ECFE Parent Council Meeting 4/25

The April ECFE Parent Council meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 25th. Meetings take place from 7:00-8:30 pm, held at MPS Wilder School at 34th & Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407 (on the south side of the Wilder Complex. Enter through Door #2.)

The Minneapolis ECFE Parents Council is a group of parents, grandparents, and other adults in ECFE. Join us in supporting the ECFE programs at all of the ECFE sites in the following ways:

-Increase awareness of ECFE.
-Raise money for the ECFE classrooms.
-Advocate for ECFE in the community and the legislature.
-Coordinate events that bring families together.
-Provide feedback to ECFE Administrators on classes.


ECFE Parent Council FAQs
Q: Why is volunteering for the Parents Council important?
A: We think that ECFE is a valuable program that we want to continue to thrive, and to be around for our children's children. Volunteering with the Parents Council allows us to support ECFE directly and achieve that goal. The ECFE Parent Council is a 501(c)/nonprofit organization.

Q: Do Parents Council members get priority when signing up for ECFE classes?
A: This is a great benefit for joining Parents Council! While Parents Council members are not guaranteed a spot in any class, they do move up the priority list, and generally get their first or second class choice.

Q: May I bring my child(ren)?
A: Yes! Feel free to bring infants into meetings - and to nurse/bottle feed. Young children are welcome, too. ECFE childcare is available for them in a different room, but on the same floor. If you would like to request free childcare, please call 612-668-2127 by noon on the Monday before the Parents Council meeting. Otherwise, childcare may not be available.

Q: May non-Parents Council members come to meetings?
A: Absolutely. All ECFE participants—Parents Council members, or not—are welcome, can participate during the open forum/check-in time to raise concerns, and to ask questions.

info@mplsecfeparentscouncil.org

4/10 Parent Council Meeting RESCHEDULED

Due to the Winter Storm Warning, the team has decided to cancel our 4/10 Mpls ECFE Parent Council meeting. 

The meeting is tentatively rescheduled for Thursday, April 25, 2019, 7:00-8:30 pm at Wilder. RSVP on Facebook.

 We are hoping for a big turn out--and will vote to elect our leadership team (e.g., chair/co-chairs, treasurer, secretary) at our rescheduled April meeting; please consider submitting your name to lead our Parent Council in 2019-2020. The PC is eager to receive your input and continue our valuable community outreach

Join the MPS Early Childhood Education Council!

Starting this school-year, the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Council will be meeting immediately prior to the ECFE Parents Council Meetings on four dates: October 10, December 12, February 13, April 10.

ECE is the umbrella organization under which ECFE, MPS Preschool (High Five, Alphabet Soup, and Three School), Teen Parenting, and Screening all sit.

The ECE Council will assist Minneapolis Public Schools leadership in developing, planning and monitoring all Early Childhood Education programming. Please join us!

Childcare check-in & Dinner will be from 5:30 - 6:00.
The ECE Council Meeting will be from 6:00 - 7:00.

See our meetings page for more logistical details.

Did You Know That ECFE Fees Are Based on Your Family's Income?

ECFE programs are unique to Minnesota, and one of the great things about ECFE is that, as the Minneapolis ECFE class brochure says, "Fees are based on income, and no one is turned away for inability to pay."

Based on feedback from parents, we have been working with the ECFE administration to make the registration process easier for folks that are unable to pay any amount, or who might only be able to make a partial payment at registration-time. And those changes are now live on the registration website! The screenshot below shows the new dropdown-list options of: "Unable to pay at this time" and "I can make a partial payment." 

Many thanks to the administration for working hard to implement this change! If you are interested in helping make similar changes to improve the Minneapolis ECFE program, please join us at an upcoming meeting!

We Changed Our Name! (And Our URL!)

Up until 2014, there were three ECFE "Parent Advisory Councils", which were usually referred to as "PACs". In the 1990s and early 2000s, there may have been an even greater number of PACs in Minneapolis, but those details have since been lost to time. In, or around 2014, the East PAC was down to just one site location due to a few of their schools being remodeled, and some other now forgotten factors. In addition, most of the children of the parents on the East PAC had aged out of ECFE, so the East PAC decided to shut down, and merged itself in to the South PAC. This left just the North PAC and the South PAC. After continuing to operate autonomously for a couple of years, both PACs decided to pool their resources and become a single, city-wide Parent Advisory Council.

After this merger, in February of 2018, the newly unified PAC decided that the term PAC had too many political connotations, and that it would be better if we were known as the Minneapolis ECFE Parents Council. Of course, our old url ecfesouthpac.com no longer made sense, so we decided to also change our url to the new and improved mplsecfeparentscouncil.org. Have a look around, and let us know what you think - or if you find any broken links!

Meeting Minutes - September 22nd, 2016

Here are the minutes from our kickoff meeting. We spent a lot of time on new member orientation, which was good because we had a lot of new members!

If you're interested in joining the PAC, come to our next meeting on October 27th. We have comfortable chairs now!

2016-2017 Meeting Dates

Summer's end seems to be approaching, even if the heat doesn't feel that way. And with that, it's time to make this year's meeting dates official:

• Kick-off Meeting: August 24th, at Five Watt Coffee
• September 22
• October 27
• November 17 (3rd Thursday due to Thanksgiving)
• December 15 (3rd Thursday due to Winter Break)
• January 26
• February 23
• March 23
• April 27
• May 25

Our PAC meetings are usually held on the 4th Thursday of each month at the MPS Wilder School Complex at 34th St & Chicago Ave S. All ECFE-related adult caregivers are welcome at any of our meetings. For more information about childcare, meeting times and location, please see our meetings page.

Also, this calendar of Minneapolis Public School vacation dates might be helpful to you this coming school year: http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/uploads/2016-17_mps_sy_calendar_web.pdf

Our Bylaws

Here is a digital copy of our PAC Bylaws. 

State of Minnesota ECFE PAC Guidelines

Ahead of the May 19th meeting to discuss Goals & Priorities, please read either the Minnesota ECFE PAC Guidelines, or this (shorter) Minnesota ECFE PAC Guidelines Summary.

May Meeting - !!!New Date!!! - May 19th

In order to work around the ECFE Summer Picnic, we will be moving our May meeting from May 26th to May 19th. Same time and place as always. Please join us!

Meeting This Week!

(From Christy)
Just a reminder that our January PAC meeting is this Thursday, January 21st from 7-8:30 pm at Wilder. We'll be discussing our spring events (Cinco de Mayo potluck and Vehicle Day), February Teacher Appreciation Baskets, Advocacy Day, Scholastic Books, and T-shirt sales. Anything else you'd like to add to the agenda, please let Catherine or me know asap.

Also, it is VERY last minute, but if anyone else is interested in joining the Budget Task Force this year, the first meeting is tomorrow night :

Budget Task Force
January 19th and January 26th. At Wilder School from 5 pm to 8pm
(Wilder is on the north east corner of Chicago Ave and 34th street)

If you would like to join, please let me (Christy) know asap and I'll make sure they know you're coming. Right now, we have Trisha Hanson representing South PAC but I'm sure she'd love some SPAC company! (And thanks, Trish, for representing!)

Preschool Information Packets now available for download

If you take a look over at the right hand sidebar, you'll see there's a new "Documents" section right up at the top, where you can peruse, download or print documents created by or relevant to the South PAC. We've got the 2008 and 2009 Preschool Fair information packets available right now, so check it out and pass it along!

Links and Updates

Take a look over at the right hand sidebar - I've just updated it with a bunch of great links to parenting sites, local resources, and PAC member blogs. We want this site to be a resource for Minneapolis parents, so if you know of any fabulous parenting or kid sites that aren't up here, please let me know in the comments and I'll add them!

Here are some other good links for this week:
The CPSIA: Soon to bar kids from libraries? More fallout from the flawed lead-safety legislation.

Baby Food: If breast is best, why are women bottling their milk? An interesting take from The New Yorker on the history and politics of pumping.

The Wonderwheel: Positive Behavior Charts Tips and tricks for encouraging good behavior.

We have a bookstore!

As requested, I have just finished setting up an Amazon.com bookstore specifically for the South PAC. (Note the new tab up top, to the left of the "contact" tab.) We'll get a small kickback on every purchase made through this store, and it's a great place for us to feature our favorite parenting resources. Which is where you come in - I need ideas for books to add to the store! Send me lists of your favorite books related to parenting, either in comments to this post or via email and I'll add them to the store. As you can see, right now I have the books in three categories: Parenting Resources, ECFE Books, and Just for Fun. Take a look at what's there so far and send me your ideas for additions, new categories to add, and any other feedback. Once we get this baby loaded up with a few more books we can start publicizing it in classes and to friends and family. Hope you like the set up!

New Blog Design

So, things are looking a little different around here. Whaddya think? Love it? Hate it? Just sort of confused? Check out the tabs (there are two sets, don't miss the ones in the upper right hand corner) and let me know what you think of everything in comments. I can change colors, add/subtract tabs, edit content, revert to the old design, whatever. Just say the word!