Hello Carmelite:
 
Do you remember the Paren'ts meeting that was held on Tuesday, February 23
starting at 5:30 pm? The second part of the agenda, that all participants
had a copy of, including you had down Vanessa as an item to be discussed.
Dawn and another Mom (Angel, I think) wanted to talk about Vanessa right
from the beginning of the meeting. Mike Taylor asked them to wait until the
appropriate time in the agenda. When we got to that part, Mike announced
that Vanessa would be moving to MCC as of Tuesday, February 20th. When the
questions were being asked regarding "why", I went through the points that
have been discussed before in the meeting with parents in December, which
include:

* The Belle Haven program has 51 children and is overstaffed.
* That MCC has 102 children.
* That Belle Haven program, with Vanessa, has a 1 adult to 7 children
ratio. With Vanessa leaving, it will be 1 adult to 9 children. That even
though the state ratio is 1 adult to 14 children, we will be KEEPING the
ratio of 1 adult to 9 children at Belle Haven. (Carmelite, you and I were
directly talking to each other on this particular question, you were there
during this whole conversation).
* That in answering the question of moving Natasha over to MCC and
leaving Vanessa at Belle Haven, I reiterated (since this has come up before
in a parent meeting) that Vanessa does not have the credentials to be able
to be in Natasha's position. This credentialing is state mandate for the
licensed child care program that we offer.

After I said all of this, Dawn and Angel got up and left. You stayed.
Later, Dawn came in and then you left the meeting. You came back later with
Dawn and then Marcia came in.
 
Vanessa has been off work since last Thursday, Feb. 14th and is supposed to
return to work on Friday, Feb. 23rd. Had she not been off, she would have
reported to MCC on Tuesday, Feb. 20th. Coming to MCC on the 23rd is the ONLY
change from what was told all of you in the meeting on February 13, 2007.

-----Original Message-----
From: workingforchange@yahoo.com [mailto:workingforchange@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:17 AM
To: George, Barbara S; mataylor@menlopark.org
Cc: CITY.COUNCIL@menlopark.org; kjfergusson@menlopark.org;
amcohen@menlopark.org; jcboyle@menlopark.org; racline@menlopark.org;
hgrobinson@menlopark.org
Subject: RE: Belle Haven School-Age Child Care Program

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 12:09:40 2007