Chris Gregorich