Okay. So now we're recording. Okay. Good morning, everybody. I think most of you know me. I'm a leader. I'm the vice chairperson of the Wilmington early care and education council. And this morning, I will be facilitating the meeting. Whitney is otherwise engaged and we miss her. This morning. We are fortunate to have some representatives from the reading consortium who have come to talk with us about the preschool initiatives, the strengths, the barriers, specifically for childcare providers. And I see some of you have done a job advocating for childcare providers who don't usually come to be here. So thank you. Thank you. We are we're happy to see you all. And probably more people will trickle in over the course of the next half hour. That's that's kinda how we roll. Well, we are waiting on Matt them to sign it and before Ryan mat start their discussion? Yes. The link that he has he said is not working, so yeah. Okay. I can I gave him an invite directly, right. If you um, if you if you want to throw me his email address in the chat, okay. I can forward it to him right eye. So if you're texting, we can just let him know in what I just said to him. You just said. So I'm again, don't just send it to him. Okay. Well, while we wait, I just want to make a quick announcement. On Friday, limb sent out an email with a link to a survey that we developed in response to our January meeting where we talked about forming committees. And as you guys now, we are looking at how we're moving forward as a council since we lost Dr. Sanders. So I want to thank those of you who have responded to the survey and encouraged the rest of you to respond to the survey. I'll drop the link to that survey in the chat. I'll later on in the meeting, we want all the input we can get as we move forward to anybody else have an announcement or anything they want to say Rover, while we're waiting. Daphne was what I just wanted to say, that we have to postpone the books balls of blocks, which we've pulled the Saturday due to unforeseen circumstances, but we are picking back up on the 26th to think somebody needs to know. Patty, Would you like to give an update on the resource center? I know. I know it's kinda last minute, but I know you can always tell us what you're up to. Yeah. I have Linux. Always prepared because I have to be. So we have we're well underway with our work entitled cohort six, the week at CVA program. So there's individuals are completing Warum concurrently working full time and doing their portfolio observation, an exam. So kudos to them. So we have seven people that are enrolled with my group. Dac has another contingency. I think they had like 80 some people are more. So we have completed recession's. Everybody's doing really well. Definitely reflective of the adult learner. You know, some people are like super, super, super focused on form. And then they're balancing portfolio and vice versa. So just I'm really trying to make sure I individualize what they need so that they can be successful. I have three independent study and one independent study starting next week. Do you want me to pause or just gotta finish? Go ahead. I'm going to show. Okay. Okay. So I be as descend dementia and I've been doing a lot of outreach. So I've worked with a lot of the team at St. Michael's Crick and coordinator of the CDA coach and many staff to take them from where they are in their career development and helping them to move forward. That's really wonderful experience. I've also worked with I think the prices here with leap of faith and did career advisement for eight of her staff. So again, many of them I've already begun independent study or they're about to begin. A lot of great things going on there as well. Still working on delivering my packets, my play and learn packets. Always delivering this. Wow, continue to work and work groups with geeky office of Early Learning, CFF Dion Patterson from Kellogg. We're all working together for the CDA. We've also just got a new work group where we have the persons you are really hands on, the facilitators, which include DIC and myself and then Lynn from CFF because she's the head of all the the monies over there to help lead her team. So we added an additional group. So I replaced been extremely responsive. We've been very thankful for that. And then we have our hopefully open house and provide our appreciation that we're going to launch in May. So details are, are, are really rolling. I've already gotten some interest in people who can present, hopefully have a space. So just needs some beautiful weather and all of you and you and center staff. So those are my highlights. Thank you. How do you Thank you so much for the work you're doing to carry out our mission. You're welcome. Just for being fantastic in general. Yeah. Thank you. So like I said, this is the Wilmington early care and education council, aka the pendulum fan club. And it's really great to see everybody this morning. I want to welcome mat then from the writing consortium. Thank you for being here with us this morning. Thank you. I apologize. I had a little trouble logging in, but thanks for your patients. What happens? I'm going to turn it over to you and to re take away got raided. You want me to go first or did you want to well, I'll I'll be really brief again. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for allowing us to come into your meeting to have a very important conversation that that should have been had earlier. But we're we're here we're here nail. If you could up we can see your names, but we don't know which organizations that you're representing. So if you could kinda put that in the chat, that will be really helpful. I'm Matt. I don't know if you want a quick quick round of introductions. Just, you know, which program that you that you represent and your position. Sure. If people have time. Okay. We're we're we're we're here to listen, but we do want to know we have meet everybody. So we could start with Ms. Pierce already. I'm Karen Pearson, Executive Director with Wilmington Head Start. Here in the city. We have four sides centers providing care to a total of 486 children as our grand total. Good morning, Ms. Lynch. Yes, daddy lunch. I am the coordinator for the recap professional development resource center for morning. Good morning. Miss leader. Good morning. I'm Leah leader. I'm the vice chairperson of this council. I'm also a mentor and coach with new directions early head start serving families throughout New Castle in Kent County, including in a city of 110. I don't want to mispronounce your last name. Is Jackie. Just say it's a hit. I on the administrative assistant for we can warning this Hawkins. Morning, everyone. I'm Danielle Hawkins. I'm the Director of curriculum in supervision at St. Michael's school ministry. Nice to me, everyone. Okay. Good morning, Miss McCleary. I'm Meg McCleary and the outreach manager for the Deller instituted excellence and early childhood at the University of Delaware. Morning. Morning. Diana should know how to pronounce your last name. Hi, I'm die inferential. I am the Program Manager with the Dell. We're reading a steams. Daphne. Hi, I'm Daphne Evans. I own the y e consultant training. I'm representing a leap of faith. Christina Cultural Arts Center and early childhood comprehensive systems grant program. Morning. And Daphne was helped us met. Mr. Williams, the mRNA Michelle Williams, executive director a hilltop Luther neighborhood center, warning miss taylor. Good Morning, Debbie Taylor, Department of Education, office of Early Learning, headstart collaboration office. Morning. I'm Dr. Thomas to price and morning Melanie Thomas price, older Administrator over at a leap of faith, Child Development Center. Good morning. Miss role. That are for I am part of the Delaware Technical Community College. The Wilmington campus in the education department. The morning or no. Was Alexander? I am Don Alexander and the pre-K coordinate during colonial School District. And I have the pleasure of working with Ray and Matt on the social determinants of health work group for reading. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Hardy. Good morning, everyone. Kimberly Nelson, parents as teachers, New Castle County. That the same as Avery. Good morning. Ms. Bieber. Hi, everybody. Good to see you again. Julie Beaver, Kingsbury Community Center, warning. Miss Weatherford. Family name. Samantha. I'm the Clinical Research Manager, fit the tau lab at UB. See warning. Miss work. Okay. Ms. Ross and mourning, listen to us and Executive Director at St. Michael's school and nursery in Wilmington. Morning. Miss Beck. Good morning. My name is Sandy back and I'm director of New Directions Early Head Start and past, present and the Delaware Head Start Association. And I apologize, my camera is not on. I'm having some bandwidth. Homes. Didn't want to get kicked off. Right. Thanks for that. No snowboarding. And Mrs. Smith? Morning Elizabeth Smith and the consumer education coordinator at children and families first. Good morning. Shy. She was a Christian culture or etc. Will be joining in a few, so we'll turn it over to you. Matt. Great. We we really appreciate you giving us the opportunity to really to hear what you have to say. And Ray and I are are mostly here to to listen. So I just wanted to take a few minutes to kind of give you an idea of what we were hoping to find out from you and why we think it's going to be useful and then turn it over to, to all of you. So I, I'm the co-chair of the ready consortium and race is not only a member of the consortium, but she chairs the work group that came up with a set of recommendations that that ultimately resulted in the General Assembly putting about 2.3 million new dollars, specifically into pre-k and early childcare programs targeted at children from the City of Wilmington. Reading consortium is a statewide body that was set up in 2019. Really to try to promote educational equity and good outcomes for kids. It's because a focus on the City of Wilmington, but there's also a broader focus on children living in poverty throughout New Castle County. I was a little bit late to it started in the fall of 2019 and I was appointed in March of 2020. I can remember exactly when because it's right. I was appointed and then immediately no one had meetings anymore. So I can pinpoint the time pretty well. We starting in fall of 2020, we began to focus pretty specifically on trying to get some investments made in, in both the school system and also in the States. Early childhood in pre-k system that we thought were really just critical to try and to help the children that we were trying to help. And the consortium has a lot of a big picture projects in terms of terms of governance and feeder patterns and things like that that it's talking about. But we also wanted to be very aware of the fact that while we were having these broader discussions, that there's lots and lots of kids in our schools and getting ready for our schools right now who needed immediate help. And we wanted to try and make sure that we were getting the state to make investments in those kids. So last year, we put together a proposal for the General Assembly for a number of new investments. One of which was trying to invest directly in expanding the the available time during the day and also expanding the number of available slots. Very specifically for children who are in the feeder patterns for kindergarten programs in the City of Wilmington that, that had very high populations of kids living in poverty. So the idea was to try to focus a lot of resources in a very intelligent way on this population of children. And make sure that we were creating programs, that that we were allowing existing programs to hire high-quality staff to expand the amount of time that might be available for kids to be in the programs. And then also just to create new slots for kids who might not currently be receiving any of the amount of services that we wanted them to receive. The good news is that through the hard work of a, of a lot of people, including Senator Rockman who really is, who is the co-chair of the consortium and really shepherded all of this through. We. We were awarded about $10 million by the General Assembly in the budget bill. When I say we, I mean, they they funded programs that we had recommended. The ready consortium doesn't actually get the money. But about $10 million was funded in the bill that was the budget bill that was passed last June. About 3 million of it in ongoing operating funds and $2.3 million of that money was specifically for our recommendations to try to augment the pre-K programs in early childhood. So that was the great news was $2.3 million targeted at a specific population of kids is is pretty significant. The challenge that it created was because we had to, but because we had to work very hard to get that money in the budget, we didn't know it was going to be there until June of last year. And then as soon as the budget was signed, needed to immediately turn around and try to put together the RFPs that we'd go out for people to actually receive the money. And we we didn't have the amount of time that you would normally want to have to fine tune those. And when I say we, the Department of Education actually put them out, but they were very good about Listening our input on them. And then also the response time that was available for people who wanted to apply for the grants was not what we would otherwise want it to be. And the reason for all that was it was important to actually get the grants awarded and get the programs started, both for the benefit of the kids and also because we we didn't want the General Assembly when it got back together this year to see that the money wasn't being spent and think that the money wasn't needed. So we wanted to make sure that we that we put the money to work. So the money was awarded to four programs. I think at least three of whom are actually represented on the call today. All very good programs. And, and the total number of kids who are going to benefit is about a 110 kids total. All four of the programs that applied applied only to expand existing slots from half-day slots to full day slots. So the net impact of the funding in mind that was appropriate last June was that we have a 110 kids who were getting half they services from the four organizations that they got the funds who are now going to receive full-day services. Which is great. I'm in and you will work in this field every day and eat. And you know the difference that that having a full day versus a half-day program can make for these children. So that's all great. What what we now have the opportunity to do though, is to take a, take a breath and, and figure out how we can do better. What, what we did last June. The other piece of really good news is that the governor has proposed in his in his budget that he just sent down to the legislature to not only maintain, but they actually expand the funding that was that was in the budget that was passed last June. I think that the new amount of funding is $3.7 million, again, targeted at that same population of kids. All of it, we believe is going to be in the operating budget. So it's somewhere between rare and unheard of for the joint finance committee to take something like that out of the governor's proposed budget after he has proposed it. So we all have a very high level of confidence that that is the minimum amount that's going to be in the budget that's passed in June. And what that what that allows us to do, which again is good news, is is to ask the department of education to put those RFPs out much earlier, potentially even before the the budget is passed in June. But it also gives us an opportunity to, as I said, take a step back and figure out how we can do it better this time. And in particular, in a more eager to hear your, you know, your input on it. But one thing that we're particularly interested in is that we're very excited that kids are going from half-day to full day programs, but we're also very interested in getting the other part of that done, which is having kids who currently aren't receiving services start to receive them. And what would we need to do different this time around in order for some providers to feel comfortable actually making more slots available and being able to serve more kids. So I I realize I talked longer than I I probably should have, but I wanted to sort of give you a backdrop so that you would know what we were hoping to to find out from you and andrei, please let me know if I forgot anything. Do you have any any questions of of mat? Again, we want this to be conversational. He's setting the stage for the conversation and certainly want to acknowledge Dawn Alexander represents the early education community with distinction, and so she has been at the forefront. This work, which are boots on the ground everyday working in a variety of environments. And so we need to hear from you what can we do? What are the needs? What can we do to, to have additional, additional applicants for these resources to expand early learning opportunities for the most vulnerable children. I asked you guys to raise your virtual hand just so we don't talk over each other and everyone has a chance to speak. I have this into you know, I always raise my hand, Leah. Yeah. So they Michaels has 35 of these slots and lied to I guess my two questions my two points are to ask if we are do we have to reapply for those reading spots and just to let you know on the ground some of the the, both the challenges and the logistics we've had to work out. And just say that while we we were able to use them, as Matt said, the move to more of a robust whole day part of our program, our 35 slots, I think I'm pretty sure in daniels on the line, he or she can correct me. But at least 20 of those children are aging out of our program. So while we are off, we are able to offer new spots. I just want to also add the fact that this is the first time St. Michael's has done anything like e cap. And I'm very happy that we're doing it. I'm really it's the direction that I've always wanted to see St. Michael's go in and that we are looking at. And there's my dog in the background. Sorry. But it's a lot of work. So I, you know, it's a it's a lot of reaching out. It's a lot of hours reshuffling an admin and all of that. And I say that just so that you all have a realistic view of of, of the work we've done and the changes we've had to make to our program. That's it. Thank you. Julie. Go ahead. Hi, everybody. We are also one of the programs who received the funding and I actually shared a comment at the most recent reading meeting. I think for us we are super grateful for it. We were in E cat program before reading. So some of the things that Lucinda is experiencing, we were fortunate enough that we already had the background of knowing how to navigate E cap and going through the TA process and everything. So that was extremely, extremely helpful. I think for us. One of the things that, that I shared and our major ask is that we want to make sure that the funds are sustainable. So I don't know why other programs did not apply, but I could guess based on my own experiences. One of it is that the RFP didn't come out until much later, which I know it was the first time coming out. So sometimes RFPs are delayed. But at that point, I think we were able to do it because we're very fortunate in that we can be very nimble in terms of grant funding. We don't have a school district or large multiple sites. So we it's easier for us to plan and make those adaptations quickly. But that's not always the case for everybody else. So I think the timing of the, of the process was difficult. I think also it what we've seen on the ground like mucinous, that is that this program appears to us to be very, very similar to E cap. And in the initial lay in the reading recommendations, it was recommended that it be a part of E caps. And I think that that was a great recommendation. And from the way that it sort of practically administered, I think it would be easier for everybody, if at all possible for it to be part of e cap, but maybe with certain slots designated at a different rate for Wilmington. Or if there's any way at all to to streamline it because it is very confusing even from somebody coming from an icecap program. To now say, well, we're reading and we have to have a different code enter our kids and to ease Gold Plus, and we have to go through a different process than everyone else, even though it's the same process with a very, very similar qualifications. So I think it can be a little bit confusing from somebody who is actually like doing the day-to-day work. And I know that the money that there's that there's a reason why it was set up this way. But I think that it makes it difficult and making that decision because you don't have. As many of the support and reassurance of e cap the three-year funding cycle. So from a provider standpoint, it means I have to be prepared to compete every year for this and I may or may not get the money. And it is administered in a way that may be difficult. So it appears to be much more of a risk from a provider standpoint. Then what an E cap would be. On. Notice that a lot That's really valuable keep actually, usually. Debbie. Thank you, Leah Debbie Taylor, Department of Education, office of Early Learning. I think what I'm hearing and what I want to say is we need to have strong infrastructure at the program level. And at the end I'll say within Department of Education. First of all, I want to acknowledge Caitlin glycine and all of the work she did to get this going and to make it happen really very quickly. Of course, now at the Department of Education, we are down three staff. So we are in the process of getting interviews underway quickly and soon. Thank thankfully, not quickly but soon. But I wanted to say that the Delaware Institute for Excellence in early childhood has become our TA partner for e cap. And reading out without that help, it would almost be impossible to provide the level of service that we want to provide to programs that have committed to doing this for children. You know, some like they have said, have been E cap previously. And now we're reading. I do think that we've heard and I would agree that the confusion is e cap reading, you know what, we know, there's a little difference, you know, we know the funding to funding streams, but how can they link better to be more efficient? And so again, I think it really comes down to week. We have to pay attention to that infrastructure. Because if it's not there, it really isn't going to work. And I do think that it's wonderful. And we need we always need funding for children that are vulnerable and may not get a full day experience. But I think that it's just important to hear all of this. So I do want to thank Ryan met for coming today to listen to everybody. I'm studying. Heidi. Good morning. So I agree with many of the comments already made and I want to kind of piggyback on what Julie was talking about in terms of there being different different terminology and not understanding. We need, we need to look at it as a full a full system and a full system of how we're serving the children in and Wilmington and across across the state and additional hours and all of that. And so again, to two sets of funding, two sets of terminology, not clear which things you're following need to be clear. The timeline was was absolutely difficult and not understanding what it what it truly what the long-term impacts would be if you went for the map for this and that didn't get funding. Again, the, the third piece that I want to think, I want to encourage everybody to think about is to think about this as a system's piece. And how do we look at how to, if we're doing this, what's the impact to infant and toddler care, and how does it support it together? That makes sure that we don't undercut the infant and toddler care. That is happening. And a six hour day is is great, but it doesn't meet the needs of all of our families who are working, who are in school settings are, et cetera. So that's only at that gives only access to a certain number of children. And so there needs to be some clear understanding of how we play, blend and melt the various funding streams like purchase of care and the writing Consortium. For a full day of care of ten out of ten hours, nine hours that a family needs to is working, et cetera. And I think that was also another barrier for individuals not being able to clearly understand. If I take this writing money, I've got families in our care already, but they need the nine hours of care they need. How does that meld with my purchase of care dollars and how do we make that work? And I don't know that that has been clearly clearly articulated. But again, I think it's understanding how the different funding streams come together. We need some really clear guidance and some clear thought on that at a Wilmington level, but at a state level, if that makes sense. Thank you. Heidi. Dr. Thomas Price. Yes. I am really excited about this program. I'm new to it. We've probably been reading less than a year now. What I'm going to tell you most of what I hear concerning reading, just being new and listening in and asking questions up. The biggest comment that I get is that is just like IGAP. As a new program, I need more that is just like the cat because it, is it B cat. So it's time to really begin to strengthen and, and kinda shaped the infrastructure. What is ready? You know, I know what the outcome is supposed to be. What, how are we working? What is the process of getting to this outcome? I think we're all concerned about our children in the city. I know I am. This is the only reason why I do what I do is because I'm concerned about the children that we serve. They're not really doing well academically. And I don't know about anyone else. But I'm tired of the same old, same old. It's not good enough anymore. It, we're going to create a program. It's time to stop really wasting money. How do we create a program that's going to really benefit children, not just now, but for years to come. That is my concern. For years to come. What are when I left the school district almost 20 years ago as a special education teacher, we were talking about academic gap. Guess what? We're talking about that exact same academic get today. What are we going to do differently? Yes. We have six hours now. I'm grateful. I am. We have six hours. We're trying to expand the program. But what is the process? What's going to be the process to get to this outcome that we all want. Or have. We began at something as simple as partners shipping with the school. Now, we all know that most of the elementary schools in the city are having issues. Why haven't we yet come together to say, You know, what? How can I help you? And how can, how can you help me? What do we want children doing by the time they get to the kinda garden plants? Because no longer is it a ratio of 12 to one teacher. Now you might have a kindergarten teacher with 25 to 30 kids. How are we able to connect that, connect the dots and really begin to do our part to closing the gap. No more fragmented systems. All of the systems working together for the betterment of the children. So I'm new, I'm just sitting back listening, but that's where I am starting the program. I was really nervous about making a change because that's what I did. I made a change from e cat into writing because it made sense to me. But I was concerned because what's going to happen in two or three years? I mean, are we talking about a sustainable program, a program that you're vested in? And when I say we, I mean, politicians, is the money going to be there at the end of the day. So let's I think I'll take it up enough time, but that's where I am. Thank you very much. And you guys can tell me, no, I'm not burn our plan. And Dr. Thomas price just expressed very eloquently a lot of the things that I think and feel so I'm going to cosine. Thank you. Karen. Yeah. Reiterate a lot of what everybody said. Initially when we heard about the reading grant Wilmington Head Start was very interested. But as we got more information, we chose not to apply. We were looking to convert each have slots. We have federally funded and state funded. He kept slots, so we were looking to convert some 4.5 hour to six hour. We know that's still not enough for a lot of the parents, but it helps some of them than they might be able to make other arrangements for their child. Just having them with us longer we felt was best. But our problem was it seemed like a lot of work in a short time turn around, which was quick, but also that it would be really disruptive to be a midyear start. It talked about being able to once it was approved to maybe be starting in November. So we would. Would be a staffing challenge. You had staff who were work and certain hours. Now all of a sudden, Yeah, they may have agreed, but you have to change all of that to different hours. And that would be a midyear disruption that we decided was not going to work for us. But the other big piece was we weren't comfortable that funding was going to be guarantee. I heard people talk about, you know, that each app yeah. We're good for three years, we know that. And then we're going to reapply. This sounded like a lot of work with the potential of maybe not being responding or having funds available the next year. And we just decided to not apply at all because we just were not comfortable moving forward with that. Things can still hungry for us to share and for the opportunity to work on the team that recommended and this this opportunity. So I want to say am I thank you, Matt, where are they? I'm looking at a screen where you are. So having worked with and we act and we ACK, you came and you talked about the need to grow access to early learning programming for young children, the city. So that's something that you'd had it as a goal. And certainly that's certainly been a goal for you as well. So we're grateful that you've been able to work that move that work forward. I'm happy to be part of it. I'm certainly I agree with with what my colleagues are, same Early Learning colleagues that the late Rp was made it difficult. And what I would, I would ask is whatever can be done to roll that RP into the e cap RFP. So it's a three-year RP. So it's maybe right now have 845 each, have thoughts into 100 slots that are reading slots. So I know that there's 3.7 million, but let me just talk about the 2 million. If let's just say it stayed the same, would it be that Two 100 slots of the 100045 e cap slots are designated see Wilmington thoughts or maybe now that's 3,003,000,003.7,000,000. Maybe it's 400 of the 1, 0, 0, 0, 5, IQ have slots are, are, I think about Venn diagram like, you know, here's E cap. And then within that speed is a circle. Within the circle like these, 300, within this big circle are the reading spots. So they are full day and it's guaranteed. Teacher with a bachelor's degree in early childhood. So like the quality standards for that we want to have with all of our 1, 0, 0, 0, 45 that we would love to habit to fund these bare for the rest of them. That's a whole another conversation. But for the funding for the City of Wilmington children, here, that circle in the middle, maybe that bulls-eye that the $300 million. And so making that a three-year RP and really communicating. So I spoke with colleagues in the city who didn't really kind of understand what the criteria would be like. How is the criteria for the reading slots different than IQ happen? Really, it's, it's very, very similar. But making that explicit, whether it's like a one pager or a two pager with it. Like a chart. So I'm a provider and on deciding am I playing or not? I can look at this chart. And I know like what the expectations are and they're pretty much the same. Same goes for the finding and Hague, I'm so glad you said that because it's something in cloning. I feel like we're doing really well and I know it's like other partners on here doing this well where we blend purchase of care and we blend e cat and we blend tuition and we blend 619 special education funding. I certainly want your Glen Title 1 funding, but it's how are we taking all the funding we blend to make sure that children get a 10 hour day. And so we have a look at a system that we have, that we have also kind of share with family that to make it easier. So families understand. So we want to make it forward facing. So when a family comes to apply, we're not confusing them and saying, Well, part of your days paid by e cap and part of your days by pay by POC and part. I don't want parents to be stressed out about that. Families. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, the guardians of our children. Internally. I have the chart that knows that for these children, these four hours or e cap and the rest is POC or six hours is 619 special-ed programming. And the rest of POC families know they have to submit to me they're PUC eligibility. And then I can see in the portal, but I'm not stressing the parent out about that. So it's almost like what we need it from, whether it's comes from reading or contribute. I think we'll probably come from DOE. But the the chart for the provider that says we've got this like you've got this. If you currently have e cap, you currently, you want to apply for reading. You're currently accept POC like this is how you can blend the funding and it's going to be okay. But to the parent, we don't want to stress them out with all that. Like, you know, you're eligible, but we'll do the behind-the-scenes work to make sure you get the services. And the last, the last I want to talk about is the weak learning collaborative. So i 2, excuse me, dawn before you go to your last point, I really need to ask a question just for just for my own processing of what has been shared from from different different voices. I thought I heard something a little different. I thought I heard urging to go back to the drawing board and to be more expensive than in the planning of a system of education in there. And to not let the funding streams to different funding streams create even further fragmentation in the system. That's what I thought I heard, yes. So I said I Heidi, So you're going to hit. Okay. So I will say I just want to do this year. So I don't know if that can happen by the time the RP goes out. Who's kind of like what do we do this year to make it accessible for people who might want to apply for RP goes out in a month whenever like hopefully soon. But then like, what's the what's the six month go to help people get through the next RFP process because the next E cap RP cycle is a year from now. So it's that make sense like what do we do right now that able to access the money? But then absolutely systematically, what's the plan for the next RFP cycle? But with that, another layer of that stop is willing to learn collaborative, which is really exciting. But it adds another layer because we need to be. One thing I've shared Jiangxi and I'm going to share with all of you. And we really need to be clear about how does Wilmington learning collaborative fit into this and how do we make sure providers feel supported and included and part of the decision-making in the planning and not excluded. So Wilmington headstart prison cultural art center, St. Michael's kings would hilltop Arab and everybody else needs to be in the City of Wilmington, part of W LC planning, not a satellite part of the discussion. So because it's not just preschool. Preschool is part of WWL see. And preschool doesn't mean preschool at Warner. It may mean preschool at Warner, but also eat meat. Preschool at Hilltop preschool, Christian culture art center, and on and on. Like how do we continue to build up it's going really well in the city and expand that and not exclude it. I'm done. Thank absolutely. Yeah, thank, thank you. Great points. The one meter learning collaborative is that need to be very much engaged as well noted, does immunization for another, another DAG, we need to add those people participate in that. So Leah, you got 123. Hey, yes. Just so you know, re Jiang. Jiang Shan was here last month and talk to this group about the woman tomatoes. Well, those points made to him at that time. Yes. Okay. Great. Yes. I'm actually texted me. I'm asking if you can pop. I'm just thinking here some of this and maybe come to the next meeting with everybody. I don't know. That's on our agenda for the next meeting. But because it's a sense of urgency with the planning, you are getting here to here. Again, another circle from the Venn diagram. I'm not the czar of week heck, but I think that this is important. So we can certainly talk about that. Julie, go hand. Are you sure you're not bizarre weekend? I am not. Dr. Sanders is still desirable. Eat eggs from heaven. A well-fed. I think you're, I think what we're all talking about the same thing. And this is what we all recognize and what everybody recognizes that the system itself around early childhood, the funding, the requirements, that regulation is very complicated. It's complicated from a parent's perspective. It's complicated from a provider's perspective. It's complicated from DOE's perspective. And I think what, what is a little bit frustrating? And I've said this, anyone who will listen is that we have the Preschool Development Block Grant. We looked at the entire system across the state. There's a ton of recommendations for streamlining everything. And some of it we've done, but we don't. It feels like there's so much more left to do and we're still a long ways away from that. But I think what you're seeing here is sort of in dawns analogy of a, of a Venn diagram which I think is very good one. That this is a microcosm of what we all go through everyone throughout the state. Because the programs that you see that we're successful or root who chose to go after the funding, or those that are similar to dawns where we do the same thing. We braid our funding streams together. We say at the outset, we're going to make a commitment to have 10 hour days, which we do. We know that a piece of it we funded by this piece will be funded by that piece will be funded by this. And some of them will be funded by anything at all. And that's where we go out and we raised the money ourselves via grants to foundations, et cetera. So I think it's, it would be in my mind very, very difficult to go to say, Hey, I want to be a reading program, but don't have any other source of income or anything like, Oh, none of these things sort of stand alone. And to be successful and to be able to afford to take the risk of a one-year shot where you have no guarantee for funding or, you know, in order to take the like Karen was saying, in order to find the amount of work that you have to put into these type of funding opportunities in order to find that worthwhile, you have to be connected to the entire system. So what we've done is sort of create a system that is accessible to people who have external support, people who have maybe good grant writers or good or good administrative system which is important. And people who have the sort of funding or wherewithal or risk tolerance to take that risk. And that's not all of us. That's only a certain number and that's, I think what we saw here. And from a provider perspective, you know, we, we made the choice to take the risk because we said this is where we're going anyway. We want to do all of these things. It's important to us to do all these things. We think we should be paying a competitive salary to our teachers were committed to that. But my finance person said to me, Well, what happens if you don't get the money next year? I mean, we're not going to lower people's salaries. And I said, Well, we're going to have to figure out next year due then. So if we want if we want to make these changes, it's going to involve a certain amount of risk. And I know that DOE is doing everything that they can and I know that the consortium has the correct vision and I know that we're going in the correct direction. And this has been a super, super important step for us. We are able to afford purchasing some professional development that we wouldn't ordinarily be able to purchase with e cap funding, able to add additional supports. I think that there, this is sort of set up though for a program that really understands the entire landscape. And that's not everybody, and it's not all centers and it's not family childcare providers or home visiting programs, that kind of thing. Sort of set this up for the most connected people who already have access to a lot of resources to sort of take it to the next level. And I don't know if that's the intent or not. And I just wanted to put that out there that that's sort of what I'm seeing as a provider. I don't know that that's necessarily right or wrong or whether that was the intention or not. And it's certainly, certainly helpful. But I think if we want to make it to the point where a new program Pinkham in, it has to be a little bit easier to understand in a little less dependent on your understanding of every other program. Wow. I'm really enjoying hearing all this feedback. Debbie. God. Thank you, Leah. Just two things. One is, I do want to mention that most Head Start programs are part day. And many states use States supplemental funding to get those headstart programs to a full day. I can give plenty examples of my colleagues and other states who that, that does happen. And I think when we look to planning, that's something we really need to consider. The other thing I wanted to mention another layer to all this is build back better in a way we certainly expect that will happen in some format when we don't know and it becomes difficult to plan my biggest onset for the future when we don't really know what's coming, but we can expect that something's coming. But it will certainly be a very big part of this discussion. And something I think we just need to keep in the back of our mind. So they had to step away and she told me to go Let's go ahead and make my comments. So WE I agree with you. I think I think we said it earlier. We need to be thinking about this as, as a system that, that we can then we can, we can grow and we can build and use as a foundation for build back better. And as we move forward and where, where, where the Baby steps out of that. And I wish we were so much farther along in having the foundation that we could really be building on, fire the build back better. And the other two comments I kind of want to make what we're exactly what Julie was saying, which was those programs that are a little bit larger, have some expertise in having blended funding and things. Know how, know how to do that and know-how, what questions to ask and how to move that forward. And lots of programs out there that don't. And that was that was some of my comment about how do we help PIE programs blend the funding and understand how to, how to do all that and not get himself and and, and any trouble as we move forward. Then I final two points are, we're talking about this in terms of centers, but we have a lot of family childcare programs. And they are viable, viable up places for quality early care and education to be happening. And we haven't figured out how to make that happen to this type of funding. So it's something to think about in the mix as we're building this whole system. And then my final thing is just as we're looking at this, we're really need to look at, particularly within the City of Wilmington, how we do this in a way that we are supporting all of the different programs and making sure that children that need the services are getting the services without it feeling like a competition between the programs for getting children into their programs. And I think we could be on the cusp of that, competing for children and that's not our bets. That would not be the intent. So how do we develop some kind of an enrollment process, shared enrollment or something like that? To think to just think about for the City of Wilmington. Hi, Matt. Thank you. Matt. Guy. I I I haven't had one question to throw out to folks just based on a couple of comments that I saw people made. But one of the things that we are going to try will clearly one thing that we're going to need to do better the next time around, among others, is have some more informational sessions about the RFP and end. The state does that frequently when it has the luxury of time, when it puts RFPs out is that it has multiple sessions where people can submit questions and get answers so that, that should be an easy one to try to address in terms of having people feel like they understand what they're applying for. And also just in terms of the sustainability and reliability part of it. Now that it is in the operating budget as opposed to just being funded as some other programs are with onetime funds. It should be just as reliable as as the CAP program is. So again, we need to manage two. We need to be able to communicate that to people. Because that seems to be a big issue. The one question I wanted to throw out was one of the things that we were sort of wrestling with in the limited time that we had last time was the reimbursement levels. And I think that what was eventually settled on was pretty much the same reimbursement level that exists for the existing ie cat program. But one thing that was being discussed was, is that really sufficient or should we try for this limited number of slots to have a higher reimbursement level in order to be able to attract and retain quality staff because I those are the comments that I saw was that that was still a pressing issue or was or was having a different compensation level for this particular program going to dope? I was just corrected. It's still higher than E cap. But I think there has been some discussion about whether to make it higher still because one of the one of the stated goals in in the the funding was to try to get as close as possible to some of the benchmarks that had been set by some of the data, the statewide groups that had met previously for what was what was ideal in terms of hiring and retaining staff in comparison to a public school salaries and the like. So I guess I'll just throw that out. Is is that something that we should be trying to focus on going forward? Having the having the compensation level per slot for this limited program be higher? Or is that going to create more confusion and problems? And in terms of some of the things people have described already. So my, my, my thought, my thought on that is that again, we need to be thinking about a comprehensive system and we need to be thinking about increasing the e cap funding amount to be equal to the writing amount. And Venice about the number of hours that you're serving. Having six hour just serving the child for six hours a day. It's one thing if you're serving that before our four hours or 4.5 through the IPAT model because it's only designed for, for four hours. But the funding levels need to be the same. We're asking we're asking people to provide the comprehensive services. So that's my $0.02. That was my comment at the GFC meeting yesterday. I mean, I'm so grateful for it. The increase for when we look at the reading slots because I have a chart that I made. A couple of you. I don't know your gout showing that it was in 1996 when e cap was initiated, right when it started, it was about $7,200 per child for e cap back then. And that was the average amount that children in K to 12 funding for truncate well, so the cage called ponding has done this. And he kept funding has been stagnant for 26 years. It went up to 8,100 per child per year for maybe three years, and then went back down below now 67 thousand I think 140 per child. So we're continuing to ask we always do. You're asking providers to do more, I should say preschool teacher providers headstart. Like we're always asking early learning people to do more, but we're keeping the right the same for 26 years. Everyone's bills have gone up in 26 years. How are we asking? Are, you know, it's just it is on somebody levels, It's not okay. So we're grateful that for the increase for writing like it's amazing. So how can we advocate to make that happen? Because all the children are eligible in the same way. They're homeless. They are struggling CRC certainly financially. You know, we know about our eligibility because we all do the eligibility for our programs. So thanks to me, I know you guys are so tired of hearing from me, but I just have a lot to say. I think I think Matt, I think you're absolutely right and and Don, you're absolutely right that this is much needed. The additional funding has brought us so much closer to closing that quality of care gap, where we actually are in a place to make back the cost of care and cover actually not be in a deficit that we have to fundraise. So it is absolutely important. It is absolutely essential. I think the issue that we're grappling with, and I'm going to tie it to the wage scale Working Group, which I think a lot of us have been a part of or, or been involved in, is that we want the wages in early childhood to be comparable the K to 12, that is the golden standard. They think that we are so far away from it that it's a matter of getting there in a way that is sustainable and supportive. So what I mentioned was that when we decided to apply for the funding, we knew that it gave us an opportunity to raise our our teachers based salaries, which we wanted to do. We committed to do. But we also know that if it's not sustainable, we can't lower those salaries. So it has to be something that we look for long-term. It has to be, you know, kind of like Dawn said, as costs go up, we have to be able to sustain it. And we also have to recognize that a K to 12 teacher, the baseline for their education as a bachelor's degree. And it should be the same for early childhood. But that is not the case of the current workforce. So we have to build in this sort of professional development funds and opportunities for our teachers to get that increase education. So if we want to be like K to 12, then we have that. We have to have certain things happened on this on the state side and with the funding for us to get closer to that. And that might be that professional development funding, which traditionally in a, in a state grant you can't use to pay people's college tuition. Maybe we can or maybe there's a way to, to, to figure this out. Because if we want to be, if we want, our teachers should be and they are, they are on a par with K to 12 in terms of quality. But they don't have the education or the same entire infrastructure around training that K to 12 does. So I think that the closer that this is a, this is a huge, huge leap forward for early childhood in terms of bringing in the funding and helping with the salaries, that kind of thing. Do you think it also, like I said earlier, highlights some of the ways that we still have to get there. And I'll add to what Julia was just saying about the professional development of our early childhood workforce in them and the wages issue. Headstart and has had a mandate since, I think the headstart Act of 2007 for, for teachers in head start classrooms to be degreed are at least 50 percent or I can't remember. Heidi or Karen can correct me. And head-start put 50 percent. Thank you. Headstart put training and technical assistance dollars behind the education of their workforce. And what I saw happening in my time at Wilmington headstart as education specialist is that people would get degrees and then sometimes they go to the school district because they could make so much more money. So the professional development piece, we sit in this meeting, we sit in meetings like this, and everyone's behind that, right? Whether it's going to be bachelor's degrees or CTAs, they are trying to put systems in place as steep to professionalize our workforce. But unless wages match, we're not going to be able to keep them in the field. So that's that's one thing. And then I also wanted to get on the bandwagon for infant toddler. I know I'm a little biased as an early headstart person. Historically, efforts to build systems for infant and toddler care always lags behind preschool. And I feel like there's been enough precedent for that. So maybe be able to say this time that we need to bring the infant toddler programs along with the preschool programs. Because they're lagging behind in years, years, years down the road. There's going to be the reading for infant toddler, you know, because because infant toddler didn't didn't keep up with that with the preschool quality. So that's my $0.02. Anybody else? Trying to make sure I'm unmuted? Yeah. Just that I realized is this is exactly what you were just referring to, but one of the other reading recommendations that was funded was $0.5 million increase both in the current year's budget and proposed for next year's budget in the states, three infant-toddler home visitation programs. And and again, I know that's not exactly what you're referring to, but the Nurse-Family Partnership and embarrassed that I'm blanking on the names of the other three programs are three different three or three different home visitation programs as teachers and I think it's healthy, healthy families, healthy beta something right now. There you go. And near they have different levels of different sort of intensity and sapping levels depending on the program. But they 0.5 million per year is is it a not insignificant increase? And those programs, obviously, I've had some challenges just in terms of being invited into people's homes over the last couple of years. But we're hopeful that that's going to allow them to expand the population of kids. They conservative. Yeah. Yeah, I did I did read about that funding increase in that that is that is wonderful. I'd I do want to I do want to put in a plug because I don't know if you know this. The Early Head Start program that I work for any directions really had to start also has a home visiting program, federally funded, not state, but it is the fourth home visiting program and Delaware cell. So we're out there to Daphne. I know I put it in the chat, but I also wanted to verbally say, let's not forget about funding needed to support these families that come from these income levels. They need support. Not only, I mean, I commend whole visiting, but also family service workers who work with an E cap and Head Start and Early Head Start. Because I work within two of those programs at two different sites that these families need support to have these children be successful. So we need to also include funding to support families, to build communities within these programs so that parents can come under the five protective factors and be able to be successful so their children can be successful. Yeah, Heidi put in the chat at the beginning of the meeting that we need a system that gets, provides comprehensive services per the headstart model and yet headstart with the Pioneer with these comprehensive services. And I've seen over my will, I've been around about ten years in Head Start here in Delaware, and I've seen a couple of different programs that look to replicate that model in like fits in spurts here and there. But nothing, nothing sustainably comprehensive besides headstart and e cap that I've seen. And I agree, definitely it's it's it's really essential because we can only support the children up to a certain point if I'm if their families were not also getting the support. Its anybody have anything else on this topic or have we talked ourselves out? Hi, I'm Matt. I just wanted to say thank you. This is really incredibly helpful to us. And, you know, it's going to be, you know, we we will if invited, we'll be back so that we can get your continued input as we tried to, to shake this. But we really appreciate that what you've been able to share with us today. And again, it's great. It's just, we're very excited about the opportunity. Because $3.7 million is, by comparison to past investments, you know, really really significant in a short period of time and very focused in terms of the kids that we think need the help the most and deserve the help the most. So I'll be well, you know, we we want to make sure that we do it the right way and we're just very grateful for your help in making sure that happens and won't bear on. We're grateful that you reached out to speak to this group. And we are we are here every every Thursday, every third Thursday, I should say, of the month. Here on Zoom for the foreseeable future. I also want to put in a plug. I've just got a text from Whitney in the interest of, of making these connections. Whitney approves John Sheehan for the next meeting, Dawn. And I don't know if it if it would be helpful, Matt, for both of you to to be a part of a conversation. I don't know if you're available next month on the third Thursday in March, whatever that is. But we'd love to have you back for this stuff. Send, uh, the the links. And also the 17th. Okay. Yeah, March 17th, nine AM. Same link. I will I will make sure you guys know that's the same link. Okay. I'm not wearing this hat. Oh, well, I'm always wearing this hat, but I didn't introduce myself that way. The Wilmington Center for Education, Equity, and policy has been very much engaged in working with the Governor's team to get the information out. We did not take a position on the Wilmington learning collaborative, but we believe it is that we have a duty of care to, to get the information out about the concepts to two people that are not always at the table were met. Most people are not at the table. Particularly parents and an ash and even leaders of, of non-profit, of smaller non-profits. So we'll be happy to come. If you would send us the recording, that would be great. You all have been just very thoughtful when you think about it all the time. For those of you I've never met before. I'm not unfamiliar with the complexities of delivery services. I I ran a non-profit for almost 30 years with an E cat program. And so The, we want to be able to go back to the recording. There may be some questions that that can be answered. Julie gave me the reference to the report from a parent's perspective that she was speaking to. And we'll definitely we know that this is not a one and done conversation as very Layer. And we absolutely need coherence in our system. So I'll keep driving towards that. We also, the next time we come, would like to share about the development of an equity dashboard for people and the public to be able to. Everybody's talking about equity, but to Dr. Thomas's point, what are the outcomes we're driving towards? How do we know that we're, whether we're getting there, whether we're going in the wrong direction. Hat what are the metrics, any outcomes that we're tracking? And so that's something that's at the very early stages being led by the social determinants work group or the consortium. So we want to bring that information is shared, that information and get your input as well. Wonderful. Thank you. So I know Don had a closing Pot. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. To two things. I'm grateful to live that you that you referenced all the work that statewide needs assessment with the birth to five, the grant that we received in Delaware, almost $5 million to do a needs assessment for the entire state. It the work was extensive. Many of you who I see, we're part of the work. We were surveyed, we were our families were surveyed to staff who work in our buildings were surveyed and on and on and on. And the big ideas are comprehensive system aligned systemic. So Lynn, if you don't have the link to kinda like the final report from that and one of us can send that to you to have everybody look at that before our next meeting. I mean, it's like 50 pages. It's a lot, but if you look at the highlights, the highlights of like, here's the big ideas of the work And I'm I'm guessing you probably took them off. You know, like are we meeting parents need or you get like a infants and toddlers that you already know a lot of this, but it's in there. It's important that we look at that. And the second thing is I detect Johnny can about the next meeting in what I asked him to consider when I'm asking you to consider and the ask and inviting is, you know, we're all together. And then. The districts that are in W LC are not here. So making sure that the superintendent or like who was the point person from the district, who were the buck stops for the Wilmington learning collaborative. That person needs to come to the meeting. So whether it's the superintendent, CFO, the director of I don't know, But like that person needs to be here to hear from the community and birth defect community. And then also the third group I asked John, I recommended and recommend to you is so you have the superintendent, whoever's willing to learn collaborative point person for the district, the decision-maker. But then we need that, whether it's the pre-K principle, like the Whitney, Whitney in christina, we need that person for my clay and not pursue for brand new wine here. Because they need to hear like, how is brand new wine going to partner with the Early Learning programs in their feeder pattern to make this truly work. So that's the recommendation of me, the decision-maker for the district, Premack principle or whatever the district. And then art. And in this group, we can get families that will be even better. Let's get some families here. Well, that's how we can certainly, because we do have representatives from each district, not those people, but we have wraps up. So I'm going to grab some outreach. Well, just marriage decision-makers, because often we know things, it's difficult to get things to flow up. Yes, I'll do I'll just reached on that. So that's a great point. Okay. But I was wondering if Matt and re would be willing to share their e-mail addresses so that we can send you things as, as we get them and learn then that might be helpful to your conversations. I will churn with that. Sorry. Can we re-imagine? What do we think? It'll be helpful to invite this group also to one of our next reading meetings, but of our social determinants of health meeting. So then the whole social determines of health work group could have, could hear the feedback. Or if you'd rather some residents share it. But it's the way to make that connection. Just thought, Well, thanks, everybody. Have a great day. Thank you. Rights that letting Thank you. All right. Thank you, Matt. As soon as I have the link for this video, I will send it to you. Okay, thanks. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Grab it. Kim Christen asking in the house. Hi. Hi. Hi. I know Debbie. Debbie see, I'm representing a Yale, but I will on another call I could make it. I think I jumped in right towards the end of mat and Ray, I really wanted to hear what everyone was saying, but Debbie takes copious notes and she can she can fill me in, but I hope that was helpful. I knew they were coming to two we CAC and they had spoken with us or with me just around new funding opportunity isn't what's going to be happening. And I think everyone knows on this call that, you know, the current reading RFP or the programs that are serving with those funding lines we weren't able to fill. We were able to get out all the seats that that we had allotted. And my concern is that if we're going to continue either at where we are or build it, we need to think about how we're going to get providers in a place where they can feel comfortable putting out an RFP, having staff. I said to both of them, there might have been more providers. You wanted to do it, but they don't have the staff or they're very concerned about meeting those qualifications if they were to get those seats. So I think that idea when we left a few weeks ago was they were wanting to talk to programs and see what some of the barriers were around the funding or applying for the funding. Is that what happened or did it did it did it go a different way? Unless it was that some of the conversation that I mean, I I've heard Julie talking about staffing, which exactly. I mean, we all know this on this call. Compensation continues to be the biggest issue. Recruiting, retaining and compensating. That's the biggest issues. So but I also think for for programs that have built-in structures, doing an RFP still hard and still it very challenging, but there's some built-in supports, but smaller programs or larger programs. I don't have that built-in support doing anything around it. Rfp can be very daunting, very intimidating. Not having the supports are having experience doing it. So we talked a lot about that. That could be the biggest, that could be one of the barriers. But then once you get through that is where are you finding the staff to service to children and families to meet certain qualifications? So and so you've had a chance to talk to them about that. We did Kevin. And you know, what always happens is you're thinking while you're in the meeting and talk. I'm talking and all of that. And I'm just at different ways in which I'd like to get back. That's why I asked for their emails and things. I think there are ways to think about this funding a little bit differently than thinking about them in these silos. Writing an E cap slots. And I began as a, as we KEQ, if we want to spend some time thinking about that and then making a recommendation to the writing consortium and to DOE about that. But if you've got this amount of funding, this I'm going to come to the City of Wilmington that it could be used in a way to increase the funding for the e cap programs in well, currently providing services in Wilmington to better cover the costs of that care. And that can be used to increase that. Rather than having to necessarily, if we think about it as one system, rather than necessarily having to apply that and looking at, we want to increase those. How many slots you want to crease to us? Six hour day, and then how many programs do we want to be serving new and different children? And so I think there are ways to think about it. And if we truly understood the amount of money, if we had the I hat, we had the full funding numbers. I think this group could come up with a really dynamite recommendation that we could put forth. Well, I think that's what we're all interested in and not keep repeating the same thing over and over again. It's not working right. And with new funding opportunities, it does give you recommended opportunities to recommend different systems. It won't be comprehensive unless you do that, it still will be siloed. So I think having them hear it sounds like you have some other guests for March lined up. It's wonderful. But those are the timing of it. Haiti as you know, it's all condensed, right? So recommendations have to happen quickly and have to be approved, thought through. So then they can actually be implemented in the next fiscal year. And it's always a quick turn around time to get things together. But the fact that people are listening and want to get feedback from providers and folks who were out there on the lines doing it. I mean, that's that's the people that need to be their voices have to be heard. So I'm really happy. And Leah, I was right there with you with infants and toddlers. I think you all know my love and admiration for infants and toddlers as well. Where we're focused on preschool. But if we don't focus on infants and toddlers, we're going to have a really good team. You see a gap there. So I'd love to see some additional funding for that, but we'll work on one thing at a time. But it's a I mean, I have to I mean, I hope you all know that there's a special education panel with the Early Childhood Council happening at 1030. So I hope many of you are popping over to that to hear from panelists about how we can truly move the needle on inclusion. Excited about that opportunity to hear from our panelists. But LEA or any is there any other quick updates that or questions that you all have? I know this like last minute, four minutes suddenly have to go, but or maybe in March, Debbie and I will be happy to provide a more robust update. If I can't make it, I can give it to her. But would that be helpful on all things off as of early learning, but anyone have a dying question burning that they need to know before we pop over me money button. Okay. I'm glad you're here. I didn't even know you were here. And so Ryan Ryan that signed off and then you popped into my view and I'm like, oh hey, I snuck in. I try once again book, you know, it's a crazy day, but I definitely wanted to hear what providers were saying and caught the tail end of it, but it sounds like, you know, the point was was raised and heard so excellent. Yeah, I am, I think that this, this particular work, being able to give feedback and input to the people who are working with the funding that's coming in is is where this council needs to be. So yeah. Don has played matchmaker today and got to put some put some people together. So so next I'm, I'm Jiang Shan will be here and the Kim, you're always welcome to be here. I know Debbie represents, but of course, we would love to have you here all the time. So yeah, it is 1028. So I know that a bunch of you are gonna, are going to jump off. If anyone has something for an announcement for round robin and they didn't get a chance to give it and they're leaving. You can pop it in the chat or email it to Len and she'll get that out. This meeting is being recorded like it always is. And hopefully there will be no technical difficulties. Blinkers work the last couple times, right, Lin. Okay. Yeah. That UD on the recording. That's who I worked for. But I'm able to make it public and put it up on the on the UD capture and everyone can see it. You know, if you if you want to reference any of this conversation. Okay. Those who were stain, if there's anything that you want to share with the group at the spaghetti. If there's anything you guys want to share with the group at this time for just talk because we are severely smaller now, where's this going to be? The first time we ended? We kept meeting early because I'm okay with bad. Hi everybody. I just wanted to say how I hope everybody's doing well. I was everybody, you know, Razi, write that in a bit. Those meetings like that always give me a glimmer of hope. I'm looking at who's that? Who's still here. I feel like I'm safe. It says here that we're moving we're moving in. Ie, Internet, high-speed world advocacy, which I love. I think that we, I know that we're talking about of the different tenants components of weak AC, but I think that having this advocacy platform built into each meeting is going to fast forward everything. So I'm glad we pulled it off. Again. I That's wonderful. I think it's wonderful. And I think the more people here feel like they're being heard. Again, you're going to get more comprehensive system. I just think I give them move. We need as you said, Patty, I just think we need to move. We kick in this direction. It it solidifies the law force and the what do you call it, influence? Yes. That we possibly could have been what is happening? What I what I heard the opportunity I was like, Oh, yeah, I'm I'm really glad I'm going to stop this recording.

WECEC Meeting 2.17.2022

From Leah Leader February 17, 2022

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Zoom Recording ID: 94705957821 UUID: hesPbuhYT6Ckrjvw9XmOGQ== Meeting Time: 2022-02-17 01:56:04pm

Tags: early childhood educationwilmington early care and education councilredding consortium

Appears In: WECEC Meetings

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