Barbara,

I do remember the parent's meeting that you mentioned, but I also
remember your office as well as the City Council telling us that you
would slow down the process, look into other alternatives, consider the
parent input and explore the matter further.

Obviously you wasted everyone's time, including the city council by not
doing any of the above. If Belle Haven is over staffed, that is a
situation that you artificially created by staffing the center with
temporary teenage rec leaders that are there to earn college units
instead of keeping a permanent, dedicated worker like Vanessa.

I understand that MCC has a 102 children, but they also have a budget
for their own program assistant.

In regards to Vanessa not being qualified, I'd like you to expand on
that please. According to licensing and the state regulations it seems
to me as though she's qualified. I'd love to meet with you and go over
this. Vanessa has 27 years of experience and a 4 year bachelor's degree,
while our current program coordinator has 5 years experience and no
college degree - so please explain what more she needs, and what it
would require to obtain that. If in fact Vanessa does need additional
credentials I am informed by state licensing that she could take the
position and have one year to complete any necessary additional
training.
 
I thought that there were very strong counter arguments, that should not
be ignored and I was under the impression that our parents meeting would
be an opportunity for us to discuss this issues and give input and not
be commanded to except your decisions. The entire time we've been under
the false impression that our voice actually mattered, when in reality
it didn't. It seems like we're back at square one, and everyone's time
was wasted along the way.
 
Please let me know as soon possible when we can meet and further discuss
this issue.
 
Thank you for being responsive.
 
Carmelite

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

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 14:19:52 2007