June 12, 2024

Members		Present	Absent			Designee	Present	Absent
Krysti Alexander		x				Jared Weigand		x
Lynn Anderson		x
Angela Blanton		x
Paula Brown			x			Meshel Richmond	x
Peggy Byerly		x
Susie Cain			x
Gayla Carnagey		x				Angela Whisnant		x
Darla Cheek (Vice-Chairperson)		x				Wendy Swatek		x
Jana Cornelius			x			Sarah Albahadily	x
Terri Davis (Chairperson)		x
Kourtney Heard			x			Angie Avila		x
Rose Jackson			x			Shade Jalo Jared Weigand	x	X
Harold Jergenson		x
Jeannie Jones			x			Misty Warfield	x
Keri Laxton			x			Michelle Glover		x
Brittany Lee (Secretary)		x				Carole Turner	x
Amanda Leonhart				x		Jaremy Andrews		x
Sharon Morgan				x		Rori Hodges Yvonne Rossiter		X x
Terry Owens	x
Shanese Peachlyn	x
Kelly Ramsey	x
Eric Shachau	x					Cesiley Bouseman		x
Jennifer Sneed				x
Stephen Weise	x					Teri Blanton		x
Carrie Williams	x					Stephanie Lippert Amber Cuyler		x x
Shaunda Williams				x		Amie McDaniel   Katie Quebedeaux	x	x

Others Present:

CCS / DHS	CCS / DHS	VISITORS	VISITORS	VISITORS
Audrey Charlson	Mitzi Lee	Tammy Maus	Jill Goyette	Jackie Evans
Amy Cornelson	Bonnie Clift	Janell Wheat	Christy Kastl	Mattece Mason
Ashley Ousley	Sodra Shelby	Rachel Proper	Amie McDaniel	Stephanie Krug
Mindy Yoder	Felicia Kurzyniec	Jill Goyette	Gabrielle Moon	Dari Bolner
Denise Anderson	Toni Taylor	Olivia Cosper	Katie Shearer	Kristina Allen
Misti Denton	Jerome White	Teresa Widick	Danielle Luht	Nicole Watkins
		Joan Day	Michelle Glover	Daxten Anderson

Meeting Notices:

·      The Agenda and Meeting Notice was posted on the Secretary of State website on5/15/24.

Call to Order: 

·      Terri Davis called meeting to order at 10:06 am

Approval of Minutes:

·      Darla Cheek made a motion to approve, Kelly Ramsey seconded the approval.  There were no objections.

Standing Subcommittee Reports:

Membership Subcommittee – Gayla Carnagey

·      The membership subcommittee has been evaluating the Child Care Advisory Committee bylaws regarding Purpose, Function, and Membership. We desire to adhere to the bylaws, therefore the evaluation of membership representation is undergoing review.

·      REMINDER: all members serve at the pleasure of the Director of DHS.

·      The bylaws state that CCAC membership at a minimum of 18 members and the majority are DHS-licensed program representatives. Other members include one representative from: Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH), Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), Oklahoma State Fire Marshal (OSFM), Tribal agencies, Child Care Services (CCS).  An Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth (OCCY) representative serves as an ex-officio member. These (and only these) representatives are exempt from term limits.

·      We currently have a 28-member committee, which is much larger than it needs to be. There will be a reduction in membership as terms expire. And those members with no term limits, aside from the 6 listed in the bylaws, will be given term limits. 

·      The membership subcommittee will continue to discuss the changes and the members with expiring term limits who are rolling off will be notified in advance.

·      Terri Davis’s final term to serve as CCAC Chairperson expires today.  We move to elect Kelly Ramsey to serve our new Chairperson for CCAC.  Terri Davis: per bylaws, we vote for the next Chairperson at the following meeting.  It will be added to the September 2024 meeting agenda.

Family Child Care Homes Subcommittee – Shanese Peachlyn

·      This was my first meeting as chairperson; so, we did introductions and had conversation to get to know each other.  I provided an overview of CCAC (many did not know), they shared their experience with QRIS. 

QRIS Subcommittee – Amie McDaniel

·      We met on 5/17/24 and had 49 on the call.  I will share a quick summary.  They expressed concerns with inconsistencies between coaches and licensing workers; want them to get on the same page.  Reducing the star level because not enough master teachers, reducing capacity, felt it was unrealistic.  Centers and Homes are wanting to be able to schedule, currently if capacity is 49 or less you can’t. We shared the new star forms and addressed there needs to be a distinction between 5-star and national accreditation; financially.  National accreditation is a time-tested tool of a quality program. Someone suggested; there are two checklists for QRIS (Rational and Revisions) and suggested to combine them.  Funding issue is a negative impact when reducing stars.  Concerns with harming the industry, staff, $5/day, etc, that is it. 

Child Care Facilities (centers) Standing Subcommittee – Vacant

·      N/A

Residential Standing Subcommittee – Terry Owens

·      We did not have a meeting this quarter due to no interest.

Legislative Update: Denise Anderson

·      Denise stood in for Deanna Nichols and did an overview.  Updates are included in the handout.

Licensing Sanctions Report – Carole Turner

·       Carole provided an overview of the report which is included in the handout. This report covers January 1- March 31, 2024. 

Guest Speaker –

·      AFS representatives Sondra Shelby, Toni Taylor, Jerome White provided a thorough visual presentation. Highlights: their processes and how they have updated for better service, first contact resolution is the goal, S.T.A.R. (service, technology, advancement, renovation), etc.  Q & A followed.

 

Old Business:

·      None.

New Business:

·      Gina McPherson - Gina announced the Scholars for Excellence in Child Care Program is partnering with OPSR to cover the 10% cost (that providers were paying) to take classes to earn a Certificate of Mastery. The Regents are covering the 10% for the students getting two- and four-year college degrees in early childhood education.

·      Carrie Williams: You have probably heard from child care resource and referral during the recent storms over the last few months. OPSR has partnered with Save The Children, and we have some grant funding from them to support child care providers who have storm damage. If you reported that to childcare resource and referral, you will have received the survey, yesterday or today, make sure you respond to that survey so we can make the appropriate grants to programs that were impacted by the storms. We have a couple of other leads on some additional funding outside of Save the Children. If you did not report your storm damage to child care resource and referral, go ahead and do so.

Public Comment: 

·      Amie McDaniel: Can I donate my time?  Terri: you may not donate your time.  Amy: Most of the stuff on the stars I have already reported. 

·      Christy Kastl - I just wanted to talk about the income, I know they are waiving until September for all of our staff that work in childcare, so I just want to make sure that it's something going out because other providers are reaching out to me about their employees and I tell them to call DHS, but they're all really worried because technically right now, for example, one lady called me  asking if her case is good through next May, but I don't know. I think that DHS needs to start sending letters now because there is a lot of educators who are going to be looking for other jobs or need to refinance. 10 day is not enough time. I have a teacher at our center who has 4 kids right now, who are free, and if she is given just 10 days, maybe a week ahead that she now must pay the full tuition for 4 children, she's going to have to reevaluate her life. We need to send out letters now telling them that they will be losing childcare subsidy in September. We really look at what are we are going to do for our teachers, or we are going to start losing them like crazy. That's it's, Thank you.

·      Danielle Luht - I am to piggyback off what Christy just said.  The subsidy for our staff, they are good educators.  I'm not just fighting for our staff, I am flighting for all the educators, I feel that that's one thing that is helping keep them.  How can I retain good teachers if I can’t help them keep this job. 

·      Janell Wheat – First thing, to piggyback on what they’re saying, there is a storm that's coming. Also, the Standing Child Care subcommittee did meet in May and those minutes were submitted to DHS but they were not distributed here.  We talked about several issues there and one of those are the storm that's coming in the fall. It is not just the expiration of the childcare benefit for staff.  The lack of clarification because there's several different things; regarding the extra $5 a day that we've confirmed from legislators it is obviously not in the budget. We had a letter from Brittany earlier this year stating DHS submitted a flat budget that is going to be absorbed for this next year.  How do providers budget and plan not only taking the hit for the staff not getting childcare subsidy, but not knowing the $5/day, are we sending you paid full time for school age, all those types of things.  And to Christy’s point, 10 days is not enough.  So, we've got this storm coming. Also, I would like to address the elephant in the room.  The fact that LCA doesn't have the seat at this table is more than disheartening when you have people willing to serve and they've been serving for over a decade with honor and integrity and bringing the issues from the industry, I would like to know the communication path going forward, if that seat is not represented by the largest child care association in the state of Oklahoma with the largest membership. There is security in the shadows and LCA has always been known to for coming and saying and representing the industry.  So, to me this is a silencing move.  As the board of LCA we do it for free, it is a passion, it is not profession or paycheck.  We get the phone calls, with providers closing their doors or helping them with insurance; I'm still their representative. It's a disservice... (time ended).

·      Nicole Watkins – I wanted to introduce myself.  I am Dr. Nicole Watkins and am the new director at CECPD, taking Susan Kimmel’s place.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  It is nice to meet you all. 

·      Rachel Proper - I am just piggybacking on what everyone has just said.  One thing in addition to the childcare staff, school age priors rates might be a new concept, and more information is needed for providers.  One other side note, in the changeover in the childcare locator and the improvements made to that website and when you are looking at a provider’s record, it is important to distinguish if is a self-report vs a parent’s complaint.

·      Sarah Albahadily – I agree with what everyone is saying, 100%.  We can only grow if we are continuously improving.  I will make some financial concessions to keep my staff because they're excellent educators and so, but it would be great if, you know, they don't have that financial burden. I must charge something since I am part of a franchise, my hands are tied to some extent and the guilt sometimes consumes me. So, the funding that has been happening, has been excellent. I can see the relief every pay period when I'm not deducted from their paycheck, so I really hope that they do something to extend it in some capacity.  Not as heavy, just a few things.  You might see our conference is July 27^th, at Northeastern in Tulsa.  Early bird rates ended yesterday, but if you visit online, you really want to go and just find me, I am happy to extend that rate.  The 1st Thursday of every month we do an online training. It's free for members and $10.00 for nonmembers and then register online. It's not always necessarily just childcare related, I know in October I'm hosting that training is going to about your personality types, how to work with other people, and we'll give some childcare examples.  All a little bit lighter and fun. We have an excellent new business manager who updated our website, it's clean and nice.  She is super responsive. Our social media is more present as well. 

·      Tammy Maus – I would just like to say that the excuse that the committee is too big is just that, an excuse.  It is a retaliatory move, and it is aimed to silence the voices of LCA and the childcare business owners and the families that we represent and anyone who disagrees with the given narrative or brings concerns. We have served this committee with honor and integrity for over a decade. This saddens me and it is appalling. 

·      Teresa Widick – I have a few questions about QRIS, I have reached out to my Licensing provider and have gone up that chain.  Do you know the intent behind a master teacher having to sign off on another master teacher lesson plan?  That is what I was told by Licensing. The other thing is we were approved for our 5-star, and we are an accredited facility, but when our Licensing worker came out, she said she finally had a chance to look over the policies and procedures and had concerns.  I am wondering why now when we were approved back then? 

Next Meetings:

·      Wednesday, September 11, 2024, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation

·      Wednesday, December 11, 2024, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation

Meeting adjourned at 11:01 am

Darla Cheek made a motion to adjourn, Carrie Williams seconded the motion.  There were no objections.