More early childhood discussions

Kids that leave us -- families leave us PRE-K. We know that we need outreach efforts at the early childhood area. If we can hook families pre-k then we can keep them.

[Are the families most likely to leave the ones that really qualify for early childhood programs? No answer to that one.]

We have a staff member that is going into high needs areas.

[Crowd is wanting them to move on.]

No questions from John or Lynn or Linda. What other questions or comments.

Linda: No doubt that early childhood education is the way to go. Experience kids when she was younger that were much more competent than she was growing up. We have children with very specific needs making a transition from FO to OV. I had difficulty connecting with kids that were much more advanced and became disengagged.

I want to know the details of what we are going to do.

Principal at FO: I don't think we have the details. How do we build the community and support the transition? I believe it is working with the communities. We do not speak on their behalf. I think it is on our radar. [Of course why didn't they bring us in before?]

Linda: We haven't seen or hear a lot from parents in FO. We've had 100s of parents from the west side. It is disappointing to me that we do not see parents from minorities. How are we going to engage them? How are we going to engage parents from OV and FO? How do we make this happen.

Sharon: In school mentoring model. Advocates that do outreach with parents. Work with students that need a relationship from a positive adult. Provide support for teachers and students in responsive classroom model.

[People are getting more upset -- much more than in previous meetings. People are feeling that there are a lot of non-answers. ]

Training for leadership group in area of having courageous conversation. How racism influcences education and create a climate that engages parents?

Linda: Hope that training is around those that do not look like us. Our thoughts, whether positive or negative, are going to lead to making [self fulfilled prophecies]. Appreciate difficult conversations and diversities training [laughs - as she said it a bit sarcastically] we need to go deeper than courageous conversations. In talking with people from community there is a denial that there is even racism in the community. We need to work on our attitudes and be courageous enough to admit that it is there and that bias is there for the sake of the children we serve.

Speaker: The concerns are very valid. We are looking at planning over an extended period of time. There is a possibility of deeper and deeper conversations. The staff is interested in learning about children that live in a culture of poverty. We realize the need for this.

We are committed to being a part of the transition.

Linda: Embracing all of this with compassion. That's my final comment about this.