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The Joint Board of Directors of the Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties Head Start Consortium met in a regular session on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 in the Board Room at the Lafayette Center, 245 North Lombardy Drive, Suite A, South Bend, Indiana, 46619.

I. Call to Order

Steve Mills, sitting in for President Mark Mow, called the meeting to order at
9:35 a.m.

II. Roll Call

Steve Mills called for the roll call. Those in attendance were:

Jim Conner Middlebury Community Schools

Kathy Guajardo Executive Director, Head Start

Steven Mills School City of Mishawaka

Larry Phillips Union-North United School Corporation

Dick Reese John Glenn School Corporation

Joe Sabo Wa-Nee Community Schools

Dr. Bruce Stahly Goshen Community Schools

Dr. Robert Zimmerman South Bend Community School Corporation

Jerry Cook Baugo Community Schools

George Dyer Concord Community Schools

Dr. Jerry Thacker Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation

Mark Mow, Elkhart Community Schools was absent from the meeting.

III. Public Speakers

Steve Mills asked if anyone from the public who would like to speak to do so at that time. There were no public speakers.

IV. Adoption of Agenda

Steve Mills asked for a motion for approval of the adoption of the agenda.
Dr. Jerry Thacker made the motion for approval and seconded by Dick Reese. All were in favor.

V. Approval of Minutes

Steve Mills asked if there were any questions or comments regarding the minutes of the last meeting. A motion was made by Dr. Bruce Stahly and seconded by
George Dyer to approve the minutes. All were in favor.

Kathy explained that a copy of the Executive Director’s Report was included in each member’s packet and that it would be presented next week to the Policy Council as well. Our enrollment for the month of November was at 1021. There was transition time for a student coming and going at that time, so it was reported at 1021. The enrollment for December shows at 1016, but this was the week before the winter break and it shows that we were working with the transportation department and so forth, and so as soon as we came back, the first couple of days in January we immediately filled four spots so we were back at 1020 again.

We are going to continue taking on new children until March 15, 2008 because regulations call for the 60 days prior to the last day of school you must continue to enroll children and provide services. We realize with just so many days left in a school year we would not be able to provide services until the end of the school year.

Our attendance for November program-wide was 98.53% and December 98.64% and what we have also enclosed, highlighted in yellow because it is based on your funded slots allocated for each of your classroom slots are the attendance reports. If it falls below 85% then we have to do a justification.

We have 102 active IEP’s which is 10%, and we have received 82 referrals for mental health disabilities, speech, and other special needs services. Last year at this time we had 12 referrals. We are very pleased to have formed partnerships with Madison Center and other school corporations and the LEA to insure that students receive services.

We currently had 250 students on the wait list but out of the 250 children, 179 of those children were age and income eligible.

Jim Conner made the comment regarding Middlebury Schools, things are going well this year, some of the things that were talked about in the past, efforts have been made to listen to people and improve upon things. People feel good about where Head Start is going.

Richard Darling the 2007 – 2008 Policy Council Chairperson from Woodview School District introduced himself and discussed that his daughter enjoys school and the teachers. An election was held at the first Policy Council meeting. Books were distributed on how to run the meetings. Richard also discussed that it is a very good learning experience.

Steven Mills discussed that it is appreciated that Richard is involved in the program as a parent. If there is anyway we can help, let us know.

Joe Sabo made the motion for approval of Personnel Actions included in the Human Resources Report and seconded by
Dr. Robert Zimmerman. All were in favor.

Steven Mills asked if anyone had a comment and Kathy discussed In-kind has exceeded requirement by $220,000 and counting. Transportation has been partially supported by Head Start and we still have received $433,000 in transportation for In-kind services. Kathy asked that each of you sign this form that you did provide this amount in in-kind services. Dick Reese made the motion for approval of Payroll, Summary of Actual Expenditures and seconded by Jim Conner. All were in favor.

Dr. Bruce Stahly made the motion for approval to conduct an Annual Self Assessment and seconded by TextJerry Cook. All were in favor.

Steve Mills made the motion for adjournment and seconded by Dr. Robert Zimmerman. All were in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 9:53 a.m.