Our Policy Council Leads the Way in Charleston, South Carolina

The active engagement of parents in Head Start programs is the reason why Head Start has enjoyed such wonderful success in preparing children for their public school education. At East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, we have always depended upon our parents to guide us on how best to prepare their children to succeed in school. Today, in Charleston, South Carolina, the Policy Council of East Coast Migrant Head Start Project completed its second day of important work in support of ECMHSP’s school readiness Head Start mission.

Day one of the Policy Council meeting began with the meetings of the Direct Services Committee and the Delegate Agency Committee. Both committees accomplished much. The Direct Services Committee focused its attention on revisions to ECMHSP’s Selection Criteria. The Selection Criteria is important in every Head Start program. It is particularly important at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project because prioritizing services to farmworker families is essential when families face such wide-ranging and significant challenges.

The Delegate Agency Committee covered a variety of topics specific to each one of our three delegate agencies. Perhaps most importantly, the Delegate Agency enjoyed a rich conversation about the new families who would qualify for services as a result of the expanded definition of qualifying “agricultural labor” under the revised Head Start Performance Standards.

In the afternoon, four separate committee meetings were held: the Fiscal Committee, the Governance Committee, the Child & Family Health Committee, and the Planning Committee. The Governance Committee tackled revisions to the Center Level Governance Manual. To accomplish this work, the Governance Committee enlisted the support of employees from throughout the organization and Governance Committee would like to thank each and every one of them for traveling to Charleston to support us: Juana Rodriguez Cruz (La Familia Center, FL); Celia Rodriguez (Long Creek Center, NC); Cathy Cobb (Bladen County, NC); Michael Edmonds (South Carolina); Marilyn Torres (Florida – West); Dora Sanders (Florida West); Jenny Guzman (North Carolina); Angel Casiano (Lakeland, FL), and Patty Kingery (Raleigh, NC). The Governance Committee intends to present its revised manual to the Policy Council in August for approval and it will be implemented with the opening of the Florida centers in the fall.

Thanks to all of the productive committee work (and to the ever-efficient Maria Rodriguez and Maria Hernandez), the Policy Council meeting on day two moved quickly and smoothly. There were a number of important approval items addressed by the Policy Council, including the Early Head Start refunding application which is due on June 1, 2017.

May 10th was Mother’s Day in Mexico and we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge all of our Policy Council moms who were away from their families during this important day of recognition. We are so grateful for your sacrifice. We also want to acknowledge the dedicated service of Community Representative, Rhonda Povich. Rhonda’s volunteer service to ECMHSP comes to an end with this May meeting. We will miss her.