Region 10 & Alaska Native T/TA
PIR Program Design and Management Conference Call
Transcript
Moderator: Louise Gill
May 25, 2006
11:00 am CT
((Crosstalk))
Operator:
Excuse me, I'd like to remind all parties, today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.
Ms. Gill, you may begin.
Louise Gill:
Thank you.
Hang on just one second guys.
Woman:
It's okay, Louise
((Crosstalk))
Louise Gill:
Okay.
Like I said this is Louise Gill in Seattle. And we're going to be doing the Program Design in Management sections of the 2006 PIR.I just want to go over a few logistic things first.
Just know that if you printed the PIR out before May 18, you have an old version.They added a question and so they're updated and the new version is out. So, there's just one question that they added and we will go over that today.
Joining me today is Leslie Jenkins from the regional office, a Program Specialist, and then, Pat Brinkman, the state TA Specialist, and Meagan Anderson-Pira. So, the four of us will be on the call.
Meagan and Pat and I will be doing sections of the PIR with you today, and Leslie's here for interpretation and to help us answer any questions that may come up.
Please feel free, if you would like to send your questions in to Renee Andrae, and that is her email -- let's see -- her email is Renee -- R-E-N-E-E dot Andrae -- A-N-D-R-A-E@acf.hhs.gov.So she's online right now if you want to email her questions in case you verbally don't get a chance to ask your questions.
And then, Xtria is not going to be on the call today, some things came up and Kim Keating can't be with us. But if we have any questions for her that has not already been answered by Xtria in the mail outs that we sent to you on Monday, we'll glad to submit those questions and get answers.
So before we get started, are there any questions regarding reporting of the PIR that anyone has?
We have things that I wanted to remind people of is to please mute your phone. And you can mute your phone by hitting star-6.You can also unmute it by hitting star-6. (Unintelligible) Unless you have the capability on your phone to mute, please use that function because it's really hard for us to hear people when we have background noise.
Okay. All right, we'll get started. And then after me will be Pat Brinkman, and I'll let Pat introduce herself, and Meagan Anderson-Pira will follow.
So the first section that we're looking at this morning -- well, let me go back, let me say the purpose of this call.
The purpose of us doing these PIR trainings and conference call with you is to provide you with a necessary information and resources to ensure the accuracy and consistency of your reporting on the PIR.
And so this - I know we've done PIR trainings in the past years and it just seems like the PIR only changes which is the few questions each year but they're still things to be a lot of questions that come up. So we want to be providing you with technical assistance with this as much as we can because it is so important that we have accuracy and consistency across the region, and in AIAN with those programs that we work within the Alaska.So that's the reason we're doing this call.
All right.So this is not going to be really exciting this morning, it's just going through the PIR and answering your questions and looking at the different sections.
So we're going to start with Page 3 of the 2006 PIR General Program Information.
Now the only thing that has changed on this page is Question 16. They are just asking you to please include the approving official's title.They want to know what the title of that person is that's approving the PIR.
So this is pretty basic.Nothing's changed this year.Same grants number, delegate numbers if you use that.
And then we go down to agency described in this report. And this is pretty basic, the same thing you've always put in.
All right, Page Number 4.
The first Question 18 is for grantees only. And this is asking you if you have a number of delegates. That's only grantees with delegates.
Type of agency, Number 19.
Now, we had a question come in yesterday morning that it was from a state university that is a grantee for a Head Start.And they wanted to know where do they put themselves under these categories.
So you really have to look at yourself as a non-profit or for-profit. So if - in that answer, the question for that was private, public non-profit or private, public for profit. And so that's where they would put themselves.
Number 20, agency affiliation.
You want to select the phrase that best describes your agency. And that's pretty self-explanatory there.
Leslie Jenkins:
We'll go back to that question about the university that called in?
Louise Gill:
Yes. This is Leslie by the way.
Leslie Jenkins:
I'm sorry, this is Leslie Jenkins.
Was that a governmental agency that called in?
Louise Gill:
It was a state university.
Leslie Jenkins:
So, my guess would be that that would be (EE) governmental agency.
Louise Gill:
The answer from Xtria yesterday was for them to put themselves under private, public non-profit or private, public for-profit.
Leslie Jenkins:
Interesting.
Louise Gill:
Yeah. And that was Kim, Kim gave them that answer so...
Leslie Jenkins:
Okay. This is how we get into trouble.
Louise Gill:
All right.
Let's turn on ever to Page 5. And Pat are you with us this morning?
Pat Brinkman:
Good morning.I am.Louise Gill:
Good morning. Please introduce yourself, Pat.
Pat Brinkman:
This is Pat Brinkman, and I'm a TA Specialist for Oregon and Washington programs, And like many of you have been completing the PIR for several years.
I'm going to be doing enrollment and program options. And this area can be somewhat confusing so please be willing to ask questions so that we make sure we get everyone doing their correct reporting here.
The first part is the enrollment year. And the enrollment year is defined as the period of time not to exceed 12 months during which a Head Start Program provides center or home-based services to a group of children and their families. And so you have to pick an enrollment year. And this is not your fiscal year so make sure that it is not necessarily your fiscal year.
The next section for this part is funded enrollment for another definition. And that's the number of children and pregnant women in Head Start and Early Head Start that your program was funded to serve for 2005/2006 enrollment year regardless of the funding source.
Report the total the number of children funded to participate in Head Start Program including those paid for by non-ACF fund. And then you put in your funded enrollment.
Are there any questions in that area?
(Linda):
Yes, we have a question.
I'm curious about the enrollment year.Since there's also a performance standard that says we have to be full on the first day of the enrollment year, and there's also instructions about full year options versus part year options, can we possibly have two enrollment years because we have one for full-day and one for part-day?
Pat Brinkman:
Louise, do you know the answer to that one?
Leslie Jenkins:
Yes this is Leslie.Yes, you can. You need to establish your date of enrollment, your start date for full year and when that date is and then your start date for part-year.
(Linda):
So how do you show it on the PIR? Question 1 only allows one.
Leslie Jenkins:
I don't know how to answer that exactly.
Woman:
That was so solid.
Louise Gill:
You guys, I will direct that question to Xtria.
So you're saying you have both full-day and part-day.
Woman:
Full-day and part-day.
(Linda):
Right. This is (Linda).
Louise Gill:
Oh, okay.
Woman:
Good to see the programming.
(Linda):
Yeah, on Page 5.
Woman:
The fiscal year, your programming...
((Crosstalk))
Louise Gill:
Okay. I will get back to you on that.
(Linda):
Thanks a lot.
Louise Gill:
Yup.
((Crosstalk))
Louise Gill:
Okay. You guys, I'm hearing a lot of background noise, so please remember to mute your phone we can't here.
So Pat, you want to go ahead?
Pat Brinkman:
Hello, this is Pat and I'm looking on Page 17 of the 2005 Guide. And it says specify the start and end dates of your enrollment year. Enrollment year is the period of time when your program provides center or home-based services...The enrollment year should be no more than 12 months for full-day programs.
Programs with full year options should define the full year - the enrollment year based on a significant turnover.
((Crosstalk))
Pat Brinkman:
So, and programs with part-year options should use the first and last day of when classes begin.
Louise Gill:
Right. But what do we do if they're both?
Pat Brinkman:
I know. I'm continuing looking.
Louise Gill:
Okay.
Pat Brinkman:
And it doesn't say.
((Crosstalk))
Louise Gill:
All right.So I'll get that from Xtria.
Woman:
Okay.
Louise Gill:
Uh-huh.
Pat Brinkman:
Okay. So that is a good question for Page 5.
And let's go onto Page 6.And this is - this again has not changed. So you're looking at your program options and what your funded enrollment is for that and your average annual base.
And they gave formulas on how to figure that if you have different options or different sites of that same option.
Are there any questions to that page?
Woman:
We do this separate for Early Head Start and Head Start, don't we?
Woman:
Yeah.
((Crosstalk))
Louise Gill:
Just there's people on the call that thinks they're muted but they're not. So check your mutes.
Pat Brinkman:
Okay. Let’s go to page -- and this is the actual enrollment. So this is all the children and pregnant women (in Early Head Start programs)who were enrolled in your program for any lengths of time provided they have attended at least one class or for programs with home-based options received at least one home visit; have dropped out or enrolled late but then attended at least one class or for programs with home-based options received at least one home visit; and/or participate in Head Start/Early Head Start programs and receive the full services - length of services regardless of the funding source.
So this is different than what we often think of enrollment in this region. This is when services, actual class days, the child is sitting in a class or the first home visit has happened.
So are there any questions around that?
Okay. Number 15 is the question that has changed since this is the new one that was on May 18.
They weren't going to have the end of the month enrollment but they put this question in. It's the same as last year. You either use their months or choose your own month to give the enrollment number.
And then there - and there is a comment section if you have comments such as if you're under enrolled at that time.
(Bern):
Which question was that again? I'm sorry this is (Bern) at (Leavitt) Community Action in...
Pat Brinkman:
That was Number 15. And it's on the May 18 PIR.(Bern):
Right.
Pat Brinkman:
If you printed the May 1 version it was not on that one.
(Bern):
Okay. I didn't print that one. So that's the end of month enrollment?
Pat Brinkman:
Right. And this is the new question that we didn't originally have.
(Bern):
Thank you.
Pat Brinkman:
Questions anybody...
((Crosstalk))
Man:
...that in?
Pat Brinkman:
Yes?
(Bern):
Are we muted or not at this end?
Pat Brinkman:
No you're not.
(Bern):
My apologies.
Pat Brinkman:
That's okay.
So moving to Page 8, actual enrollment of children by age.
So use the age of the child as of the date used by your local school systems in determining eligibility. And again, this is the same as it has been in previous years. And then actual enrollment of pregnant women.
And then it goes to actual enrollment by type of eligibility. And we did have a question on this.
Do you remember what the question was, Louise? Did you make notes of that question yesterday?
Louise Gill:
Which question, Pat?
Pat Brinkman:
On actual enrollment by type of the eligibility whether...
Louise Gill:
I didn't. And I don't remember.
Pat Brinkman:
The program was - my recollection of it, the program was...
Louise Gill:
Oh, I do remember what - one of the questions was. And this didn't come yesterday but it came and in - it was submitted by a grantee by May 12. And it was under C. And it was the number of children and pregnant women in early Head Start Programs who were enrolled although their families were over income and were not eligible of public assistance.
The question was what do we do when a pregnant mom in Early Head Start and we've counted that pregnant mom as an over income family. She delivers her baby and now her baby is in Head Start. Do we count the pregnant mom as over income and the baby as over income?
And the answer was, no.You count just that family, because we are working with the pregnant mom and then when the baby's born then the baby is the one that we're working with along with the mother of course.But it's only one family.
So don't count.Take that number. Don't add a number of over income families when that baby is born.So that was the question on that one.
Pat Brinkman:
And the question yesterday had to do with the income verification. They were verifying income on families with public assistance and not just taking their TANF or SSI as categorical.
Louise Gill:
Oh, oh, I do remember that question.
Just remember that TANF can be cash or grants and other programs. But they have to be identified as TANF or public assistance programs.
Now Medicaid and food stamps are not considered TANF. So - but you can have other programs that families are receiving services under public assistance and it may not be a cash award. And this would make them automatically eligible.
Pat Brinkman:
Okay. Are there any questions in that area?
Okay. Then Question 20 has to do with prior enrollment, how many children have previously been enrolled in Head Start.
Any questions on that?
Okay. Moving to Page 9, actual enrollment by ethnicity or by race. This is - this section is the same. They have just expanded their example.
Louise Gill:
Pat, we had a question come in on the email on this question.
The question is under the categories listed, where do the families from Mexico, Central America get listed? Our families were very upset last year that they didn't have a category to fit in.
Pat Brinkman:
I think that's something we get to Xtria.
Louise Gill:
Okay. Then I will get that answer and I will put that out.
Now please understand that even though a grantee asked this, we'll put out the question and the answers for everyone so that you'll have all of this and we'll answer individual questions also.
Pat Brinkman:
>My answer would be C but I'm not sure that's correct because it says Mexican languages there.
Louise Gill:
Okay. But not languages, we're talking race.
((Crosstalk))
Pat Brinkman:
I'm sorry.
Louise Gill:
Yeah, on 21.
Pat Brinkman:
Right.
Louise Gill:
Where would you put? And see, I'm thinking it would either go under Hispanic or Latino but, you know, I will get a clarification from Xtria.
Pat Brinkman:
That would be good.That affects many of our families.
Louise Gill:
Yes, it does.
Good question. Thank you.
Pat Brinkman:
Okay. So the bottom part of Page 10 is actual enrollment by primary language of family and home.
Are there any questions in this area?
Moving one more to Page 11. Question 23 is turnover in enrollment, number of children and pregnant women in Early Head Start Programs who have dropped out at any time after class or home visits began and did not enroll. And then we go into classes and groups.
Are there any questions under this area?
Again, this is the same as last year.
And the last section is child care, the number of Head Start, Early Head Start children for whom whole day and/or full-year and/or full-day child care is needed.
Are there any questions in this area?
Great. I'll turn it over to Meagan.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Good morning.
Moving over to Section B...
Louise Gill:
Good morning, Meagan. Do you want to introduce yourself please?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Hi.
Yeah. I'm a TA Specialist and I work with Head Starts and Early Head Starts in Eastern Washington. And I'm calling out of Walla Walla, Washington today.
So we are doing Section B, program staff and qualifications. There are no changes to this area this year.
The first question is your total staff regardless of funding course. And this includes not only your staff but also contractors.
Are there any questions in this area?
Okay, volunteer information. Please report the total number of...
Woman:
Excuse me.I have a question about the total staff that comes in regards to the contractors.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
sure.
Woman:
Even though they are not employees of our agency.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
Woman:
Okay.
((Crosstalk))
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
There's a separate column for them
Woman:
Okay. We would also include mental health contractors and nutrition contractors and...
Woman:
Child care.
Woman:
...child care, private home child cares and centers that we contract with?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
Woman:
Okay. Thank you.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
That's my understanding.
Woman:
And so for subcontracting with public schools or the local colleges they (unintelligible) contracted staff as well?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes, that's my understanding.
Woman:
Thanks.
Woman:
I also have a question regarding total staff.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Woman:
It indicates that we said count a long-term substitute for an employee who's maybe going out on maternity leave.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
Woman:
So my question is do we count both the person on leave of absence and the long-term substitute.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes, that's my understanding. We're just doing a total number of staff, so not necessarily staff slots.
So if it is a long-term sub, you would count that person as well.
Woman:
Thank you.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay, any more questions? Those are good questions.
Woman:
Yes. We have a comment from Washington County.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Woman:
I would think that you need to be clear that...
Woman:
Yeah. Okay.
((Crosstalk))
Woman:
...have a staff person who works for you under contract you'd count them. So if you contract with an agency, say, for a mental health consultation, I don't think you count the people from that agency because they decide who's going to work for you. I don't think you would count them as staff.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
It says in the -- and I'm using the 2005 User's Guide -- contracted staff includes individuals who are not Head Start or Early Head Start employees that the program has contracted with to provide an ongoing service.
For example, disability specialist, mental health specialist, child care providers, food service workers, custodians, bus drivers.
Woman:
So it says the word individual there.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
Woman:
But you had contract within an individual to do your mental health.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
Woman:
What if your contract is with an agency?
(Bern):
So - this is (Bern) out in Jefferson County, Washington again.
When you were saying mental health and disability, those are individuals...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
(Bern):
...not an agency. So if we were to go out and contract with someone who ran their own service instead of like mental health service for the county.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah.
(Bern):
That would be a contracted staff.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right. That's my understanding. And I think that you're making a good distinction between a mental health agency for general services, and an individual who is your mental health specialist but does not work for your agency.
(Bern):
Thank you.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Does that clear, that answer it all?
Louise Gill:
Meagan?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah.
Louise Gill:
This is Louise. I just want to interject here. Leslie Jenkins and I, we're just having a conversation. And we just want grantees to understand that you might have one contract but you might have numbers of employees working with you from that agency. You should count all the employees from that agency that have worked with your program.
Does that help? So like if you have a contract with a mental health agency, or a school, or whatever and you've got 10 employees from that agency coming into Head Start to do of various jobs -- mental health or whatever, you've got to count all 10 of those employees.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
That clears it up for me. Does that help other people?
Woman:
Well, it also says don't include them if they provide short-term services.
Woman:
Where does this...
Woman:
It's a little confusing.
Woman:
It's really different...
Woman:
Yeah. We're confused here too because it sounds as if you're contradicting yourself.
Louise Gill:
Okay.
Woman:
Okay.
(Bern):
And then would there be distinction about whether they actually came to your program because there are support staffs for those people who write reports and who handle contracts and deal with fiscal operation.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay. I'm going to keep reading further in the User's Guide from '05 because '06 is not out yet and see if this helps us at all.
Louise Gill:
And I'm looking at '06.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Louise Gill:
I printed out the PDF file and it doesn't say.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay. Now, this part...
Louise Gill:
It just says exactly what you read earlier.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
But then there's a part after that called "Include Collaboration Partners."
Louise Gill:
Now that's really weird.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Total staff should include the staff from any partner organizations that provides Head Start or Early Head Start services as part of the partnership arrangement with your program.
Include only those individuals from partner organizations who provide direct services for your program. Exception to this policy is to include the immediate supervisor of education staff, i.e., child development supervisors or home-based supervisors that are involved in the collaboration. So plus one supervisor is their example.
(Ken Heller):
Hello, this is (Ken Heller) from Pocatello, Idaho.
The question about school bus drivers, are (unintelligible) are grantee and we are under a memorandum of agreement with the district to provide transportation services.Do those drivers then count as or should we count them as employees?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
In this example that they give in the User's Guide, yes, under contracted staff. They would fall under that category, is my understanding.
(Ken Heller):
Okay. Thank you.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Should - Louise?
Louise Gill:
Yeah.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Should we ask Xtria to just do a little clarification on this for us?
Louise Gill:
I sure will.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay
Woman:
Could I ask one more follow up?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
You bet.
Woman:
We have staff from our local early intervention provider...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
...who work in our classrooms who provide early intervention services...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
...to kids.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
And the way I read this, it sounds like we could count them but they are not doing Head Start work, they are doing early intervention work, it's just that the kid happens to be in our classroom.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah. You have a contract with them?
Woman:
We have an interagency agreement.Their salaries are paid by the CFC, not by us.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right.
Woman:
And we don't pay the early intervention program anything, it's just an interagency agreement.
I don't think those are contracted staff frankly.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
I'm inclined to agree with you.
Woman:
Okay.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
That they are providing services in the natural environment that happens to be your program. But if the child was located someone else - somewhere else the services would be provided there.
Woman:
Right.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Is that correct?
Okay.
(Bern):
This is (Bern) again.Just so I'm clear, an interagency agreement is not considered a contract per se. Only if it is designated as a contract do we consider the staff under it, correct?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Leslie, what do you have to say about that?
Leslie Jenkins:
Well, an agreement is - and then the attorney that it is a form of a contract that say that I will provide this service -- sometimes there is an exchange of money and sometimes there's not.
So I think we're splitting hairs at this point.
(Bern):
Right. So that's the thing, you know, about that interagency agreement, we consider that basically a contract out here. So we would include those employees that provide services for us.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
I think that's the point you want to look at is our people providing services for you and for your kids that fall under early Head Start or Head Start.
Louise Gill:
Regardless of the funding.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Regardless of the funding.
(Bern):
Right. And that's where I'm referring back to the question about the person providing early intervention services that would fall under a family and community partnership piece. So I would personally tend to include that person.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay. I think we're going to ask Kim for a little more explanation on this question because I don't feel like we've answered it.
Leslie Jenkins:
We haven't.And I think it's important -- this is Leslie -- I think it's important to get Xtria's response because regardless of what we think they're saying, it's important that we'd be consistent in our response.
(Bern):
Thank you.
(Ruai Gregory):
This is Ruai Gregory, I'm also a T/TA specialist.
I think this is - I think the thing to ask Kim on this kind of question would be what exactly information, you know, what's our goal in gaining this information. Because if there's a community partner coming in to deliver the early intervention services maybe they want to know that. So it would be good to get the consistency out there.
Louise Gill:
Okay.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Woman:
Hi. This is Head Start of Wayne County in Oregon. We have another model that we'd like to toss into this mix. It's a community child care model where we have a contract with community child care providers. However, we have Heat Start staff called community child care specialists which provides the Head Start services, both the early education and both the family services piece.
So the way I'm interpreting the way some of this discussion is going would be that we would count our staff people because they are providing the Head Start service but we would not account the community child care providers staff. Is that accurate?
Leslie Jenkins:
Not necessarily. Not necessarily. I think what we need - the intent of this I think is they count all of those people who perform regular day-to-day Head Start services whether they're staff that are paid out of your Head Start grant or staff who are paid regardless of the funding source who've done federal share or however they provide regular day-to-day Head Start services.
The question that we're struggling with is if they are doing it as contractors and you have contract with a large entity, say, a school district. How many of those people in that contract do you count? What number do you put in there? And that's what we have to go to Xtria to try and isolate out so that we can give you guidance as to how - what number to put in there.
Louise Gill:
And then I think the other thing is - getting clarification on is an interagency agreement, a contract. And, you know, and like Leslie said, we're not attorneys and we don't know. We need Xtria's guidance on this. So I will, I will be talking to Kim as soon as we get off of this phone call.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay, thank you Louise.
Louise Gill:
Uh-huh.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Just any consolation. I'm - all of your questions are great and I'm equally confused now too.
Louise Gill:
They are. They're all great questions.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
So moving on to volunteer information.
Louise Gill:
Before we move, we had one other question come in by email.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Louise Gill:
It says this contract also include interpreters. Yes.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah.
Okay. The total numbers of person providing any volunteer services to your program this year, only count each volunteer once. And they can be classroom and non-classroom volunteers.
And then there's a question about the number who are former or current Head Start parents.
Are there questions there?
Okay, moving on to education experience and salary of management staff. They're wanting the number of years in the position, and annual salary, and then the percentage of that salary that was funded by Head Start and education level.
Are there question...
Woman:
I have a question about that.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Woman:
On number of years in position, do you think that that, you know, like our executive director has been here for 30 years but she had different positions in the agency before she became the executive director, do they really mean just how many years have she been the executive director or how many years have she been with the agency?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
In the guidance, in the User's Guide, it says specify the number of years that that staff member has been in this position.
Woman:
Okay.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Do not include any years the staff members spent working in another position.
Woman:
All right.Thanks.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Good question.
In this section there is a comments box and we would like to encourage you in general whenever there is something unusual or anything you would like to explain to use that comment box.
Disability services manager, the question is, on average how many hours per week does the person with this responsibility devote this role?
Are there any questions there?
Woman:
I do have kind of a question.Last year when I did the PIR...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
...and I put in the executive director, we are an (ESD) and our executive director is the superintendent of the (ESD) who has zero funding from Head Start.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
But when I put in his annual salary, I kept getting an error message that would not go away that said he made more than the allowable amount. And I ended up putting him a note in comment saying that, you know, he is not funded at all by Head Start funds whatsoever and we couldn't help what his salary was but we don't pay it.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah.
Woman:
So...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
I think that's exactly what you should do.
Woman:
Thank you.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Qualifications of child development staff on Page 15.
An early childhood education degree as an associate baccalaureate or advanced degree in early childhood education or a degree of associate, baccalaureate, advanced degree with a program and study that included six or more courses in early childhood or child development.
Are there questions in this section?
Woman:
Yes. I have question.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Woman:
This is a question about teacher qualifications, but...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right.
Woman:
...they have a degree, it's not necessarily related degree.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right.
Woman:
Then how do you report their qualification.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
My understanding is...
Woman:
...don't have a degree at all?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
It kind of looks like that, which I know is weird but they're really looking for the - it looks like they're really looking for the number of people who have degrees at our early childhood or related only.
Louise Gill:
Meagan?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
Louise Gill:
I'm looking at the User Guide.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Louise Gill:
And under, it just says report the number of staff by position who has a degree in early childhood education or a related field, a CDA credential...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Uh-huh.
Louise Gill:
...or an equivalent state awarded preschool infant toddler family child care or home-based certification, credential or licensure.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right.
So if you had staff that didn't have any of that...
Louise Gill:
Right. You wouldn't...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
...you would not report them.
Woman:
Would report them because they're one of your teachers so...
Woman:
Yeah...
Woman:
...where would you report them?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Under total number of child development staff by category, the Number 8.
Woman:
The amount of any other qualification.
Woman:
Without...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right.
Woman:
...the benefits in there...
((Crosstalk))
Woman:
Could we go back to the disability question one second?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Sure.
Woman:
Our disability - I'm not sure what's the point to the question is. Our disability's coordinator is our disability/mental health coordinator.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
And she serves as a team leader for all our group of coordinators. So I'm not sure if I need to split that out from what they're saying.
I would try to split out the mental health and supervisory duties and just report the...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
I think that's what they're asking.
Woman:
Yes.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
And I think they're asking question because some programs, it's the director who oversees that for example.
Woman:
Right.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
And so they're trying to get how many hours a week are people spending.
((Crosstalk))
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay. Any questions on the child development staff by category?
Woman:
I just have comment, and again, because there's still a lot of confusion about contracted staff that would be a very important distinction for this section as well, for example, the teaching staff as a community child care providers depending on how the answers come down as to whether or not they are considered staff would have implications here as well.
Louise Gill:
But it says again regardless of funding source. So it don't matter who pays them, if they're providing a service and they're teaching our Head Start kids, then we should be counting them.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah. And this section I think should be a little bit easier because of it's specifically around teachers, assistant teachers, home visitors...
Louise Gill:
Right.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
...to providers.
Okay, anymore questions there?
Okay, average annual teacher by level - salary by level of education. And I believe a question came up about that, this applies to staff members who are classroom teachers do not include assistant teachers, home visitors, family child care teachers or supervisors. This is just for teachers -- lead teachers.
Louise Gill:
So if you have a teacher advocate, you still put that person's salary in here?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes.
Louise Gill:
They are still a teacher.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right.
Woman:
It doesn't specifically state but if the assumption that the contracted teachers also would fall in here as well in terms of salary?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes. Because I think this whole section falls under that same directive of regardless of funding source.
Okay, average salary as direct child development staff. So this will allow you to report the assistant teachers and home visitors. And it tells you how to calculate that.
Any more questions there?
Louise Gill:
There's just one note in the new User Guide, and I don't know if it's in last year's or not, but it just says, "Report the actual average salary and not the pay scale for teachers."
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right. Thank you.
Louise Gill:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
I have question regarding the average annual salary, not the hourly rate but the average annual salary, when you have both 9 months and 12 months staff as we do, the vast majority are 9 months staff. If we would annual salary of all those staff people and divided by 12...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right.
Woman:
...we would have a much lower annul salary than what really the actual annual salaries are. So...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right. The guide says not to annualize nine months salaries. So use them. Don't take them out to 12 months.
Woman:
Okay. But then we would have two different sets of annual salaries, we'd have a 12-month annual salary and a 9-month annual salary.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
They're wanting you to average all of them.
Louise Gill:
So then Meagan, wouldn't you take all your - all your 9 months salary and then all of your 12 months salary...
Woman:
Average.
Louise Gill:
...average, add them together and divided by 2?
Woman:
No.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
No, divided by the number of teachers.
Louise Gill:
Divided by the number of teachers. But still, you would still have that differentiation between months.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Well, no. Not on how you report it.
Louise Gill:
No, no, no.But I mean to get that correct average.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right, right.So you take 9-month salaries and you take 12-month salaries and you add them all up and divided them by the number of teachers in that category.
Louise Gill:
Uh-huh. Right.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
They want the actual dollar amount.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay. Okay, ethnicity and race of child development staff.
It says do not include supervisory staff. So this is teachers, assistant teachers, home visitors, and family child care teachers under child development staff.
Are there any questions in this section?
Louise Gill:
Meagan, can I go back to the question that was sent by the email regarding race? I did find in the User's Guide the definition of Hispanic or Latino.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay. Thank you.
Louise Gill:
So you would count that Mexican or Central American family under Hispanic, it says in the User Guide and they define that as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of their race.
So that is where you would count the family who is from Mexico or Central America.
Woman:
Which letter...
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Thank you, Louise.
Woman:
Which was one it?
Louise Gill:
And that would be 16A, under Ethnicity.
Woman:
It's the next...
Woman:
That's under A. We go with it about under B.
Louise Gill:
It says regardless of race. So their ethnicity is going to be whatever, and then the race.
Woman:
I think that's where the problem, under B.
Louise Gill:
Under race?
Woman:
Yeah.
Louise Gill:
Okay.
All right, I was just asking.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
There is - okay.
Ruai Gregory
Meagan, this is Ruai Gregory. Maybe this has been asked already, but what about those teachers who are serving as teachers but also have some supervisory responsibilities?Woman:
I don't know.
Woman:
We have that question yesterday.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
If it's the teacher supervisor, I believe Kim said you count them as a teacher.
Louise Gill:
That's right.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
But if their job is exclusively supervising, that's when you would not count them in these numbers.
Louise Gill:
That's right.
Woman:
All right.Thank you.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
And I believe from past PIRs, because this came up before that people from Mexico actually fall under white, but let's get a clarification on that because that's a person having origins from any original people of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. That's not right. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Okay, we have to get that clarified, don't we?
Louise Gill:
Right. Because if you look under B, under I, it puts families of Central America there under American Indian or Alaska native.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
I know.
Louise Gill:
That's really interesting, but I'll get clarification.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
And that's original people.
Louise Gill:
Right.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay. We'll look into that.
Okay, language of child development staff. And all of its asking is a number who are provisioned in a language other than English.
Okay, Page 18, teacher turnover. This again applies to just teachers, not assistant teachers, home visitors or family child care teachers. And they're wanting to know the number of teachers who left during the program.
Is there a question? Okay.
So the number of teachers who left, if you know why they left, then the number of teacher vacancies that remained unfilled for three months or longer, and then the number of teachers hired during - due to turnover, not expansion, although I don't think anybody is expanding these days.
And there's a comment section there.
Qualification of family community partnership and supervisory staff. So this is the total number of family and community partnership staff.
We had a question yesterday regarding -- the example given was early Head Start home visitor who provides both family services and child development, and the Xtria's answer was that you would count them in both section in terms of education.
Woman:
A family educator.
Woman:
If they - yeah, if they provide the family - if they act a family service worker also.
Woman:
Washington County has a question about that.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Woman:
We have organized our program so that our assistant teachers provide the family services. And it's like 0.3 of their....
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah.
Woman:
...the total job.
So would you interpret that, that we would count them both? Well, we would count them as they're not lead teachers.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yes. So they wouldn't have gotten counted before.
Woman:
That's wherever assistants are counted.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah, wherever assistants are counted in. And then you would count them here.
And I think they're basically wanting to know how many people are providing this kind of work and then what is their education level.
Woman:
And they're not worried about how many - what FTE, they're just - just want the number of people.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Right. That's my understanding from Kim's comment yesterday.
Woman:
It's a little bit of a worry that even if we very faithfully report these numbers, we don't know how they're going to be interpreted by Xtria, you know that average teacher salary that blends in people with 9 months or 12 years makes it pretty useless information.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Yeah.
There is a general comment section at the end of the entire PIR. And I really encourage people to write comments, and I would include a comment that your assistant teachers act as the family community partnership staff.
Woman:
Okay. We'll do that. Thanks.
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
Okay.
Okay. And family work experience.
Any other questions there?
Okay. I think that's the end of my section.And so I'm going to turn it back over to Pat Brinkman.
Pat Brinkman:
Okay. And now we just have this special section.And so we're on Page 30.
And this section is on transportation and federal interest in Head Start facility.
Woman:
It does not help us.
((Crosstalk))
Pat Brinkman:
And you're to enter the number of buses, if any, that were purchased by your program during the operating year. And they're going from August of 2005 through July of 2006.
And then they asked do you lease any buses and then do you contract transportation.
Are there any questions on that?
Woman:
It's confusing if you don't have this because they're going by question.
((Crosstalk))
Woman:
We have a question about the lease question.
Pat Brinkman:
Okay.
((Crosstalk))
Woman:
It really won't make...
((Crosstalk))
Woman:
We buy our buses through a lease purchase program. So in the end we own them. Are they to be counted as leased?
Pat Brinkman:
Do you have an idea on this, Leslie?
Leslie Jenkins:
No, I do not because technically you lease them but in the end you end up with the bus, so I don't know.
Pat Brinkman:
I think...
Woman:
Maybe now we should get Xtria's clarification.
Louise Gill:
Okay. And then I'm sitting here thinking, I wonder if they just want to note during the operating period because it says, "Enter below the number of buses, if any, that were purchased by your program during the operating period."
So I'm wondering if your lease is only good for this year but then, you know, maybe you buy it next year or something. So I will get clarification on that.
Woman:
Thank you.
Woman:
Uh-huh.
Woman:
How are we going to get all the answers to all these?
Louise Gill:
We are typing up the questions.
Woman:
Oh, okay.
Louise Gill:
And we are adding them to what we sent out at the beginning of the week so you'll get another copy of the questions that had come up which are - were not what you received on Monday.
Woman:
Great.
And the User's Guide does not answer that question.
Louise Gill:
No, it doesn't.
Woman:
Okay.
Woman:
Yeah...
((Crosstalk))
Louise Gill:
This might be one of those that you have in your comment section as well that you technically answer the question that we at lease these buses but at the end of this period, we actually hold the title.
Woman:
(Yeah, it makes sense).
Louise Gill:
Yes. So like next year would they mark it as owned?
Louise Gill:
I just - yeah.I think the key here is the operating period.
So, I'll get that.
((Crosstalk))
Pat Brinkman:
Okay. The next - are there any more questions about buses?
Woman:
...I didn't have the bus section...
((Crosstalk))
Woman:
Yes, I have a question.
Louise Gill:
Okay.
Pat Brinkman:
Go ahead.
Woman:
On the question about does your program contract with transportation provider to transport some of or all your enrolled children. Is that the home to school or would that also if we contracted for a field trip only?
Louise Gill:
I don't know.I'll ask.
Woman:
Thank you.
Louise Gill:
Yes.
Pat Brinkman:
Are there any other questions in that area? These are good questions.
Okay, the last section of the special items is federal interest in Head Start facilities.And a good definition for federal interest is found in Performance Standards 1309. So if you want further information on that.
And it's for the funding year 2005-2006. So if you listed this on a previous PIR because your federal interest was like two years ago, you would not need to put it here. So just for this year, any new federal interest.
(Bern):
I do have a question. This is (Bern) again.
Pat Brinkman:
Hi (Bern).
(Bern):
If there's major renovations, does that include reroofing or playground restructure?
((Crosstalk))
Leslie Jenkins:
This is Leslie. They could. You will look at your (FAA) and it will tell you whether or not it's a major renovation.It's usually things that change the footprint of your building. Usually major renovation will be identified on your award.
If you have any questions about that, contact your program specialist.
(Bern):
Okay. Thank you.
Pat Brinkman:
Thank you, Leslie.
Are there any other questions on this area?
Okay.
Louise Gill:
I had a question coming that goes back to your Pat - your section Pat under ethnicity and race again.
Pat Brinkman:
Uh-huh.
Louise Gill:
Now on Question A-21, it's the actual enrollment of ethnicity of the children. And so the question says, the PIR states both ethnicity and race must be reported for all children. The question is you just say that if there's no place in ethnicity to put these kids, they do count them in the language area.
Yes, you would put the kids if you can not -- the definition of Hispanic is like I said, it's a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central America. If they're not that, then they're non-Hispanic, non-Latino.
So you've got to give them -- I know, I've been saying for years -- why do they just have two ethnicities there -- categories? I don't know the reasoning behind that but if they don't fit into Hispanic, all children go into non-Hispanic non-Latino.
Now that's their ethnicity. Then you go down and you determine by the definitions given to you there whether they fit into any of these races. And if they don't, or you don't know, then you put "Other." And if you don't know, you put "Unspecified."
So every child has to fit under an ethnicity and a race, either "Other" or "Unspecified" if you don't know.
Okay, did everybody go to sleep on that one? We're almost done guys.
Okay, Pat, anything else?
Pat Brinkman:
No.
((Crosstalk))
Louise Gill:
Okay. Meagan, anything from your section?
Meagan Anderson-Pira:
I don't think so.
Louise Gill:
Okay.
So if you come up with some more questions, please don't hesitate to call us or email us and we'll try to get clarifications. And from the questions that came in this morning, what I will do is I will talk to Xtria and get those questions and answers submitted on your PIR questions from 2005/2006 that we will resubmit to you at the end of all these conference calls.
So the next day that we do this section again is going to be June 1. So please give us until maybe the firs or second week in June to compile all these questions and get the answers out to you.
But please don't hesitate to contact just in the meantime if something new comes up or you're trying to do your report.
Any questions about reporting? I want to ask that again before we go because it's all Web-based. There is a quick guide that will help you to enter your information on the Web. There's also information there about if you use (HISFAS) or ChildPlus, how to upload or get that information to the PIR if you want to do it that way.
And then just know that Xtria has technical assistants that you can talk to by phone.
Please, like Meagan and Pat and Leslie have said today, please use your comment section when you really have something that needs to be explained. This is all very helpful. They're just not looking at numbers, they really can see why the numbers are the way they are when you put comments in.
(Brian Pecan):
I have a quick question.
Louise Gill:
Yes.
(Brian Pecan):
This is (Brian Pecan) from Boise, Idaho.
Louise Gill:
Yes.
(Brian Pecan):
Any word yet on when the 2006 User's Guide is going to be available?
Louise Gill:
Yes, (Brian). I talked to - well, I didn't talk to her, I emailed her this morning and she's hoping it's going to be there by the end of the day. We're just kind of taking this day-by-day.
(Brian Pecan):
All right. We'll keep looking for it. Thank you.
Louise Gill:
Okay. Thank you.
Woman:
Louise, how will you - how we'll be able to access that User's Guide?
Louise Gill:
You go onto the Xtria Web page, and we sent that out with all the emails but let me see if I can find that. I've just got it in my head and it's...
Woman:
I've got.
Louise Gill:
Its xtria.com, www.
Woman:
Right. I found that site pretty hard to navigate.
Louise Gill:
It is hard but that's the way you find it.
Woman:
Okay. Thank you.
Louise Gill:
Right now, when you pull up that Web page, it says, "The 2006 User Guide is coming soon." So just keep looking for it because she hoped it's going to be on by the end of the day.
Woman:
Where did it say that?
Louise Gill:
Right there on the front page.
Woman:
Okay, thanks.
Louise Gill:
Yup.
It has a list of things like it will say the 2006 Quick Study for the reporting, it will say the 2006 PIR report, and then I think the very last one is the User Guide.
Okay, any other questions?
Leslie, thank you for being with us today.
Leslie Jenkins:
My pleasure.
Louise Gill:
Meagan, Pat, thank you so much for co-facilitating this with me, thanks all of you grantees for being on the call.
Good bye.
Woman:
Bye-bye.
Man:
Bye.
Woman:
Bye.
END