Meeting Minutes July 2018.

Here are the meeting minutes from our informal summer planning meeting on July 18, 2018. 

*** Our next, informal summer planning meeting will be at the Longfellow Parkway Pizza on August 21st from 7:30 - 9:00. Please join us! ***

Thank You Again Parkway Pizza in Longfellow!

Many thanks again to Parkway Pizza in Longfellow for selecting us to be part of their Dine Out for Schools program three years in a row!

This year, we used Parkway's donation to host a couple of really engaging events.

Every 4th Monday of the month, every dollar that you spend at the Parkway Pizza in Longfellow will benefit ECFE. Thanks Parkway!

PS - If you've never had Parkway's Pizza, please come join us for our informal summer planning meeting on August 21st from 7:30 - 9:00!

Did You Know That ECFE Fees Are Based on Your Family's Income?

ECFE programs are unique to Minnesota, and one of the great things about ECFE is that, as the Minneapolis ECFE class brochure says, "Fees are based on income, and no one is turned away for inability to pay."

Based on feedback from parents, we have been working with the ECFE administration to make the registration process easier for folks that are unable to pay any amount, or who might only be able to make a partial payment at registration-time. And those changes are now live on the registration website! The screenshot below shows the new dropdown-list options of: "Unable to pay at this time" and "I can make a partial payment." 

Many thanks to the administration for working hard to implement this change! If you are interested in helping make similar changes to improve the Minneapolis ECFE program, please join us at an upcoming meeting!

Register for Fall 2018 ECFE!

Registration for Fall classes is open now, and will be open through July 23rd. The lottery will be run on July 25th and classes will begin August 29th. Click here for the catalog and here to register!

We Changed Our Name! (And Our URL!)

Up until 2014, there were three ECFE "Parent Advisory Councils", which were usually referred to as "PACs". In the 1990s and early 2000s, there may have been an even greater number of PACs in Minneapolis, but those details have since been lost to time. In, or around 2014, the East PAC was down to just one site location due to a few of their schools being remodeled, and some other now forgotten factors. In addition, most of the children of the parents on the East PAC had aged out of ECFE, so the East PAC decided to shut down, and merged itself in to the South PAC. This left just the North PAC and the South PAC. After continuing to operate autonomously for a couple of years, both PACs decided to pool their resources and become a single, city-wide Parent Advisory Council.

After this merger, in February of 2018, the newly unified PAC decided that the term PAC had too many political connotations, and that it would be better if we were known as the Minneapolis ECFE Parents Council. Of course, our old url ecfesouthpac.com no longer made sense, so we decided to also change our url to the new and improved mplsecfeparentscouncil.org. Have a look around, and let us know what you think - or if you find any broken links!

Meeting Minutes - May 17, 2018

Here are the meeting minutes from May 17, 2018.

Talking With Children About Race Speaker Event Wrap-up

Many thanks to Alicia Sojourner, Bethany Janson, and the 60+ parents that came out for the Talking With Children About Race event on Thursday night! Alicia sparked a lot of great conversation, and it seemed like everyone wished that we had had more than just ninety minutes of conversation. Some of the questions that we all asked ourselves:

- When did we first have a conversation about race or racism?
- What were the messages you received from your family about race?
- Who did you play with?
- Did your teachers always look like you?
- Did protagonists in books, movies, and television look like you and your family?

Like many parenting topics, Alicia reinforced that talking about race with children is most effective when we talk with our children early, and often. If you’re interested in learning more about Alicia and her work, follow Alicia on her Facebook page.

And please join us at our speaker events next school year, details will be announced over on our Facebook page.