Barbara,

I just heard from a newspaper reporter that Vanessa will be moved to the
Menlo Children's Center as of Friday February 23rd. Is this information
correct? If so am I completely appalled at lack of respect that your
office continues to show our parents. We have been requesting
information about Vanessa at every chance that we get - and it's very
disturbing to know that the newspaper is aware of the changes before we
are. These are our children and we deserve more respect than that. I
made it clear during our meetings that if Vanessa was moved I would
remove my child from the program, and I feel that it's extremely unfair
that the parents aren't given sufficient notice of these changes.
 In addition I feel like we have been betrayed by your office and by the
Menlo Park City Council. During our last city council meeting we were
told that no changes would be made immediately and that they were other
options that would be considered. Last I heard, was that they would "get
back to us" with more information at a later time. When is that
time...becuase I haven't received any more information...

Once yourself, Mike and Natasha have gone over my concerns in my
previous email, I'd appreciate a time for us all to speak in person. As
a resident and a parent I don't feel as though our needs are being met
and something needs to be done about that.
 
I will look forward to hearing from you in response to my initial email,
and my request for a meeting.
 
Thank you,
Carmelite

"George, Barbara S" <BGeorge@menlopark.org> wrote:

Hello Carmelite:
 
I just read your email. I was out on Friday and Monday. Mike is off
this week. You bring up some concerns that we do need to address. What
I would like to do is have Mike, Natasha and I get together and address
these issues and get back to you. That will be next week. Will that
work for you? Thank you for your time and consideration, I sincerely
appreciate it.
 
Regards,
Barbara

-----Original Message-----
From: workingforchange@yahoo.com [mailto:workingforchange@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 3:21 PM
To: bgeorge@menlopark.org; mataylor@menlopark.org
Subject: Belle Haven School-Age Child Care Program

Barbara/Mike,

I am parent at the Belle Haven School-Age Child Care Program who
attended the "parent meeting" that was held at the Onetta Harris Senior
Center on Tuesday, February 13th.

While I appreciate your efforts at putting together a parent's meeting,
I would like you to be aware that the result was far from satisfactory
and I am completely disappointed at the turn out and events that took
place at your meeting. I'm sure you're aware that these parent meetings
are useless unless parents actually show up and give input, so it was
disappointing to see so few parents. I hope that in the future your team
exerts a more genuine effort in organizing successful parent meetings.

I have a list of concerns that I would like you to address at your
earliest convenience:

1. One of the main issues presented by the parents in attendance
was that there was not sufficient advance notification about the
meeting. After speaking with many of the parents in the program I found
that their reason for not attending was simply because they did not
know. That is unacceptable. Please let me know how plan to ensure that
more parents are aware of future meetings with enough advance notice for
them to attend.
2. The structure of the meeting was not very welcoming for the few
parents who were in attendance. Please let me know how you plan to
restructure the meetings so that the parents who do participate actually
have a voice that counts, rather than being sat around a table an talked
to.
3. On the issue of Vanessa Carlisle, you mentioned that her move
was already set in stone and the tradeoff for her leaving was that the
Belle Haven area would gain more benefits to their Senior Center, a new
Program Coordinator and other things that would benefit the community.
Please let me know exactly what these planned changes are and when they
will come into effect.
4. If you remove Vanessa Carlisle form our Program, who will
replace Natasha Watkins when she is on maternity leave?

Thank you in advance,

Carmelite
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Received on Thu Feb 22 11:18:55 2007