Whoops! Mississippi Early Learning Alliance is Still Wrong! Gaslighting?

Whoops! Mississippi Early Learning Alliance is Still Wrong!

Although child care providers selected to represent the private child care industry on the State Early Childhood Advisory Council (SECAC) have had no official confirmation of their appointments to SECAC, the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance team very recently sent out two incorrect notices of this new membership.

Tuesday, March 9, 2021, the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance non-profit team jumped out ahead of any formal announcement from the Governor’s Office and introduced child care small business representatives by Mississippi Supreme Court District – which, of course, was wrong.

Gaslighting?

Wednesday, March 10, 2021, the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance non-profit team distributed another announcement saying, “Whoops. We made a mistake,” and provided a listing of child care small business representatives from each Mississippi Congressional District. Although they did not list the facility address for each as I have done, I can only conclude that they did look into each child care facility address. How else could they make the following revision to the MELA/MELR announcement without researching?

Tamara Smith
Director
Little Samaritan Montessori Center (162 Millsaps Ave, Jackson, MS 39202)
3rd Congressional District

Lori Rolison
Director
Little People’s Christian Academy (17065 W Wortham Rd, Saucier, MS 39574)
4th Congressional District

Jennifer Calvert
Director
Calvert’s Learning Center (530 MS-145, Aberdeen, MS 39730)
Lead Partner for Amory Early Learning
Collaborative
1st Congressional District

Dean Bobo
Director
Magnolia Kindergarten (995 Eureka Rd, Batesville, MS 38606)
2nd Congressional District

Regardless, that information is just not true.

Please note from the link above that Little Samaritan Montessori Center is not in the 3rd Congressional District – it is in the 2nd and Magnolia Kindergarten is in the 2nd.

I am excited that Little Samaritan Montessori will have a seat at the table. I am certified in the Montessori method of instruction by the St. Nicholas Training Centre, London, and think it is the absolute best of the best!

It is perfectly fine to allow the State Early Childhood Advisory Council (SECAC) to expand the number of child care small businesses to serve. (We are confident that both representatives selected from the 2nd Congressional District will serve our industry and little children well, for they always have.)

Therefore, we will be working with legislators to submit our recommendation for the 3rd Congressional District to the Governor while leaving our beloved Dean and Tamara in place.

We hope there will be no interference from demagogues and early learning professionals in that process. The Child Care Development Fund often advises policy makers to seek input from area child care organizations in such matters and that is all we are asking.

As for the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance, perhaps it should just sit this one out.

MELA Team member April May, formally of Building Blocks, formally of the Mississippi Community College Board, formally of SECAC, (we recognize the same leadership, over and over again, but in different locations, offices, agencies and capacities) played a very active and significant role on SECAC in identifying child care representatives who also participated in Building Blocks to represent the whole of the child care industry on SECAC focus groups and in the development of the ADOPTED Child Care Development Fund State Plan.

We need no lecture on the role of SECAC. We know all too well how it has worked out for us. We have lived it!

To learn more, please click on the links below as you have time to do and read all:

Miss. Code Ann. § 37-21-53. (e) A representative of local providers of early childhood education and care services from each congressional district;

Failed: AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-21-53 to abolish SECAC and remove all child care small business representatives by establishing an Interagency Advisory Council.

Failed: MS-HB208: “Mississippi Universal Prekindergarten Program Act of 2018”. To Prescribe The Manner By Which Payments Will Be Made To Prekindergarten Programs Whether Such Programs Be Offered Through The Public School District Of Residence, An Outside District Or Through A Prequalified Private Provider; 

Embattled: Meaningful HHS/State Court oversight is overdue. The rating processes, type-specific evaluation scales and points needed to achieve and maintain the required Standard Center designation, however, have still not been identified, disclosed,

Failed: Remove 3134 Children from Licensed Child Care? A PreK grant prepared by Rachel Canter of Mississippi First.

Failed: State Board of Education member Danny Spreitler of Amory has spearheaded one of the groups that got state money. He questioned the move, saying he feared it would squeeze out private child care centers in favor of offering 4-year-old preschool only in public schools and Head Start facilities.

Holly Spivey Chooses to GEER Up Without Child Care Again and Again

We thought after the most recent EPIC FAIL of SECAC in the implementation of its  ‘Family Based Unified and Integrated Early Childhood System,’ (which is the Standard and Comprehensive Child Care Center application), SECAC members including Holly Spivey would be too embarrassed to continue to exclude and snub recognized child care leadership in the coordination of all programs providing early care and learning in Mississippi.

No kidding y’all. If I had been a complicit member in the better than usual dysfunction of the State Early Childhood Advisory Council that allegedly participated in allegedly spending all or part of $10.6 million in federal seed money by taking or traveling with Head Start organizations and those seeking SECAC’s Comprehensive ratings down to the coast for what amounted to an all expenses paid, spouses included, fabulous vacation (with a speaker each morning and an alleged final pay out program participation “bonus”) in order to allegedly spend up the ten or so million because the final grant to be submitted or carried out by Mississippi didn’t quite get finished, I don’t think I would be posturing my position to trump the legislative accomplishments of recognized child care leadership any time soon. LOL! (Please click here to read the announcement of the $10,6 million award.)

(Suffice it to say the SECAC Comprehensive model and the work of SECAC focus groups – requiring Masters degrees for CCDF child care providers- LOL – was a bust. Due to the lack of transparency, some of these widespread allegations and facts may need further clarification and trust me when I say I will be happy to publish this story again if anyone has anything more to add and share! A PEER review or audit of SECAC’s 20018 -2020 activities and expenses and 2018 – 2020 Mississippi Head Start re-competes would be greatly welcomed. LOL!)

Nothing has changed. No lessons have been learned. They know not what they know not.. They know not that they need our help.

In any case, Mississippi deserves our help!

At least, that is what we thought when our child care organizations worked tirelessly to lobby and secure strong representation from our organizations to the SECAC council.in Mississippi’s PreK Collaborative Act.

We believed and still believe that providers who have worked in isolation or not participated in our efforts may not understand the history, the detailed issues, the contempt at SECAC for providers serving low-income children, or understand the state actor role defined for child care participation on SECAC which is to smile, enjoy the recognition they have given you by selecting you and speak when spoken to. LOL!

Colleagues, Capitol participants, friends: you should not be surprised that our organizations will not have representation on SECAC…once again Holly Spivey, formally of the Governor’s Office on Head Start, and Nita Thompson, the state Head Start Liaison, are gearing up to seat child care providers of their choice, without input from us…just like Laurie Smith did.

I am disappointed to report that Head Start representatives are selecting the child care representation to serve on SECAC. I wasn’t even suppose to know that or be able to report that to you, for the memo announcing the child care appointments were sent out only to Head Start organizations. So, there we are.

We will continue our advocacy, nevertheless so do not be discouraged. Enjoy the show! Those providers will soon learn that for those of us who made it possible for them to have that seat, our experiences with SECAC have been like sitting on an iceberg – but we will continue to place our comments upon the deaf ears of SECAC nobility from the gallery… in our coats! (We are still working to redress this injustice. Don’t forget to call John Hines. We miss Toby Barker. He is now the proud mayor of Hattiesburg and is doing good work there.)

As for GEER funding, like so many of you, many Delta Licensed Providers members wished to apply and asked Carol Burnett of MILICCI to develop a grant for us to help fund the virtual education classrooms open child care facilities are providing in the absence of public school and Head Start in person learning – mostly unavailable since the start of the pandemic. The notice provided by Holly Spivey allowed one week to submit a letter of intent and one week to submit the completed grant application. When Carol submitted the letter of intent, however, the response came back from Rachel Canter of Mississippi First. We went no further. (Click here to read of our experiences with Rachel Canter – the public school PreK advocate.) We believed few, if any child care providers would be receiving funding from her and realized that the short notice to us likely meant the true award of grants had already been decided. I am sorry for you and all the hard work you put in and sorry to report that we know of no child care programs who received GEER funding but for one legislator’s church.

We were so right in our assumption, in fact, the recent announcement of round two GEER grant applications didn’t even provide notice to the child care industry. LOL!

So let me say this. You are wonderful to serve school aged children in virtual classrooms at your centers and to do it for part time child care fees. Thank you for the donation of your services to low-income families and to Mississippi’s workforce support system during this time of crisis.

As Mr. Rogers told us to do, look for the helpers!

The Governor has appointed a good man with a missionary’s heart as the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services! Mr. Bob Anderson, Chad, Vicky, Laura, Angela and Lydia will take care of us and support us in every way possible! (Dr. Cathy Grace, Carol Burnett and Andrea Sanders have also been wonderful to us during this pandemic and will help us all they can!) They have demonstrated that they do not hate low-income child care providers! Lend your support to them!

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

We will be meeting very soon.

Debbie

Restructuring of the State Early Childhood Advisory Council

There are administrative procedures (administrative law) that competent state actors and SECAC members or nominees agreeing to serve on any advisory council are just expected to know, study, learn, find out and adhere to that require more individual responsibility and duty than popularity.

Miss. Code Ann. § 25-43-1.101. Administrative Procedures Act. This chapter is intended to provide a minimum procedural code for the operation of all state agencies when they take action affecting the rights and duties of the public.

Miss. Code Ann. § 25-43-1.102. Definitions. (i) “Rule” means the whole or a part of an agency regulation or other statement of general applicability that implements, interprets or prescribes: (i) Law or policy, or (ii) The organization, procedure or practice requirements of an agency.  That would include identification of the quality scoring scales SECAC planned to use to expel MDHS child care providers from the CCDF program, but SECAC never identified or disclosed the scoring scales by which we would be evaluated. The collective conduct of the Council was both mentally cruel and blatantly unlawful. I have no confidence in the current SECAC membership as a result.

Miss. Code Ann. § 25-43-4.103. Small Business Regulatory Review Committee; duties, relation to Mississippi Development Authority, composition, terms, meetings, quorum. (b) Review any rule promulgated by a state agency for which notice has been given by the agency to the committee that the proposed rule has or may have an economic effect upon small business and make recommendations to the agency and or the Legislature regarding the need for a rule or legislation. https://www.sos.ms.gov/content/documents/reg_enf/admin/APA_Statute.pdf

Miss. Code Ann. § 37-21-53. Creation of Council; purpose; membership. (2) The membership of the State Early Childhood Advisory Council (SECAC) in accordance with Public Law 110-134, shall include the following members to be appointed by the Governor: (e) A representative of local providers of early childhood education and care services from each congressional district; https://codes.findlaw.com/ms/title-37-education/ms-code-sect-37-21-53.html

Part (e) was not originally in this legislation developed by Rachel Cantor.  Delta Licensed Providers, Child Care Directors Network, MLiCCI and Grassroots successfully worked with House Representatives Toby Barker and John Hines to include the language.

We were at the Capitol every day. We filled the gallery. Some discussions were pleasant. Some were not but we held our ground – we fought for and won a seat at the policy making table only to be stripped of this representation by Lori Smith and April May who recommended and appointed a provider who had been in business only seven months and others who participated in Building Blocks.

Those providers “kissed the ring” and never demanded identification of the quality scoring scales – but the state actors liked them!

Following suit, Holly Spivey is selecting her choice of nominations to move forward to the Governor. She has also left us one short. There are four Congressional Districts in Mississippi – not three!

It was the intent of John Hines and Toby Barker and legislators that we be allowed to recommend representatives from child care provider groups and that one be appointed from each Congressional District.

I am sure John Hines would like to hear from child care providers and that he would happily assist better representation for us. You can leave a message for him at the Capitol Switchboard. The number is (601) 359-3770.

Also ask SECAC Executive Director Andrea Sanders to accept a recommendation to amend the SECAC policies to include language requiring nominations from specific child care organizations we identify. You may write to her at andrea.sanders@mdcps.ms.gov .

Either way, we must insist that our work to have a voice is respected and not trampled on any further.

We are all in this time!

(We are fine with one nominee. She is privately owned and operated and serves as President of a great child care organization on the coast.)

Spend Clean Grant By December 30th or Loose It!

If you are participating in the CCC grant (Clean Grant) through Shared Services, you will find that a signficant amout of additional funding was recently added to your Staples account. (Wow!)

Now, in order to justify future grants to Child Care from future stimulus programs awarded to Mississippi, WE MUST ALL SPEND EVERY DIME BY DECEMBER 30, 2020.

Our accounts will be dissoled on December 31, 2020.

Do not delay!

Spend It By December 30th!

After My Own Heart!

Dr. Cathy Grace has announced a free, self-paced, online class that will award me with six hours of staff development upon completion! That is perfect for me because I can work without fear or worry of being interrupted or without fear of being over active but glued to the screen for hours on end – I have several days to complete my lessons! I can work quietly during the nap period at work or from my own home if I wish! (I like to read in bed each night to unwind, so this outlet will be relaxing for me as well as useful.)

It is about the emotional trauma many of our children live with and how we may become better prepared to recognize it and guide and support our children safely through it…which is particularly significant during this time.

I even think it might help us to better cope with the anxiety and stress we deal with in this industry each and every day, too! We can then better support each other as well!

INTERACTIONS AT THE HEART OF HEALING-PART I begins November 2, 2020 and allows time through November 20, 2020 to complete the course work.

Click the following link to register for this class today! (Limited Space)

https://nmec.msresaservices.com/categories-EC/events-heart-of-healing-I

Always remember…

Successful, Free, At-Home School Readiness Program Opportunity for Parents

“Waterford is a wonderful company to work with. I have used the Waterford Program at my school for five years and have seen great achievement in my students. I recommend it highly!” Deloris Suel

Dr. Latasha Hadley has announced a free, at home school readiness program for children age four who will be entering kindergarten next year which is now available to parents:

Waterford UPSTART only requires twenty minutes per day, five days per week!

Please print and share flyers with your clients and encourage them to register no later than November 1, 2020.

Please scroll down to see the Spanish text below.
Desplácese hacia abajo para ver el texto en español a continuación.

Programa de preparacion escolar exitoso, gratuito y en el hogar Oportunidad para los padres

Waterford UPSTART solo requiere veinte minutos al día, cinco días a la semana.

Wonderful Training Opportunities Starting!

Ole Miss

In recent days, wonderful training opportunities have been announced that you will not wish to miss.

You all know that I think the Frank Porter Graham Group of the University of North Carolina is the “Bees Knees” and so I wish to first present this training opportunity scheduled in collaboration with the North MS Education Consortium (Ole Miss) for Friday morning beginning at 10:00 AM.

If you have participated in online courses with the North MS Education Consortium before, all you need to do is to log in and register:

FROM ALL TO EACH AND EVERY: RESOURCES AND PRACTICES FOR SUPPORTING CHILDREN OF DIVERSE CULTURES, LANGUAGES, AND ABILITIES AND THEIR FAMILIES

Click on the link below and review all upcoming trainings including an introduction to CLASS by Dr. Cathy Grace.

These particular courses are free of charge and are offered online.

Southern

The Missisisppi Early Childhood Inclusion Center located on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi is also offering an array of quality training opportunities free of charge, one of which is scheduled for Tuesday Night from 6 PM – 8 PM:

Storytelling: Helping Children Identify Emotions After a Crisis

Look around this site for many other worthwhile training classes as well.

Let’s learn something! Sign up today!