►
From YouTube: Committee on Education on November 30, 2021
Description
Docket #1079 - Hearing on the status of early education and childcare workers.
A
Excellent,
I'm
I'm
going
to
get
started.
Then
we
pull
out.
My
notes
is
appropriate
good
afternoon.
Everyone
for
the
record.
My
name
is
anis
versaibo,
george
boston
city
councilor
at
large
and
I'm
chair
of
the
boston
city
council's
committee
on
education.
Today,
I'm
joined
by
colleagues
the
lead
sponsor
councillor
mejia,
councillor
braden
and
councillor
flynn.
I
don't
think
any
of
signed
on
I'll
recognize
them
as
they
join
us
this
afternoon.
A
A
A
A
Today's
hearing
is
on
docket
number
1079
in
order
for
a
hearing
on
the
status
of
early
education
and
child
care
workers.
We
have
a
number
of
guests
that
will
be
joining
us
for
several
for
two
panels
and
we'll
get
to
the
discussion.
I'm
first
going
to
welcome
the
lead
sponsor
of
today's
hearing.
Counselor
mejia
now
same
here.
B
Yes,
thank
you
good
afternoon
everyone
and
thank
you
to
the
chair
for
working
with
our
office
to
get
this
hearing
scheduled
for
months.
We
have
been
working
alongside
sciu
509
to
explore
ways
that
the
city
can
take
more
an
active
role
in
uplifting
and
supporting
child
care
workers
early
childhood
educators.
B
B
What
are
some
of
the
reasons
why
why
we're
seeing
this
massive
decrease
in
child
care
workers?
Well
for
one,
the
pay,
isn't
sufficient
child
care
workers
have
roughly
wages,
23
percent
lower
than
those
of
similar
workers
and
other
occupations,
and
only
15
of
child
care
workers
receive
health
insurance
at
their
jobs.
On
top
of
that,
women
of
color
make
up
a
larger
portion
of
child
care
workers
than
do
any
other
occupations,
so
we're
dealing
with
a
number
of
things
all
at
once
that
have
led
up
to
the
current
situation.
B
Thank
you
to
all
the
folks
at
seiu
509
for
their
efforts
in
organizing
this
hearing
and
the
advocates
who
have
been
doing
this
work
to
get
us
off
the
ground.
Thank
you,
so
very
much
counselor
sabi
george
for
hosting
again
and
my
colleagues
for
participating.
A
C
You,
madam
chair,
and
thank
you
to
the
lead
sponsor
for
bringing
this
issue
forward.
I
don't
think
any.
I
think,
we're
all
very
aware
of
the
the
challenges
of
our
early
education
sector
and
the
the
challenges
of
recruiting
and
retaining
quality
staff,
so
I'm
just
want
to
very
interested
to
participate
in
the
listen
to
what
the
panelists
have
to
say
and
participate
in
the
conversation
this
afternoon.
Thank
you.
D
Thank
you.
Thank
you,
counselor
sabi
george,
for
your
leadership.
Thank
you
councillor,
mejia,
the
sponsor
for
your
important
work
as
well.
I'm
here
to
listen,
I'm
here
to
learn
more
about
the
subject
and
I
hope
I'm
able
to
be
a
good
advocate
going
forward.
Thank
you
to
the
panelists
for
the
excellent
work
that
you've
been
doing
for
so
many
years.
Thank
you.
Counselor
savvy
george.
A
Thank
you,
councillor
flynn,
and
we
do
have
for
our
first
panel,
a
number
of
leaders
in
this
field,
as
well
as
in
the
second
panel,
but
I'll.
First
welcome
tierra
diaz
from
the
boston
public
schools,
who's,
the
director
of
the
universal
pre-k
jason
sachs
who's
executive,
director
of
the
bps
department
of
early
childhood
education,
ayanna,
polk,
who's,
the
communications
and
outreach
manager
for
women's
advancement
here
for
the
city
of
boston
and
then
tren
nguyen
who's.
The
director
of
the
office
of
workforce
development,
metro
councilman.
A
E
Hello,
everyone,
thank
you
so
much
for
having
us.
Can
you
hear
me?
Okay?
Yes,
I'm
double
masked,
so
let
me
know
if
you're
having
any
trouble,
I'm
joined
by
my
colleague,
jason
sax,
who's
sitting
right
next
to
me,
but
you'll
see
him
there
if
you're
not
familiar
jason.
Sacks
leads
the
early
childhood
department
where
universal
pre-k
sits.
E
Universal
pre-k
is
part
of
the
department,
which
also
includes
k2
first
and
second,
and
I
have
some
slides.
Should
I
share
my
screen?
Is
that
okay
you're
welcome
to
go
right
ahead?
Awesome
just
give
me
a
second
here,
so
I'm
not
gonna
dive
too
much
into
universal
pre-k
because
we
did
present
in
march.
E
I
I
want
to
make
sure
if
you're
not
familiar
with
what
universal
pre-k
is
that
I
give
you
a
quick
snapshot,
but
certainly
I've
I've,
both
hyperlinked
and
I'm
available
afterwards
for
questions.
If
you
have
them
so
universal
pre-k
is
a
city-wide
initiative
to
ensure
that
every
four-year-old
across
boston
has
access
to
high
quality
education.
E
E
That
means
an
evidence-based
curriculum,
and
that
means
the
two
indicators
that
I'm
going
to
talk
about
on
the
next
slide,
which
is
highly
paid
and
degreed
educators.
Currently
universal
pre-k
has
expanded
into
community-based
organizations
in
2019,
so
you'll
see
here
in
the
middle.
I
have
our
numbers
we're
at
3200
seats
for
four-year-olds,
with
almost
80
percent
of
those
being
in
bps
and
about
20
percent
of
those
in
our
community
base.
E
E
E
I've
also
hyperlinked,
the
salary
grid
there
for
you.
So
you
can
also
look
at
the
teacher
director
and
family
engagement
increase,
but
it's
important
to
note
that
we
did
increase
the
lead
teacher
salary
to
58k
for
this
year
and
as
a
result
of
that,
we
also
went
back
and
we
looked
at
the
staffing
we
wanted
to
know
who
has
left
our
upk
classrooms
and
you
can
see,
from
the
resignation
column
that
we've
had
very
little
turnover.
E
Our
upk
classrooms
have
only
had
four
percent,
so
it's
certainly
an
indicator
that
the
salaries
is
a
plus
that
it's
somewhat
helpful
in
retaining
educators,
and
so,
despite
all
of
the
the
pandemic
and
the
increase
in
the
unemployment
rate,
we
have
seen
that
our
upk
teachers
have
been
fairly
stable.
E
I
also
wanted
to
note
that
in
our
upk
budget
about
70
percent-
so
that's
4
million
of
our
budget
is
spent
on
salaries,
and
so,
if
you're
thinking
about
the
community
based
organization's
budget
about
70
percent
of
that
is
spent
on
staffing.
E
I
also
wanted
to
highlight
the
staffing
credentials,
because
another
requirement
in
boston
upk
is
that
our
lead
teachers
have
a
bachelor's
degree.
We
also
require
that
the
assistant
teacher
has
an
associates,
and
the
director
has
a
bachelor's
degree
as
well
and
currently
in
all
of
our
upk
programs,
except
for
one.
We
have
lead
teachers
with
bachelor's
degrees.
We
do
have
one
lead
teacher,
that's
working
towards
her
bachelor's
degree
and,
as
you
can
see,
it's
not
even
just
the
lead
teachers
across
the
board.
E
So
we
have
coaches
that
go
into
programs
anywhere
from
once
a
month
to
six
times
a
month
to
provide
that
curriculum
implementation
support.
We
also
provide
professional
development,
both
from
boston,
public
schools,
but
also
outside
so
special
education,
social,
emotional,
supports
power,
parenting
and
then,
lastly,
we
offer
some
credit
bearing
courses
we
currently
offer.
E
Two
one
is
for
the
focus
on
pre-k
curriculum
through
umass
boston
and
then
the
second
one
is
an
instructional
team,
so
it
includes
the
director
and
the
teacher
and
they
work
together
through
this
credit,
bearing
course
to
really
develop
strong
leadership
and
instructional
practice.
E
I
want
to
mention
here
that,
as
we
begin
to
offer
these
courses,
we
have
run
into
some
challenges,
specifically
if
a
participant
owes
the
college
funding
if
we're
thinking
about
going
back
to
in
person.
Certainly
child
care
is
a
challenge.
E
Technology
was
a
challenge
for
programs
that
were
moving
towards
these
courses,
so
these
were
all
things
that
we
had
to
consider
as
we
built
out
the
model
and
then
lastly,
I
just
wanted
to
highlight
here
some
of
our
ongoing
goals
I
mentioned
prior
that
we
want
to
continue
to
expand
to
serve
more
three-year-olds,
really
thinking
about
that
program-wide
salary
increase.
So
what
does
what
does
satellite
look
like
in
other
preschool
or
infant
and
taller
classrooms?
That's
something
that
we
really
need
to
think
about
and
are
working.
E
We
have
a
fiscal
working
group.
That's
that's
working
through
that
now
degree
pathways,
so
we
really
want
to
create
opportunities
to
grow
leaders
internally,
thinking
about
where
our
teachers
are
starting,
what
are
their
career
goals
and
helping
grow
through
a
degree
pathway
and
then,
lastly,
as
we
expand
into
family
child
care
and
more
non-traditional
schools,
you
want
to
really
think
about
the
upk
model
in
a
more
scalable
way,
and
I
think
I
covered
everything
I'm
going
to
have
jason
jump
in
and
see
if
I
missed
anything.
Okay,.
F
I
would
just
add
two
things
that
while
we
made
the
we
teacher
comparable
to
a
bps
teacher
starting
salary,
we
also
had
room
for
assistant
teachers
and
co-teachers
and
directors
to
receive
salary
increases,
and
so
that's
something
you
really
want
to
think
about,
and
I
think
you
covered
everything
else,
but
we're
happy
to
answer
any
questions
and
if
you
have
any
questions
about
the
boston
public
schools
as
well,
although
we
haven't
seen
the
same
kind
of
turnover,
we've
definitely
seen
some
challenges
with
teachers
being
sick,
as
you
all
know,
I'm
sure,
and
that
central
office
has
had
to
play
a
role
in
covering
schools
as
well.
F
So
I
think
that
there's
staffing
challenges
everywhere,
but
really
in
the
community
based
programs
as
you've
already
brought
up,
there's
there's
greater
challenges
around
salaries,
but
salaries
do
seem
to
be
a
stabilizing
force
in
community-based
programs.
The
other
thing
I
was
going
to
tell
you
was
anecdotally
we're
hearing.
If
a
teacher
leaves
a
upk
program,
it's
a
lot
easier
to
fill
that
space
than
it
is
in
other
classrooms.
F
A
Great,
thank
you,
tara
and
jason.
I
don't
know
if
we
want
to
stop
for
questions
here,
councilman
here
or
move
on
to
the
rest
of
this
panel
ayanna
and
trina
with
us.
I
also
want
to
note
that
counselor
michael
flaherty
has
also
joined.
A
B
You
counselor
asapi
george,
I
think,
let's
just
if
folks
are
okay,
we
can
just
go
with
the
panel
and
then
we
can
just
ask
all
the
questions
at
once.
Thank
you.
A
Ayanna
I
have
next
on
my
last
polk.
G
The
support
holistically
and
the
mayor's
office
of
women's
advancement
has
really
taken
some
innovative
strides
in
making
sure
that
we're
supporting
the
entire
ecosystem
when
it
comes
to
care
for
our
for
our
little
ones.
So
I
will
go
on
and
share
my
screen
just
to
give
a
high
level
look
at
the
things
we've
been
doing
here
at
women's
advancement.
One
moment.
G
All
right
so
with
our
department
here
at
the
mayor's
office
of
women's
advancement,
when
we
look
at
child
care
again,
we
do
look
at
a
look
at
it
as
an
economic
equity
issue
not
only
for
the
providers
but
for
families
as
well,
because
child
care
is
a
very
important
key
for
families
to
be
a
part
of
the
workforce.
G
So
we've
done
a
lot
of
things
in
supporting
those
entrepreneurs
not
only
to
support
them
as
as
business
owners,
but
to
make
sure
that
we're
expanding
seats
in
different
spaces
so
that
there
are
different
options
for
care
to
meet
everyone
where
they're,
at
especially
seeing
the
needs
around
travel
around
affordability
that
we've
seen
through
our
research
and
then
also
making
sure
that
workplaces
are
great
partners
and
advocates
for
those
that
they
employ,
because
we
understand
looking
at
child
care
a
lot
of
we've
with
a
lot
of
the
research
that
we've
done.
G
We've
seen
that
you
know
folks
who
are
going
to
work
are
advocating
for
more
flexible
options,
so
that
way
they
can
be
there
to
support
their
families.
So
when
we
look
at
the
climate
of
care,
we
try
to
look
at
each
point
that
I've
spoken
of
to
make
sure
that
everyone
has
a
hand
in
creating
the
solution
so
just
to
give
a
high
level
high
level
introduce
introduction
to
the
work
that
we've
been
doing
here.
G
When
it
comes
to
research,
we
do
have
an
annual
child
care
study
that
is
distributed
along
with
the
city
census.
We
do
that
in
collaboration
with
the
economic
mobility
lab
in
2019,
we
conducted
our
first
survey
and
with
those
findings,
we've
seen
a
lot
of
the
things
that
we
all
feel
individually
in
our
neighborhoods
and
in
our
homes.
G
That
88
of
respondents
say
that
it's
not
affordable,
that
things
are
too
far
or
too
difficult
to
access,
and
even
in
our
report
that
we
did
the
following
year,
that's
called
too
much
and
not
enough.
It
really
took
a
deeper
dive
into
the
status
of
care
for
families
during
covid.
G
So
that
was
a
really
important
study
for
us
to
really
open
our
eyes
to
see
how
we
can
inform
the
work
that
we
do
and
how
we
can
meet
people
where
they're
at
so
with.
With
a
lot
of
that
information,
and
just
just
also
to
say
we
are
releasing
our
2021
findings
from
our
survey
in
december
and
we're
looking
forward
to
putting
out
that
survey
again
in
2022,
along
with
the
census.
G
So
we
can
keep
collecting
this
information
and
seeing
where
we
can,
where
you
know
what
the
status
is
and
how
we
can
support
and
evolve
our
practices
and
then
using
all
of
that
information,
especially
when
we're
talking
about
travel
and
affordability.
We
understood
that
child
care
entrepreneurs
were
a
part
of
the
answer.
G
We
largely
advertise
it
through
our
channels
here
at
the
city
of
boston
and
up
to
date,
we've
graduated
more
than
100
providers.
Through
this
program,
what
happens?
Is
they
apply
and
once
they
become
a
part
of
a
cohort,
they
attend
six
different
workshops.
These
workshops
entail
different
aspects
of
running
a
small,
a
small
business
and
particularly
a
family
child
care
business.
G
So
they're
they're
taught
not
only
to
understand
the
licensure
and
those
particular
things
for
the
industry,
but
really
looking
at.
You
know
the
marketing
how
to
make
sure
that
they're
keeping
a
book
of
business
and
different
software's
needed
in
order
to
make
sure
that
their
businesses
thrive
and
a
lot
of
them
once
they
complete.
They
use
those
flexible
grant
funds
of
3
500
each
to
support
the
business
in
the
way
that
they
see
fit.
So
some
people
have
used
it
for
ppe.
G
Some
people
have
used
it
for
toys
and
other
educational
educational
items
for
for
their
businesses.
So
we've
seen
a
lot
of
different
people
thrive
in
those
aspects,
and
one
thing
that
I
pride
that
I'm
very
proud
of
when
it
comes
to
the
program
we've
been
able
to
touch
many
providers
that
speak
a
number
of
different
languages.
We
have.
We
have
partners
over
at
the
united
way
that
we've
worked
with,
that.
G
We've
been
able
to
provide
this
workshop
in
spanish,
somali
and
a
number
of
other
languages,
so
we're
making
sure
that
we're
breaking
down
those
barriers
in
order
to
meet
the
providers
where
they're
at
to
give
them
the
resources
they
need.
Also
earlier
this
year
we
did
distribute
the
child
care
contribution
fund
in,
in
collaboration
with
the
bpda
and
those
child
care.
Services
were
also
used
for
for
organizations
in
boston
that
are
looking
to
expand
child
care.
G
Everything
that
I'm
speaking
about
is
hyperlinked
in
my
in
my
presentation
and
you're,
more
than
welcome
to
click
read
more
and
if
you
do
have
any
questions,
I'm
more
than
happy
to
follow
up
and
answer
more.
But
lastly,
I
always
want
to
leave
with
that.
We
are
currently
working
on
another
opportunity
of
funding
through
arpa
to
make
sure
that
we're
giving
more
services
and
resources
for
these
small
child
care
facilities,
but
that
is
a
high
level.
G
Look
at
the
things
that
we're
doing
here
at
women's
advancement
and,
of
course,
we
have
a
number
of
partners
that
we
work
with
and
we're
very
happy
to
all
come
together
in
the
name
of
supporting
boston's
women
and
specifically
the
child
care
industry.
Thank
you.
H
Thank
you.
Thank
you.
Counselor
asabi,
george,
very
good,
to
see
you
thank
you,
councillor,
mejia
and
all
the
other
counselors
as
well.
This
is
an
extremely
important
topic.
We've
always
wanted
to
advocate
and
prioritize
it,
but
unfortunately
we
just
don't
do
enough
to
make
the
kind
of
impact
that's
needed.
My
colleagues
ahead
of
me
have
done
great
work
and
strides.
H
There
needs
to
be
a
lot
more
work
to
be
done,
so
my
presentation
is
going
to
focus
more
on
complementary
efforts
that
we
have
done
from
workforce
development
by
leveraging
resources,
partnerships
and
funding,
but
we
don't
necessarily
have
the
umph
and
that
power
to
just
really
dive
into
and
go
to
scale
like
we
really
want
to,
and
so
the
presentation
will
will
highlight
some
of
those
light
touches,
but
by
all
means
we
need
to
do
a
deeper
dive,
scalable,
powerful
driving
the
engine
to
really
bring
this
to
scale
and
to
make
the
impact
that's
needed
for
families
and
children
and
workers
in
the
city
of
boston.
H
So
if
you
bear
with
me
for
one
second
I'll
pull
up
my
my
power.
H
Okay,
I
I
don't
have
anything.
H
Is
this
okay?
Okay,
great!
Thank
you!
Thank
you
so
much
counselor,
and
so
this
just
kind
of
goes
over.
H
I
can't
see
you
all
in
your
faces,
your
expressions,
so
forgive
me
so
this
just
kind
of
goes
over
our
office
of
workforce
development
trenwin,
I'm
the
director
with
many
partners
that
we
work
here-
and
this
just
goes
through
a
list
of
things
that
we
do
cover
with
the
city,
job,
training,
career,
job
search,
assistance,
education,
adult
education,
financial,
coaching,
tax,
help
and
economic
support
as
well,
and
this
slide
just
quickly
goes
through
the
outcomes
and
impacts
that
we've
had
just
last
year.
H
All
of
this
is
available
at
our
office
of
workforce
development
and
office
of
financial
empowerment,
so
both
websites
have
updated
resources,
publications
outcomes
and
programs
of
two
offices
as
well,
and
so
I'm
briefly
going
to
highlight
some
of
the
work
that
we've
been
doing
to
support
boston's
child
care
workforce
and
by
all
means.
I
think
that
this
is
something
that
we
really
need
to
take
a
deeper
dive
to
make
a
radical
change
on,
but
we
did
provide
technical
assistance
and
financial
support
for
community-centered
programs
that
have
child
care
focuses.
H
Abcd
is
is
very
big
on
its
first
step
program
with
this
early
childhood
education,
we've
funded
them
through
many
many
various
sources,
including
paid
internships
as
well
and
then
abcd
again,
we've
supported
them
with
their
career
exploration,
to
make
sure
that
they
are
supporting
many
careers
in
the
building,
trades,
criminal
justice,
culinary
arts,
and
especially
in
early
education
and
care.
H
And
so
while
we
support
various
industries,
we
also
to
the
best
of
our
ability,
support,
early
education
and
care
as
well,
and
this
year
we've
made
a
a
grant
of
two
hundred
thousand
dollars
just
to
support
the
urban
college
of
boston
program.
H
It's
a
non-traditional
private
two-year
institutions
that
work
with
working
moms
students
across
the
city
and
having
them
do
more,
learn
and
earn
models,
articulation
agreements
using
their
learning
experience
to
matriculate
that
matriculate,
that
into
stackable
credits
with
urban
colleges
and
other
two-year
programs
that
lead
to
four-year
programs
with
the
focus
on
early
childhood
educators
for
the
city.
H
We,
the
other
selected,
highlights
that
we
we
have
done
is
that
within
all
of
our
training
programs,
we
really
prioritize
and
ask
people
to
say:
can
you
team
up
in
order
for
us
to
get
to
support
you
in
your
workforce
training?
Can
you
team
up
with
other
child
care
providers
and
pay
for
their
child
care,
and
so
we
don't
have
all
the
funding
and
the
work
we
wish.
We
did
to
support
students,
participants
in
training
programs
and
pay
for
their
child
care
and
support
system.
H
My
colleague
also
ayanna
spoke
about
the
city's
child
care
entrepreneur
fund.
We've
also
made
a
commitment
to
that
fund
to
ensure
that
there
are
technical
assistance
and
grants
that
are
are
provided
to
applicants
and
those
agencies
that
need
the
grants
and
financial
support
so
that
they
can
be
geared
up.
You
know
again,
we.
What
we
want
to
do
is
utilize
and
optimize
current
ecosystems
and
our
nonprofit
partners
to
access
some
federal
resources.
H
That
came
by
all
of
you
know
the
advanced
child
care
tax
credit
that
came
down
the
pipeline
earlier
this
year.
Families
were
confused
on
how
they
should
access
it.
A
lot
of
them
couldn't
access
it
because
they
had
to
file
taxes,
and
so
what
we
did
with
our
boston
tax
coalition
is
that
we
included
that
counseling
and
that
training,
so
that
when
people
are
doing
their
taxes,
that
they
can
file
for
their
advanced
child
tax
credit
into
their
application
or
inform
them
to
access
it.
H
At
the
same
time,
they
need
to
file
their
their
their
taxes,
at
least
one
year
within
the
three
three
year
past
prior
period,
and
so
we
did
include
the
actc
within
our
tax
tax
coalition,
which
works
with
approximately
11
000
boston
house
households
every
year
to
bring
back
24
million
dollars
of
refund
tax
refunds
back
into
families.
And
so
we
utilize
that
scalable
system,
so
that
families
can
also
access
ac
tc
as
well.
H
So
the
other
piece
that
we
have
been
working
with
on
in
the
last
year,
we'd
like
to
continue
to
do
so,
and
we've
had
forums
and
community
dialogues
with
employers.
So
we've
had
employer
panels
specifically
within
healthcare,
construction,
information
technology
and
also
retail.
We
had
employers
within
those
sectors
and
we
asked
them
what
are
best
practices
and
which
employers
can
provide
either
child
flexibility
for
child
care.
H
Time
off
or
employers
had
to
understand
that
workers
had
child
care
issues
and
problems,
and
so
bringing
those
discussions
with
between
employees
and
then
also
employers
to
engage
with
other
of
their
employer.
H
Colleagues
to
say
here
are
ways
and
best
practices
and
programs
in
which
employers
can
start
to
implement
in
their
own
workplaces,
so
that
we
can
fully
engage
women
and
workers
into
the
workforce,
knowing
that
they
have
this
child
care
issues
as
part
of
their
daily
reality,
and
so
we
work
with
employers
to
have
them
understand
that
employees
need
support
and
recognition
that
there
there
is
this
problem
at
home
so
that
when
they
come
to
work,
employers
understand
those
those
challenges.
Again.
H
These
are
only
light
touches
and
areas
in
which
to
the
best
of
our
ability.
We
try
to
integrate
child
care
into
workforce
training
and
employer
engagement
as
well.
A
lot
more
work
needs
to
be
done.
Much
more
work,
we're
happy
to
listen
and
to
learn
and
to
see
how
we
can
forge.
All
of
our
resources
to
really
make
this
happen,
particularly
around
our
tuition-free
community
college,
to
ensure
that
we're
making
education
and
academic
requirements
debt-free
for
those
who
need
to
need
those
credentials
so
that
they
can
compete
in
the
field.
H
We
also
need
to
know
and
learn
that
this
is
a
big
legislative,
advocacy
and
movement
as
well.
We
need
to
know
that
workers
need
to
get
paid,
they
need
to
be
respected.
It
needs
to
be
good,
paying
jobs,
good
quality
jobs
with
benefits
so
that
they
can
have
a
balanced
structured
life
to
take
care
of
their
own
children
as
well.
So
this
is
much
the
whole
industry
of
child
care
is,
as
you
all
know,
because
you're
leading
this
fight.
It
is
much
more
than
than
a
lot
of
what
my
colleagues
and
I
have
been
presenting.
H
It
needs
to
be
a
statewide
movement.
The
way
we
did
it
with
15
minimum
wage
and
paid
sick
leave.
We
need
to
add
child
care
to
that
priority
list,
happy
to
learn
and
and
be
partners
with
everyone
to
make
this
happen.
This
is
long
overdue.
We've
talked
about
issues
for
for
too
long,
and
we
need
to
do
something
about
it.
Thank
you
and
thank
you
for
listening,
happy
to
question.
Take
questions.
A
Thank
you
very
much
tren
for
that
presentation.
You
can
stop
sharing
this
screen.
Thank
you,
councilman
did
you
want
to
go
to
panel
number
two.
Are
there
questions
with
this
group?
First.
B
I
think
in
the
interest
of
keeping
the
conversation
going,
I
think
that
if
our
colleagues
don't
mind
if
we
could
go
to
the
second
panel
and
then
we
could
have
a
robust
conversation
with
everyone
and
it
feels
everyone
is
engaged.
If
that's
okay
with
the
administration
and
others
is,
that
is
that,
okay.
A
I
Thank
you,
madam
chair.
As
you
heard,
my
name
is
janae
mcdonald.
I'm
the
family
child
care
coordinator
for
sciu,
local
509,
we're
the
union
that
represents
over
20
000
human
service
workers
and
educators
in
massachusetts
with
2
400,
family
child
care
providers
in
our
purview
and
over
400
of
those
fcc
programs
in
the
metro,
boston
area.
I
It
is
a
pleasure
to
be
here
and
also
relief
to
hear
the
continued
call
by
councillor
mehi
and
others
to
continue
to
beat
the
drum
on
the
important
role
that
child
care
plays
for
both
families
and
the
workers,
and
I
also
just
want
to
shed
a
little
light
on
family
child
care
programs
and
what
we
should
keep
in
mind.
I
Unlike
a
center-based
setting
where
assistant
teachers
or
assistant
classroom
teachers,
you
know
have
a
career
ladder
to
look
forward
to
it's
not
the
same
for
fccs.
They
are
both
the
lead
teacher,
the
director
and
any
other
support
role
that
an
education
setting
would
need
while
they
can
work
to
move
their
way
through
the
state
agency's
quality
rating
system,
obtain
certifications
and
other
higher
education
degrees,
which
also
involves
them
incurring
more
debt.
None
of
that
work
is
reflected
in
their
pay.
I
This
pandemic,
like
many
have
said,
continue
to
shine
a
light
on
an
already
fragmented
child
care
system,
while
about
80
percent
of
pre-covert
providers
have
reopened
we're
still
facing
future
capacity.
Challenges
in
the
state
and
boston
is
actually
number
one
in
the
state
for
losing
child
care
capacity.
I
The
family
child
care
providers
that
I
represent
have
dedicated
their
programs
to
serving
low-income
families
with
service
needs
which
automatically
limits
their
earning
potential.
These
are
the
same
providers
who
took
on
debt
in
order
to
pay
their
bills
during
cover
19
closures
and
in
order
to
restructure
their
program
so
that
they
could
safely
reopen.
I
We
have
been
able
to
see
how
amiable
fccs
really
are
during
this
pandemic.
Family
child
care
providers
made
up
a
majority
of
the
programs
that
opted
to
provide
emergency
care
when
everything
was
shut
down,
so
that
front
line
workers
and
other
essential
workers
could
get
to
work.
We
also
saw
how
providers
expanded
their
programs
to
serve
remote
learners
and
that
required
them
to
incur
additional
costs.
I
I
Investing
in
child
care
infrastructure
literally
translates
to
the
critical
steps
towards
racial
justice
and
equity
and
for
a
little
bit
more
perspective,
family
child
care
providers
are
providing
10
to
12
hours
of
care
a
day
and
we're
talking
about
a
range
of
39
to
71
per
child
per
day,
reimbursement
rate.
If
you
were
to
break
that
down
according
to
the
hours
of
operation
and
that
that
goes
to
be
about
three
to
seven
dollars
an
hour,
so
it's
unfair
to
continually
demand
high
quality
right.
I
We
heard
from
other
panelists
continue
to
talk
about
high
quality
high
quality,
while
we're
not
adequately
compensating
providers
for
investing
in
their
education,
their
training
in
our
overall
program.
While
we're
thankful
for
the
hours
of
operation,
the
maximum
hours
of
operation
regulation
being
removed,
child
care
providers
are
still
not
being
made
whole.
These
are
groups
of
women
who
opt
to
open
their
programs
early
to
accommodate
the
needs
of
their
families,
work
schedules,
yet
they
don't
receive
any
differential
or
incentive
for
their
flexibility.
I
This
also
decreases
the
diversity
in
these
industries
when
it
comes
to
women,
women
of
color,
who
have
disproportionately
carried
the
burden
of
solving
their
child
care
needs
so
that
they
can
go
to
work,
and
so
what
it
means
is
that
we
have
building
trade
industries
and
other
industries
where
women
and
women
of
color
cannot
afford
to
enter
because
of
the
child
care
barrier,
and
that's
one
of
the
things
that's
so
special
about
the
care
that
works
coalition.
Non-Standard
hour
care
pilot
that
I
mentioned
earlier.
I
The
pilot
has
actually
taken
on
the
responsibility
of
one
sifting
out
families
that
are
in
need
of
this
care.
Finding
fccs,
who
are
willing
to
participate
in
this
program
and
then
additionally,
actually
providing
that
financial
incentive
stipend
for
those
fcc's
who
are
participating
and
who
are
willing
to
expand
their
program
to
meet
non-traditional
hours.
Providers
need
to
be
able
to
cover
their
basic
operating
costs
in
order
to
keep
their
doors
open
and
make
further
investments
in
providing
high
quality
care
for
one
of
our
most
vulnerable
populations
and
that's
our
children.
I
Additionally,
it's
important
to
make
sure
that
the
burden
of
cost
does
not
get
strapped
to
the
backs
of
families.
A
provider
would
have
to
maintain
maximum
enrollment
just
to
keep
their
head
above
water
with
the
current
reimbursement
model,
and
I
want
to
just
take
you
back
to
what
I
mentioned
about
that
coming
down
to
being
about
three
to
seven
dollars
an
hour
per
child
per
day
rate.
I
The
city
of
boston
has
made
some
contributions
to
the
non-standard
hour
care
pilot
and
the
sustainability
grants
which
we
heard
about
from
the
women's
office
of
advancement
there's
also
another.
This
is
also
another
reason
why
the
common
start
legislation
is
so
important,
which
we
heard
from
his
chin.
Talking
about
the
importance
to
really
increase
and
put
the
child
care
infrastructure
issue
on
a
higher
platform
and
a
common
start,
legislation
does
just
that,
but
I
want
to
highlight
that
we
don't
have
to
necessarily
wait
for
the
state
legislation
in
order
to
make
an
impact.
I
The
city.
Can
you
know
up
the
unity
and
sustainability
grants
for
child
care
programs
and
build
better
on
the
last
application
cycle
in
the
ways
that
they
distribute
the
funds,
also
in
the
ways
in
the
amount
and
how
they
scale
the
funds?
I
And
you
know
I
just
want
to
close
out
my
statement
by
saying.
After
all,
you
know
really
the
boston
economy
depends
on
it.
The
massachusetts
economy
depends
on
it
and
again,
thank
you
for
the
invitation
and
thank
you
for
allowing
me
to
come
here
and
share
the
perspective
of
family
child
care
providers
in
the
boston
area
and
throughout
massachusetts.
J
We
work
directly
with
early
education
providers
in
boston
to
provide
solutions
for
many
of
the
challenges
that
they
face,
including
professional
development,
workforce
sourcing
operations
and
logistics.
So
much
of
what
you've
heard
about
today,
those
those
pain
points
to
describe
what
we
do
in
another
way.
We
provide
many
of
the
supports
that
a
district
would
provide
for
k-12
because
our
early
educators
and
providers
have
been
left
on
their
own
for
far
too
long.
J
J
Our
demographics
are
reflective
of
the
city
about
42
black,
about
36,
latinx,
14
white
and
about
six
percent
asian,
and
it's
through
this
lens
that
I
can
definitively
tell
you
that
boston
is
in
the
midst
of
a
child
care
crisis
that
is
tearing
at
the
fabric
of
our
city
and
if
we
don't
fix
it
soon,
we'll
be
failing
another
generation
of
children
and
families
and
educators.
So
our
job
is
big,
but
every
member
of
this
council
has
spoken
about
the
benefits
of
early
education.
The
latest
research
and
the
science
is
clear.
J
Children
who
participate
in
early
learning
demonstrate
greater
levels
of
educational
achievement,
higher
earnings,
better
health
outcomes,
longer
life
spans.
There's
no
question
that
this
is
the
right
thing
to
do,
and
if
we
want
to
close
the
racial
educational
achievement
gaps
in
the
boston
school
system,
it
starts
with
making
early
education
available
to
all.
Instead
of
scrambling
to
close
the
achievement
gap,
we
can
prevent
it
yet
early
education
is
too
expensive
in
boston
and
it's
out
of
reach
for
too
many
families.
J
Massachusetts
has
the
second
highest
cost
in
the
nation,
for
child
care
and
for
families
who
can't
afford
it.
The
wait
lists
are
really
long
in
the
centers
we
work
with
alone.
Five
programs
have
literally
thousands
of
families
on
the
wait
list,
a
large
percentage
of
them
for
infant
seeds,
each
name
on
that
wait
list.
Each
child
on
that
wait
list
represents
a
parent,
a
bostonian
who
is
ready
to
work
but
cannot
find
child
care.
J
There
are
many
reasons
for
this
problem,
but
I'll
focus
on
one,
which
is
why
we're
here,
which
is
our
workforce
crisis.
We
cannot
offer
the
care
our
kids
and
parents
need,
because
our
centers
are
hemorrhaging
staff.
Our
early
education
workforce,
which
is
mentioned,
is
92
percent
women
and
41
women
of
color
is
earning
as
little
as
14
an
hour.
J
One
study
found
that
44
percent
of
childhood
care
teachers
who
have
recently
experienced
food
insecurity.
We
aren't
competing
for
staff
with
other
education,
centers
we're
losing
them
to
dunkin
donuts,
who
pays
higher
wages.
J
One
teacher
at
one
of
our
partner
schools
alice
in
jamaica,
plain,
whose
executive
director
you'll
hear
from
in
a
few
minutes,
tasha
jackson
told
me
a
few
weeks
ago
how
much
she
loves
her
job
but
said
she
may
have
to
leave
it
because
she
wants
to
have
a
family
of
her
own
and
can't
afford
to
think
about
that
in
boston.
You
have
to
choose
a
career
to
take
care
of
other
people's
children
and
it
means
you
can't
have
afford
to
have
children
of
your
own.
J
It's
unacceptable
and
the
problems
are
more
acute
in
the
city
of
boston
than
some
other
places
in
the
commonwealth.
Many
of
our
educators
cannot
afford
to
live
in
the
city,
so
they
have
to
pay
extra
for
transportation
to
come
in
from
other
places
for
parking,
it's
made
being
an
early
educator
in
boston,
more
difficult
than
almost
anywhere
in
the
entire
nation,
with
a
lack
of
staff.
Many
child
care
centers
been
forced
to
close
and
for
those
that
remain
open,
they
don't
have
staff
to
fill
classrooms.
J
J
And
such
we
have
to
raise
wages,
plain
and
simple:
it'll
require
state
investments
at
the
city,
level,
the
state
level
and
the
federal
level,
but
fortunately
help
is
on
the
way
through
build
back
better
and
on
the
state
level
through
the
common
start
legislation
which
you've
heard
so
much
about.
We
need
the
city
council
to
support
buildback,
better
and
support
the
common
start,
legislation
vocally
and
emphatically.
J
While
we
raise
wages,
we
also
need
to
dramatically
increase
the
number
of
people
who
enter
the
field.
We
neighborhood
villages
has
partnered
with
the
department
of
early
education
and
care
and
all
the
community
colleges
in
the
commonwealth
for
the
professional
pathways
program
that
offers
free
credit,
bearing
college
courses
in
four
languages
to
any
early
educator
in
the
state
for
free
the
program's
been
accessed
by
hundreds
of
bostonians
so
far,
and
it
will
serve
hundreds
more
in
the
coming
year,
not
only
people
in
boston
but
all
across
the
state.
J
We
hope
the
city
will
continue
to
support
initiatives
like
this
that
make
training
free,
so
folks,
don't
have
debt
along
with
their
degrees,
and
we
want
to
make
sure
that
the
educators
in
boston
know
about
all
these
free
programs.
Finally,
for
the
early
educators
we
do
have,
we
need
to
do
all
we
can
to
keep
them.
It
starts
with
keeping
them
safe.
That's
why
we
run
freely
free
weekly,
pooled,
covet
testing
for
any
program
in
the
commonwealth.
Teachers
need
to
feel
safe
and
they
need
infrastructure
built
around
them
to
keep
them
safe.
J
We
hope
the
council
will
continue
and
the
city
will
continue
to
build
infrastructure
around
our
programs.
J
A
Thank
you
very
much,
sarah
for
joining
us
and
for
your
presentation.
Next,
we
have
lauren
cook
ellis,
hey.
K
K
We
are
beloved
in
the
community
and
have
a
long
wait
list
due
to
our
high
level
of
quality
and
our
wonderfully
diverse
learning
environment.
We
have
nearly
75
educators
serving
21
early
education
classrooms,
including
two
community-based
upk
classrooms,
and
we
serve
over
250
infants
through
five-year-olds.
We
also
have
a
small
school-age
program
that
serves
26.
Children
ellis
is
an
example
of
what
boston
can
be
a
place
where
barriers
are
broken
down
and
children
from
all
backgrounds
receive
the
same.
K
Excellent
education
by
all
accounts
ellis
is
a
preeminent
early
education
provider
in
the
city,
but
today
I'm
going
to
be
sharing
a
side
of
our
operations
that
I
typically
don't,
and
while
I'm
speaking
for
ellis
today,
I
will
share
that.
I'm
in
regular
touch
with
some
of
the
city's
largest
and
most
well-regarded
early
education
providers
and
their
struggles
are
similar.
K
Our
workforce
is
suffering
and,
as
a
result,
so
are
the
children
and
families
we
serve.
While
I
won't
spend
time
on
this
today,
I
do
want
to
remind
us
that
the
research
and
brain
science
is
clear.
Early
educators
are
teaching
children
at
the
most
critical
time
of
brain
growth
and
development.
There
is
no
better
investment
that
we
can
make
for
the
city
of
boston
than
in
early
childhood.
K
Education
ellis
has
13
teacher
vacancies
right
now,
and
we
have
one
classroom
in
our
jp
center
that
we've
never
been
able
to
open
due
to
lack
of
staff,
which
sarah
muncie
just
mentioned.
Not
only
do
we
have
no
teachers,
but
we
have
no
applicants,
I'm
not
exaggerating.
We
have
no
qualified
applicants
for
these
positions
or
if
there
is
one
we
can't
afford
them.
This
is
a
workers
market.
There
are
so
many
employers
hiring
and
paying
well.
Amazon
and
costco
are
paying
18
to
25
an
hour.
K
Alice
currently
pays
teachers
15
to
21
per
hour,
which
has
been
competitive
in
the
field.
Fortunately,
some
arpa
relief
funding
through
eec
will
help
us
do
more
for
our
staff
this
year,
but
that
funding
is
temporary
and
we
need
a
permanent
influx
of
funding
in
this
sector
to
attract
and
maintain
a
qualified
workforce.
K
K
Their
jobs
include
teaching
wiping
noses
changing,
diapers,
de-escalating
meltdowns,
feeding,
burping
cleaning,
up
messes
planning
and
executing
fun
and
engaging
activities
bundling
kids
up
to
play
outside
unbundling
them
when
they
return
inside
tying
shoes.
Drawing
tears,
taking
the
calls
from
mothers
checking
in
taking
photos
to
share
with
families
observing
the
children
to
ensure
they're
on
track
to
reach
their
milestones,
helping
children
with
critical
social
skills
like
learning,
to
share
and
being
gentle
getting
children
ready
for
kindergarten
and
literally
keeping
everyone
safe
all
the
time
the
job
is
exhausting.
K
K
It
hurts
teachers
themselves
by
making
the
jobs
of
those
that
stay
even
harder.
Now.
Not
only
do
our
teachers
have
to
support
the
children,
they
need
to
support
whomever
is
helping
out
in
the
classroom,
as
I'm
speaking
to
you
today,
our
front
desk
person,
development
assistant
and
communications
manager
are
all
in
classrooms
covering
for
missing
staff,
and
our
finance
associate
is
at
the
front
desk
answering
the
phones
and
buzzing
people
through
the
front
door.
K
One
of
our
best
infant
teachers
of
over
seven
years
recently
resigned
with
no
notice
due
to
the
stress
of
inconsistency
in
her
classroom.
Coupled
with
the
stress
of
the
pandemic.
This
is
not
sustainable.
Teacher
turnover
also
hurts
children.
Research
shows
that
consistent
caregivers
are
key
to
obtaining
positive
outcomes.
In
kids,
consistent
teachers
get
to
know
children
almost
as
well
as
their
own
parents.
They
know
how
to
manage
their
young
students,
stress,
challenge
them
and
make
them
laugh
and
shriek
into
light.
K
Finally,
teacher
turnover
also
hurts
families.
Parents
want
to
know
and
trust
their
child's
teachers.
They
want
to
know
their
kids
are
in
the
capable
hands
of
qualified
early
educators.
Right
now,
our
children
are
in
the
hands
of
suffering
teachers
and
not
enough
of
them.
Teachers
are
trapped
in
poverty-like
lifestyles
due
to
low
wages,
teachers
are
stressed
by
pandemic
life
and
the
challenges
of
demanding
work
for
little
pay.
This
isn't
fair
to
our
teachers
and
it's
not
fair
to
the
children.
We
serve.
K
Child
care
sits
at
the
intersection
of
every
issue
that
the
city
of
boston
cares
about
improving,
including
housing.
It's
too
expensive
to
live
in
or
near
boston
on
an
early
ad
salary
transportation,
it's
too
expensive
to
park
near
ellis
educational
equity,
economic
mobility,
social
justice
and
racial
justice.
Did
I
mention
that
90
of
ellis
teachers
are
women
of
color,
considering
the
depth
of
challenges
the
workforce
and
sector
faces?
It's
truly
incredible.
The
level
of
joy
and
growth
we're
able
to
achieve
for
the
children
we
serve.
Our
teachers
are
actually
miracle
workers.
K
K
Last
week
we
lost
an
amazing
teacher
to
be
a
paraprofessional
at
the
sumner
school
in
roslindale,
where
she'll
make
five
more
dollars
per
hour.
Who
can
blame
her?
There
is
a
solution
to
the
child
care
problem,
though,
but
it
will
take
political
will
at
every
level
to
fix
it.
The
answer
is
simply
increase
funding
to
the
sector
right
now,
even
colleges
are
seeing
a
drop
in
early
education
interests
because
it's
so
widely
known
how
dismal
the
pay
is.
In
fact,
some
early
education
programs
are
no
longer
being
offered
at
all.
K
The
pipeline
is
dry
to
attract
new
talent
to
the
field
and
retain
the
good
teachers
that
we
do
have.
We
need
to
pay
people
what
they
deserve.
They
need
to
be
able
to
afford
life
in
boston
and
have
a
positive,
manageable
work
experience.
Everyone
is
entitled
to.
Thank
you
so
much
for
hearing
me
today.
A
Thank
you
very
much
lauren
and
next
we
have
krista
mcswain
kristin,
welcome.
L
Thank
you,
chairwoman
asabi
georgian.
Thank
you
councillor,
mejia,
for
convening
this
really
important
conversation
about
early
education
and
the
child
care
workforce.
L
The
thing
that
the
couple
points
I'd
like
to
make
that
we
haven't
covered
is
that
early
education
is
an
essential
infrastructure
for
our
healthy
economy.
Covid19
revealed
to
the
entire
country
what
early
education
and
care
has
known
for
years.
Child
care
is
the
backbone
of
our
economy.
L
According
to
the
massachusetts
taxpayer
foundation,
the
heavy
loss
of
women
in
the
workforce
over
this
past
year
and
a
half
including
those
who
have
stopped
seeking
unemploy
or
stop
seeking
employment,
is
due
to
the
drop
in
child
care
capacity
in
the
commonwealth,
and
yet
we
know
that
women's
participation
in
the
labor
force
is
a
key
driver
for
economic
growth
in
order
to
recover
boston
has
to
invest
both
our
general
funds
and
our
arpa
dollars
to
work
on
the
long-standing
and
worsening
child
care
shortage.
We
have
to
invest
in
our
educators
who
lead
and
staff
classrooms.
L
L
What
that
means
for
the
average
family
in
boston
is
that
half
of
the
families
looking
for
child
care
can't
find
it,
and
that
is
before
we
get
to
the
cut
the
challenge
that
we're
talking
about
right
now.
All
of
the
positions
that
we've
been
talking
about
previously
are
licensed
child
care
positions
that
aren't
able
to
be
filled
right,
classrooms
that
don't
have
teachers
can't
have
children
in
them
and
those
are
what's
licensed
so
that
shortage
in
child
care
providers
and
the
workforce
exacerbates,
what's
already
short
for
licensed
child
care.
L
33
percent
of
educators,
reporting
using
at
least
one
public
benefit
on
a
yearly
basis,
so
this
is
a
status
that
was
already
in
place
before
covid.
That
has
been
exacerbated
by
cloven
and
all
of
the
daily
challenges
that
lauren
outlined.
In
her
comments
about
the
challenges
that
the
workforce
is
facing
in
the
classroom,
despite
all
of
that,
early
educators
are
among
the
most
vital
work
workers
in
the
city
of
boston's
social
infrastructure.
L
We
need
to
support
them
in
the
following
ways
in
order
to
be
sure
that
we
are
able
to
have
a
workforce
who
can
show
up
and
report
to
work
where
their
children
are
in
safe
places
and
the
educators
who
are
working
with
them
are
justly
compensated
for
the
work
that
they
do.
A
couple
of
recommendations
we
would
make
is
to
expand
the
city
of
boston,
child
care
entrepreneur
fund.
L
We
need
to
expand
other
small
business
supports
to
include
child
care
providers
because
it's
such
a
regulated
industry,
many
of
them,
don't
find
their
way
to
the
resources
available
for
other
small
businesses.
How
can
we
make
connections
to
the
mentoring,
technical
assistance,
small
business
loans
that
they
need
in
order
to
be
successful?
L
We
need
to,
as
you've
heard
today,
support
the
existing
child
care
workforce,
both
center-based
and
family
child
care,
by
using
funds
to
augment
teacher
compensation
or
provide
loan
forgiveness
to
build
a
sustainable
local
workforce
that
is
compensated
fairly
for
their
important
work.
This
could
be
modeled
on
the
upk
endowment
that
tiara
talked
about
or
on
the
tuition-free
community
college
program
that
was
started
by
the
office
of
workforce
development.
L
What
are
currently
low
paid
positions
and
anything
we
can
do
to
incentivize
them
entering
debt
free
enables
them
to
be
able
to
make
a
better
living
for
themselves
and
their
families,
while
we're
waiting
for
these
larger
pieces
of
legislation
to
pass
the
la
the
next
thing
we
need
to
do
is
invest
in
attracting
new
talent
to
the
child
care.
Workforce
lauren
specifically
talked
about
this
pipeline
that
has
dried
up,
but
we
know
that
there
are
other
places
where
we
are
doing
parent
leadership.
L
Lastly,
all
of
the
things
that
we've
been
talking
about
have
a
direct
impact
on
our
children
and
we
need
to
expand
the
implementation
of
developmental
screening
in
child
care
settings
so
that
we
know
what's
happening
with
our
young
people,
we're
connecting
them
and
their
families
to
developmental
supports
and,
if
needed,
to
special
education
or
early
intervention,
so
that
we
can
move
forward
in
our
recovery
and
an
equitable
way.
Thank
you.
A
Thank
you
very
much
kristen.
I
think
that's
everybody
for
our
presentations
this
afternoon.
I
first
want
to
just
say
thank
you
to
all
of
you
who
have
presented
today
and
thank
you
to
your
staff
and
your
organizations
and
those
caregivers
that
are
doing
very
important
work,
educating
our
youngest
kids.
I
also
want
to
know
kristen
just
based
on
that
common
start
legislation
comment.
A
I
believe
that
we
as
a
I
texted
this
to
ask
the
question
that
we
did
pass
a
resolution
as
a
statement
of
our
city
council's
support
of
that
common
start
legislation,
but
agree
with
you.
We've
got
so
much
more
work
to
do.
I've
got
just
a
couple
questions
that
I'll
save
till
after
the
lead
sponsor
asks
her
questions
and
my
colleagues
do
so
counselor
mejia
thank.
B
You
counselor
asapi
george,
and
also
just
thank
you
so
very
much
to
everyone
who
literally
showed
up
not
just
showing
up
but
like
came
here
with
so
much
great
knowledge
and
advocacy
you
already.
We
already
know
what
we
need
to
do
now.
The
question
is
how
we're
going
to
get
it
done
and
I'm
so
enthusiastic
and
encouraged
by
the
steps
that
you
have
laid
forth
and
now
we
got
our
marching
orders,
but
I
do
have
a
few
questions.
B
Some
will
be
for
our
the
administration
and
then
some
for
our
advocates.
So
just
in
the
interest
of
keeping
time,
I'm
going
to
be
as
quickly
as
possible.
So
if
we
could
just
go
right
into
for
the
bps
folks,
can
you
just
tell
me
quickly
a
little
bit
more
about
your
program-wide
salary
increase
metrics
like
what
does
that
look
like
and
how
are
you
working
directly
with
providers
and
advocates
like
sciu
509,
to
engage
in
this
work.
E
Yeah,
so
programs
receive
11k
per
child,
that's
in
addition
to
additional
funding
that
can
be
braided
and
they
create
the
budget.
The
community
base
creates
the
budget
and
uses
it
how
they
wish
we
require
that
they
pay.
The
I
mentioned
the
the
teacher
is
58.
The
associate
teacher
can
be
no
lower
than
34.
E
the
program
director
is
61,
and
then
we
require
an
increase
stipend
for
family
engagement,
assistant,
director
and
executive
positions.
However,
as
programs
move
up
on
a
quality
threshold
again,
they
can
use
their
budget.
However,
they
like
so
you
know,
boys
and
girls.
Club
and
ellis
can
say
you
know
we
want
to
pay
both
of
our
co-teachers
58k
or
they
can
say
we
want
to
apply
for
the
equity
fund,
because
we
want
to
address
turnover
and
we
want
to
use
30k
for
staff
retention.
E
B
Your
question
yeah:
can
you
also
just
talk
a
little
bit
about
how
you
are
engaging
advocates
and
providers
like
seiu
509,
to
help
with
that
decision
making
process?
Do
you?
Do
you
engage
other
stakeholders
in
this
conversation
to
inform
your
thinking?
B
E
So
we
have
a
governance
model.
So
to
answer
your
question:
we're
not
currently
engaging
on
the
groups
that
you
just
mentioned.
We
do
have
a
governance
model,
so
that
includes
our
advisory
committee.
That
includes
a
family
council,
and
that
includes
our
community-based
organizations,
but
there's
no
one
outside
of
that
governance
model.
Currently
that
we're
engaging
the
only
thing.
F
I
would
add
the
only
thing
that
I
would
is
that
the
money
goes.
F
Get
it
okay,
sorry
about
that!
Is
that
the
way
the
funding
goes?
It
goes
directly
to
the
program
so
that
they
can
negotiate
with
their
staff,
their
own
rates
and
their
own
salaries.
So
we
really
leave
it
at
the
community-based
provider
because
we
can't
kind
of
dictate
how
every
program
should
pay
their
staff.
That's
why
we
set
bars
and
then
put
requirements
of
of
educational
requirements
and
that
they
use
the
quality
curriculum
and
that
they
use
the
coaching
and
then
we
partner
with
them
to
build
the
best
strategy
with
them.
F
But
it's
really
done
one
program
at
a
time
to
reassure
the
quality
and
you
know
btu
and
sc.
F
I
really
they're
two
different
unions
and
I
think
that's
one
of
the
things
that
there
should
be
some
discussion,
because
there
they
have
two
different
bargaining
strategies
and
that's
something
that
it
is
worth
thinking
through
in
the
long
run
in
this.
But
again
that's
really
at
the
community-based
level,
and
I
believe
most
community-based
programs
do
not
have
union
center-based
unions.
I
think
one
or
two
do
but
the
majority
that's
just
negotiated
with
a
bargaining
agreement
at
that
program.
B
B
You
know
we
we
we
know
that
the
pay
for
child
care
workers-
it's
it's
not
where
it
needs
to
be,
especially
when
it
comes
to
the
amount
of
work
that
they
put
in
and
I'm
just
curious.
How
are
we
advocating
on
the
city
side
of
things
for
better
pay
for
child
care
workers,
those
who
aren't
employed
through
upk
and
what
funding
did
we
use
throughout
the
pandemic
to
help
early
childhood
educators
just
curious?
B
Both
one
is:
oh,
I
think
that
jason,
you
could
answer
the
upk
one
and
then
I'd
like
tren
to
talk
to
us
a
little
bit
about
what
we
can
do
to
help
support
or
some
the
women
advancement
folks
to
talk
a
little
bit
about
providing
health
care.
F
Well,
so,
from
the
bps
perspective,
you
know
this
was
a
disruptive
influence
we
basically
stepped
in
and
said
you
got
to
pay
your
staff
and
there
was
a
fair
amount
of
resistance
in
the
beginning,
but
I
think
over
time
people
have
really
seen
it,
even
though
it's
challenging
as
a
benefit.
So
I
think
really
it's
just
the
city
stepping
in
and
saying
this
is
what
workers
really
need.
F
This
is
what
high
quality
instruction
should
look
like
and
therefore
you
should
pay
for
it
and
being
flexible
enough
to
work
with
each
agency
to
make
it
work,
and
so
I
would
think
that
that
would
be
a
good
model
to
to
think
through
for
for
a
non-upk
programs
as
well.
F
We
also
did
use
the
kind
of
negotiation
of
the
btu,
because
it's
a
starting
salary
of
the
boston
teachers
union,
beginning
teacher,
so
I
do
think
you
know
that's
sort
of
the
combination
of
those
two
should
be
thought
through,
but
then
also
it's
it's
with
the
instructional
requirements.
Come
the
use
of
a
strong
curriculum.
Coaching
supports
other
comprehensive
services.
F
So
I
guess
I
would
just
say:
that's
that's
a
lesson
to
be
learned
and
then
what
you
see
clearly
is
that
turnover
is
much
lower
and
that
you
do
get
much
more
stability
and
high
quality
instruction
and
stronger
outcomes.
B
Yeah,
thank
you
for
that
jason.
Okay.
So
if
tren
or
a
women
or
a
jana
from
women
is
advancement.
The
question
in
regards
to
advocating
for
health
care
options,
and
while
I
have
that
you
there
just
also
curious
about,
there
are
a
lot
of
immigrants
that
come
to
this
country
and
I'm
just
curious
about
the
pipeline
and
how
we're
creating
the
pipeline
to
get
them
into
this
profession.
G
I
can
jump
in,
I
know
for
us.
We
haven't
specifically
taken
that
deeper
dive
into
the
healthcare
aspect,
but
I
do
know
when
it
comes
to
looking
at
pay.
G
When
you
know
with
our
arpa
opportunities,
we
are
looking
at
ways
to
support
child
care
facilities
and
bringing
back
their
their
employees
and
giving
you
know
making
sure
that
they
have
the
funding
to
either
increase
or
give
other
financial
assistance
to
help
transition
them
back
into
the
workplace,
to
increase
those
seats
to
increase
those
opportunities
for
them
to
thrive
in
that
industry.
G
So
that's
something
that
is
in
process
that
we're
looking
forward
to
distributing
out
to
the
community,
but
I
do
know
when
we're
thinking
about
our
immigrant
community
here
in
boston.
That's
something
that
we've
been
really
really
cognizant
of,
because
we
understand
that
there
are
so
many
folks
that
are
coming
here,
looking
for
different
opportunities
and
we've,
and
especially
with
our
childhood
entrepreneur
fund,
that
being
our
largest
our
largest
program
right
now,
we
see
folks
from
many
walks
of
life.
G
So
I
know
we
constantly
engage
with
those
who
have
completed
the
program
to
understand
how
we
can
get
in
contact
with
more
people
in
their
community
and
have
them
be
an
ambassador
of
sorts
of
the
things
that
we're
doing
here
at
women's
advancement
and
with
the
community.
You
see
on
on
this
hearing
right
now,
because
I
know
in
different
capacities
we
all
work
together.
G
H
Yeah,
just
just
just
quickly,
I
mean
we
do
support
any
legislation
that
comes
down
the
pipeline
through
letters
of
support,
testimony
and
really
advocating
with
the
administration.
H
We
do
use
a
portion
of
our
fund,
our
training
dollars,
which
which
is
not
that
flexible
to
support
child
care
workers,
but
I
have
to
admit
that
we
just
don't
do
enough
so
love
to
hear
more
on
how
we
can
obtain
additional
resources
so
that
we
can
be
better
partners.
So
that's
where
we're
coming
from
we'd
love
to
do
more.
B
Yeah,
thank
you.
I
appreciate
that,
and
so
I'm
just
gonna
add
two
questions
for
the
advocates.
I'm
just
curious.
You
know
there
seems
to
be
a
disconnect
between
the
cost
of
child
care,
and
everybody
knows
that
massachusetts
has
the
most
expensive
child
care
in
the
country,
but
the
cost
of
child
care
never
seems
to
make
its
way
into
the
pockets
of
our
child
care
workers,
and
so
I'm
just
curious.
B
How
do
you
all
feel
as
a
city
that
what
we
can
do
to
change
that,
and
do
you
feel
that
the
solution
is
to
empower
workers
to
start
their
own
centers
or
to
find
ways
to
empower
providers
with
their
current
workplaces?
J
I'm
happy
to
like
just
real
quickly
say
one
short
thing,
which
is
that
this
is
a
broken
business
model
like
nobody's
making
money
off
of
this
we're
trying
to
pretend
it's
like
a
health
club
where
we
can
have
like
more
members,
there's
no
money
so
nobody's
making
money
off
of
it,
and
the
programs
like
which
lauren
cook
can
can
speak
to
so
eloquently
have
to
make
these
really
tough
decisions
right
about
even
keeping
their
doors
open
and
fixing
the
boiler,
and
all
of
these
other
things
like
facilities
that
k-12
sort
of
gets
the
privilege
of
spending
time
and
struggling
with
and
concentrating
on
and
child
care.
J
It's
just
about
wages,
and
I
think,
while
there
are
band-aids,
we
can
try
to
do
as
a
city.
This
is
a
public
good.
We
need
a
huge
infusion
of
money
from
the
state
via
common
star
or
the
country
via
buildback,
better
to
really
meaningfully
raise
wages,
because
when
we
give
six
months
one
year,
when
we
tell
programs
we'll
give
you
this
little
band-aid,
this
little
band-aid,
they
can't
commit
to
their
teachers
that
they
can
weigh
raise
their
wages
for
a
long
term.
J
So
they
just
don't
do
it,
because
it's
you
don't
want
to
create
a
dissatisfier,
so
I'll
I'll.
Let
lauren
and
others
speak
to
the
to
the
nitty-gritty,
but
just
wanted
to
throw
out
there
that
it's
just
if
we
zoom
up
a
thousand
feet.
It
is
just
such
a
broken
business
model.
There's
nothing
that
we're
selling
that
we
can
raise
the
price
of
it's
like,
but
the
thing
about
it
is
is
that
seventh
grade's
the
same
way
if
we
tried
to
make
seventh
grade
pay
for
itself,
it'd
be
the
same
way.
J
I
I
want
to
chime
in,
and
you
know
I
echo
everything
that
sarah
just
said,
but,
however,
from
the
fcc
standpoint-
and
this
is
not
going
to
be
necessarily
a
popular
standpoint
right,
so
we
know
that
the
system
is
broken.
We
understand
that
all
programs,
both
center-based
and
fcc's,
are
strapped
for
finances
because
they
need
to
be
funded
better,
but
as
the
union
that
helps
negotiate
with
its
members
for
higher
rates
and
for
other
benefits.
I
One
of
the
things
that
came
to
light
was
the
discrepancies
in
the
contract
between
the
state
agency
and
the
child
care
systems,
which
act
as
an
intermediary
for
some
family
child
care
programs
of
both
payment
and
then
some
other
services.
So
these
systems
are,
you
know,
they're,
just
supposed
to
be
business.
I
Support
that
you
heard
a
lot
of
people
talk
about
being
able
to
offer
family
child
care
providers
because
they
are
operating
as
independent
businesses
and
are
working
constantly
to
get
the
skills
they
need
to
be
able
to
operate
their
programs,
but
unfortunately,
some
of
that
some
of
the
systems
are
unfortunately
operating
more
like
employers
of
the
fcc's
and
they're
not,
and
so
one
of
the
things
that
came
to
light
when
we
negotiated
our
last
contract
was
there
are
certain
additional
rates
and
payments
that
are
being
made
between
the
for
the
contract
between
the
state
agency
and
the
system
for
servicing,
whether
it's
like
young
parents
or
at-risk
youth,
etc.
I
And
so
what
we
found
is
some
of
the
systems
give
a
very
small
amount
of
that
to
their
fcc,
because
the
fcc
is
the
actual
one
on
the
front
line,
doing
the
work.
So
if
there's
an
additional
17
22
per
child
per
rate
for
servicing,
a
team
parent
for
servicing,
a
homeless
family
or
some
other
service
need,
some
systems
are
giving
anywhere
from
one
to
three
dollars
of
that
extra
1722
to
the
family,
child
care
provider
and
some
systems
aren't
given
anything.
I
I
That
would
be
that
what
well,
what
we
discovered?
What
would
need
to
happen
is
is
that
the
contract,
either
between
a
system
and
a
state
agency
would
have
to
be
reconstructed
so
that
either
all
of
that
or
part
of
that
money
or
more
of
it
would
go
to
the
fcc
or
that
we
would
ask
the
systems
to
do
the
morally
and
ethically
right
thing
and
to
give
more
of
that
money
directly
to
the
fcc,
because
they
are
the
one
servicing
that
child
and
family.
B
Oh
yeah,
hard
to
hear
people
paying
attention
is
what
we
need
to
do.
I'm
curious.
If
anyone,
if
any
other
advocates,
I
just
I
know,
counselor
asabi,
george,
that
you
know
we
usually
have
seven
minutes
and
I
and
I
don't
want
to
overextend
my
time
but
I'm
happy
to
come
back
for
another
round,
but
I
think
we're.
I
think,
we've
heard
loud
and
clear
where
we
need
to
go.
At
least
my
questions
were
answered,
so
I
feel
pretty
good
for
now.
A
C
C
You
know
for
a
long
long
time
and
we
are
in
a
crisis
one
one
question
I
had
with
regard
to
onboarding
new
entrepreneurs
is
anyone
looking
at
cooperative
child
care
initiatives
that
parents
could
could
develop
in
partnership
with?
Is
anyone
looking
at
cooperative
child
care?
That's
really
one
another
option.
I
think
we
need
to
look
at
any
and
all
options
in
terms
to
develop
this
infrastructure.
G
I
know
with
the
child
care
entrepreneur
fund
when
we
do
look
at
how
we
structured
it
in
the
beginning.
Cooperative
co-ops
were
an
option
for
that,
but
I
do
know
the
feedback
that
we
did
receive
is
that
a
lot
of
the
aspiring
and
current
providers
had
difficulty
with
establishing
that.
G
So
I
know
right
now,
we've
just
been
looking
at
like
the
the
current
aspiring
family
child
care
businesses,
but
I
know
that
we've
taken
that
into
consideration
on
how
we
can
evolve
since
we've
gotten
that
feedback
that
the
co-ops
have
been
difficult
to.
You
know
to
establish.
G
For
at
least
for
the
conversations
around
the
child
care
entrepreneur
fund,
I
know
particularly
they
precede
my
time
with
women's
advancement,
but
I
do
know
I
speak
with
our
our
partners
that
are
a
part
of
this
hearing
right
now
and
I
know
we're
going
to
have
a
deeper
dive
into
how
we
can
make
sure
that
that
is
more
accessible.
C
Yeah,
because
for
some
particular
groups,
especially
immigrant
groups-
or
you
know-
I
know
in
our
district
out
here-
we
have
lots
of
religious
minorities
like
the
orthodox
jewish
community,
where
child
care
is
a
major
issue
and
and
thinking
about
co-ops
might
be
a
creative
way
to
help
get
those
women
into
the
workforce.
Again,
you
know
so
I
think
yeah.
C
J
The
family
counselor-
I
just
wanted
to
say
that
one
of
the
things
that
I've
heard
recently
when
co-ops
are
brought
up
is
that
you
do
need
some
flexibility
in
parent
schedule.
It
used
to
be
such
a
popular.
You
know
way
for
folks
to
band
together.
J
Folks
don't
have
as
much
when
they
do
get
a
work
schedule
now,
it's
quite
often
that
they
can't
take
that
one
day
every
other
week
or
so
that
you
know
a
co-op
sort
of
has
you
has
you
there?
J
C
But
maybe
covered
one
of
the
things
that
covert
has
maybe
taught
us
that
we
need
to
be
flexible
in
all
sorts
of
ways.
We
never
would
have
imagined
a
few
years
ago.
So
maybe
it's
an
opportune
moment
to
try
and
think
about
that
and
the
other
issue
I
had
was
in
relation
to-
and
this
is
maybe
a
question
I
need
to
take
up
with
the
bpda
is.
Is
you
know
that,
when
we're
building
when
we're
building
residential.
C
Housing
that
that
spaces,
when
the
within
buildings
should
be
designed
to
be
family,
friendly
and
potential
child
care
spaces
that,
I
think
that's
another
issue,
that
for
many
folks
who
live
in
apartment
buildings
or
that
in
terms
of
family
child
care
that
they're
very
restricted
in
terms
of
the
space
that's
available.
Is
that
something
that
you're
encountering
with
onboarding
new
potential
child
care
providers,
especially
in
the
family
side?.
I
One
thing
I
wanted
to
say
about
that:
one
of
the
issues
that
we've
seen
as
it
relates
to
either
buildings
or
landlords
or
budding
entrepreneurs
who
do
not
own
their
home
is
that
some
landlords
do
not
want
them
to
to
have
a
family
child
care
program,
and
it
may
be
for
some
of
that
reason.
I
But
one
of
the
main
reasons
that
we've
heard
is
the
liability,
but
one
of
the
things
that
we
have
to
spend
a
lot
of
time
trying
to
get
our
member
leaders
to
educate
these
property
owners
on
is
that
our
family
child
care
providers
actually
have
liability
insurance,
and
so
I
think
it
would
be
really
helpful.
I
don't
know
if
there's
some
sort
of
education
that
can
be
done
with
landlords
or
property
owners
or
some
sort
of
campaign
that
can
be
run
so
that
they
understand
that
and
it
doesn't
feel
like
our
family.
I
Child
care
providers
are
being
discriminated
against.
You
know
for
have
been
able
to
run
their
business
rightfully
so
with
liability,
insurance
and
really
understanding
that
the
property
manager
doesn't
have
to
take
on
that
liability.
So
that's
one
of
the
things
that
we've
seen
as
it
relates
to
family
child
care
providers,
who
don't
own
their
home
very.
B
C
A
Thank
you,
councillor
braden.
I
think
those
are
some
excellent
questions.
I
don't
think
we
have
counselor
flynn
or
council
flaherty
with
us
anymore.
I've
got
a
couple
of
quick
questions
for
the
boston
public
schools
for
upk.
I'm
curious.
My
three
questions
are:
how
many
four-year-olds
are
there
in
the
city
of
boston?
Do
we
know
that
number
and
then
what
is
the
goal
for
three-year-olds?
For
next
year?
You
had
talked
about
the
administration's
hope
to
increase
that
number
for
three-year-olds
and
then
my
last
question
is
because
we
talked
a
lot
about
it.
E
So
the
first
question
was
in
regards
to
four-year-olds.
What
we
use
is
the
k2
bpsk2
enrollment
number.
So
we
look
at
how
many
children
enroll
in
boston,
public
schools
for
k2
do.
F
So
we
know
both
the
census
numbers
and
then
we
also
know
birth
records,
but
they're,
not
they're,
not
as
perfect.
That's
why
we
we
tend
to
use
the
k2
numbers
because
at
least
we
know
those
who
did
use
a
free
public
service.
That's
that's
kind
of
been
the
logic
to
it,
but
you
know
the
census
is
usually
two
is
lower
and
then
birth
records
are
usually
higher,
but
it's
usually
around
six
thousand,
just
to
kind
of
give
you
a
sense,
and
but
it's
about
four
thousand
that
use
the
bps
give
or
take.
F
You
know
a
couple
hundred
here
and
there
depending
on
the
year.
So
that's
the
first
question
then
yeah.
E
And
just
to
finish
that,
so
if
we
use
that
number
4000
and
we
have
3
200
seats
currently
through
our
community
base
and
the
boston
public
schools,
so
that
tells
you
where
what
we
believe
to
be
the
gap
that
we're
working
to
fill.
However,
the
three,
but
we're
and
again
that
census
data
from
years
ago.
So
we
need
to
look
at
what
what's
currently
in
boston
for
four-year-olds.
So
your
question
about
three-year-olds
mayor
jamie
allowed
us
to
do
a
small
expansion
of
25
and
then
we're
going
to
propose
to
continue
to
expand.
E
We
have
allowed
each
program
to
tell
us
what
kind
of
model
they
want,
so
they
can
braid
three
and
four-year-olds
in
their
classrooms.
We
do
have
some
standalone
three-year-old
runs,
but
our
planet
is
to
assess
the
need
and
expand
as
much
as
the
mayors
are
willing
to
allow
us
to
do.
Then.
Your
third
question
was
about
the
difference
between
a
lead
teacher,
holy
teacher
and
a
teacher
associate
and
again.
Those
are.
E
Those
are
really
titles
for
us
you'll
see
across
community-based
organizations
that
it
varies,
but
our
requirement
is
a
bachelor's
degree
and
you'll
see
it
very.
So
you'll
have
like
a
boys
and
girls
club
that
has
two
co-lead
teachers.
It
means
they
both
have
a
bachelor's
degree
and
they
both
make
that
salary,
where
you
might
go
to
another
program.
That
has
a
lead
teacher
and
they
have
the
bachelor's
degree.
But
the
associate
teacher
has
an
associate's
degree.
E
A
Answer
your
question:
it
does.
Thank
you
very
much,
so
I
don't.
I
don't
have
any
additional
questions.
Counselor
mejia,
do
you
have
additional
questions
and
we
do
have
someone
signed
up
for
public
testimony
which,
as
your
I'll,
promote
dennis
kirkpatrick
to
panelists?
If
he's
here
with
us
to
offer
testimony,
but
in
the
meantime
counselor
mejia
is
the
lead
sponsor.
Do
you
have
additional
questions
or
follow-up
comment.
B
Yeah,
I
just
wanted
to
quickly
just
get
a
better
handle,
I'm
wondering
if
any
of
the
advocates
have
any
thoughts
or
feedback
that
about
what
they've
heard
from
the
administration.
Any
questions
that
you
have
would
just
love
to
give
you
all
an
opportunity
to
ask
any
questions
or
or
share
any
comments.
I'll
use.
My
time
to
give
to
you
all.
J
One
thing
I'll
just
throw
up
there
is
that
that
programs
can
speak
to
is
that
when
you
do
have
upk
classrooms
in
your
program,
it
sort
of
highlights
how
much
of
a
public
good.
This
is,
because
you
do
see
stark
differences
between
the
resources
available
to
that
upk
classroom
everything
you
know
from
pay
to
coaching,
etc
and
the
rest
of
the
folks
in
the
building.
J
So
you
know
my
dream:
is
that
one
day
we'll
we'll
be
looking
at
this
like
really
holistically,
because
we
do
ask
child
care,
particularly
centers
center-based
care
to
really
piece
together
their
classrooms
in
sort
of
an
unnatural
way,
not
unnatural,
but
figuring
out.
You
know
who's
going
to
be
in
each
classroom
based
on
which
dollars
can
be
used
for
those
children.
It's
a
really
hard
way
to
run
a
child
care
center.
J
L
L
The
work
that
moa
has
been
doing
the
last
couple
of
years
is
really
amazing
and
transformative,
but
there
are
a
lot
of
things
that
the
city
could
be
doing
in
addition
to
what's
happening
at
the
state
and
the
federal
level,
and
so
you
know
part
of,
I
think,
the
the
benefit
of
this
conversation
is
you
all
seeing
what
the
issues
are
by
those
who
are
experiencing
them,
but
also
really
thinking
about
the
leadership
role
that
the
city,
council
and
the
mayor
can
play
together
to
be
working
on
this
issue
at
both
the
city
level,
the
state
level
and
then
also
the
federal
level.
L
So
I
thank
you
for
the
conversation.
I
just
hope
you
continue
to
think
about
the
role
that
you
can
play,
because
I
think
it
is
quite
substantial
and
and
one
that
all
of
us
would
you
know
partner
with
you
to
continue
to
move
forward.
A
M
Right,
thank
you
very
much.
Counselor
try
to
be
as
brief
as
possible,
we're
very
fortunate
to
have
been
running
an
operation
inside
the
bcyf
roslindale
community
center.
Unfortunately,
about
two
weeks
before
the
cove
shutdowns,
the
building
suffered
a
devastating
flood
and
it
will
not
reopen
again
until
late
january
by
then,
our
child
care
program
and
preschool
will
have
been
closed
two
years.
M
The
good
news
is
we're
hoping
to
reopen
we're
going
to
have
to
re-license
and
get
all
of
our
ducks
in
a
line.
Good
news
is
at
least
two
of
my
former
employees
that
I
had
to
lay
off
are
willing
to
come
back,
because,
where
they're
working
now
they're
actually
making
less
than
what
I
was
offering,
even
then
we
are
nowhere
as
near
the
pay
scale
that
boston
public
schools
have
been
asking
us
for.
M
We
were
solicited
to
be
a
part
of
universal
pre-k,
but
it
was
just
a
physical
impossibility
for
us
to
meet
those
salary
requirements
and
a
number
of
other
conditions,
and
so
we
continue
along.
M
I
would
agree
that
we
have
a
problem
retaining
people
in
this
field,
getting
somebody
who
wants
to
use
this
career
as
a
permanent
job.
You
may
as
well
be
looking
for
unicorns
finding
somebody
that
wants
to
work
regular
full-time
in
this.
It's
a
calling
and
they
really
don't
stay
with
it.
Most
of
our
younger
people
come
in.
Some
of
them
are
in
you
know,
college
courses
for
child
psychology.
M
One
of
the
things
that
was
touch
base
on
was
the
qualifications
I'd
point
out
that
the
department
of
early
education
and
care
publishes
specific
qualifications,
but
within
the
last
48
hours,
communication
came
from
the
commissioner's
office
that
they're
going
to
be
relaxing
some
of
the
qualifications,
so
they
can
get
some
more
people
into
the
field
and
consulate
george.
I
sent
that
to
your
email
and
also
to
shane's
email.
You
can
look
through
that.
M
One
of
the
things
we
have
to
be
very
careful
of
is
grant
monies
and
funding
one
of
the
things
we
learned
from
our
partnership
with
the
state
department
of
early
education
and
care,
and
their
interpretation
of
the
regulations
is
that
you
cannot
use
any
of
the
monies
for
direct
child
care
subsidy
that
would
be
considered
a
benefit
to
the
parent.
It
would
change
their
income
level
and
it
would
therefore
change
how
much
their
co-payment
is.
M
If
anything
and
again,
the
the
cost
of
running
the
program,
of
course,
and
the
salary
levels
is
a
big
problem.
99.9
of
our
clientele
is
people
that
are
on
child
care
subsidies.
We
have
to
subsist
on
the
money
that
comes
from
the
commonwealth
of
massachusetts.
M
The
amount
of
private
pay
families
can
be
counted
on
less
than
one
hand,
and
so
our
salaries
that
we
can
pay
our
people
are
commensurate
with
the
amount
of
money
that
we
get
from
the
state.
We
are
essentially
a
program
on
a
fixed
income.
Hopefully
some
of
the
aqua
funds
can
be
used.
M
The
only
grant
that
we've
ever
been
able
to
get
so
far
because
we
live
in
a
bcy
up
facility
has
been
something
known
as
a
core
grant
c-o-r-e
and
we
actually
were
able
to
use
that
to
offset
some
of
our
salaries.
Unfortunately,
you
know
we've
been
closed
for
a
while
and
we're
gonna
have
to
start
again.
M
So
that's
one
of
the
things
we
have
to
consider,
there's,
probably
a
disparity
between
what
the
state
regulations
tell
us
and
what
you
know
the
city
is
hoping
to
do
and
I
think
that
has
to
be
looked
into
finding
child
care
obviously
is
going
to
be
a
problem,
one
of
the
problems
that
we
had
prior
to
the
pandemic-
and
this
goes
back
to
2019-
and
I
speak
mostly
from
my
experience
in
2019-
was
just
getting
the
children
to
a
licensed
child
care
center.
M
Counselor
george,
I
had
actually
met
with
your
staff,
probably
about
two
three
years
ago
on
this,
and
we
didn't
get
any
relief
from
boston,
public
schools.
Essentially
bps
only
has
alternative
transportation
and,
as
a
result,
you
can't
get
the
children
to
the
preferred
child
care
service.
It's
a
serious
problem.
We
had
to
give
up
about
maybe
about
10
families
from
being
in
our
child
care
service.
M
We
were
aware
of
at
least
one
family
or
two
actually,
where
the
mother
was
granted.
The
opportunity
from
her
employer
to
leave
work,
go
pick
up
her
children
halfway
across
the
city,
bring
them
to
our
child
care
center
and
then
return
to
work.
M
This
alone
compromised
her
agreement
with
eec
because
she
had
to
work
a
certain
number
of
hours
per
week
or
per
month.
Otherwise,
her
childcare
voucher
would
be
compromised,
so
there's
a
lot
of
disparities
and
systems
that
are
not
talking
to
each
other.
Finally,
I'd
like
to
just
put
out
their
cost
of
education.
M
I
agree
there
is
very
few
colleges
running
early
child
care
or
early
education
programs.
If
you're
lucky,
you
might
see
one
at
roxbury
community
college
once
per
year,
urban
college,
maybe
once
per
year
and
of
course,
it's
usually
about
800,
which,
on
the
current
salary
levels
your
employees
cannot
afford.
We
were
fortunate
to
have
some
donated
funds
where
we
were
actually
able
to
pay
for
some
of
our
employees
to
get
the
initial
training
to
increase
their
quality.
M
Their
teacher
qualifications,
which,
by
the
way
part
of
that
commissioner's
men,
memo
that
just
came
out
some
of
that
tq
teacher
qualification
is
being
relaxed.
In
fact,
it's
being
basically
pushed
to
the
side
worth
noting
I
don't
fault,
the
department,
really
education
and
care
for
a
lot
of
the
changes.
We're
going
through.
M
One
of
the
problems
is:
is
that
a
lot
of
their
funding
comes
from
the
federal
government
and,
as
the
old
saying
goes,
there's
no
such
thing
as
free
money
and
the
federal
government
put
a
lot
of
strings,
if
not
a
whole
ball
of
yarn
on
to
the
federal
money
that's
being
distributed
to
the
various
programs
that
has
forced
the
state
to
completely
revamp,
revise
and
replace
all
of
their
websites,
all
of
their
interactive
programs
and
communications
devices
that
we
work
with
it
put
new
qualifications
on
to
us.
M
For
example,
we
have
to
do
our
own
corey
and
story
check,
which
is
more
stringent
than
the
cities,
and
we
have
to
pay
for
that
out
of
pocket.
This
includes
fingerprinting
and
I
even
have
to
do
that
to
15
year
olds
that
come
in
as
junior
counselors
in
our
summer
program.
Finally,
I
just
wanted
to
say
I
heard
a
lot
today
about
various
programs,
various
funds
that
might
be
available.
M
Because
during
the
pandemic,
I
questioned
several
of
these
program
funding
options
and
various
grants
that
are
out
there,
and
we
had
been
under
an
impression
that
we
might
resume
much
earlier
than
we
were
going
to
and
unfortunately,
for
one
or
more
reasons
we
never
qualified,
but
based
on
what
I'm
hearing
today,
there
might
be
a
lot
of
help
that
we
can
get
and
we're
just
completely
ignorant
of
that,
and
I
think
that's
going
to
be
a
part
of
the
solution.
A
Thank
you
very
much
dennis
and,
and
I
don't
know
whether
that
that
string
from
that
ball
of
yarn
is
because
I've
got
a
wall
of
yarn
behind
me.
I
thank
you
for
your
your
remarks
and
sharing
your
experience.
Certainly,
it's
important
that
we're
able
to
communicate
and
share
information,
especially
with
you,
you
know,
between
the
city
and
the
organizations
that
are
run
here
and
affiliated
with
the
city
of
boston.
You
know
lauren
and
then
trend
both
raise
their
hands.
Lauren.
K
Oops,
sorry,
thank
you.
I
just
wanted
to
add
a
little
add
to
dennis's
testimony
if
that's,
okay
with
regard
to
transportation
and
subsisting
on
subsidies,
so
ellis
owned
a
bus
and
we
provided
transportation
to
our
children
with
open
dcf
cases,
because
it's
part
of
our
contract
with
dcf.
So
we
have
between
10
and
20
percent
of
our
kids
with
open
dcf
contracts,
open
dcf
cases
we
are
obligated
to
provide
transportation,
owning
and
operating
a
bus
and
doing
transportation
was
so
hard
almost
impo.
It
was
impossibly
hard.
We
sold
our
bus
this
year.
K
We
had
a
bus
that
constantly
needed
repairs.
It
was
so
expensive
to
maintain.
Where
do
we
park?
The
bus,
I
just
have
to
say
transportation
is
a
complete
nightmare
and
it's
a
very
interesting
point
that
dennis
brought
up,
because
if
there
is
a
way
for
the
city
to
support
transportation,
I
think
that
that
is
an
interesting
thing
to
explore.
K
So
we
sold
our
bus
and
instead
we're
offering
monthly
t
passes
to
our
families,
for
whom
we're
responsible
to
get
to
ellis.
Fortunately,
we're
centrally
located,
we
haven't,
lost
a
lot
of
our
dcf
families,
but
I
can
tell
you
attendance
drops
way
down
when
the
weather
is
bad
and
we
would
have
those
kids
if
we
had
our
transportation,
but
we
just
like
literally,
could
not
continue
to
operate.
Transportation
was
too
hard
and
I
don't
know
how
dennis
does
it
and
organizations
that
subsist
on
subsidies?
K
It's
ellis
has
two-thirds
of
our
families
with
subsidies
and
one-third
who
pay
privately,
even
our
private
pay
rates.
They
aren't
fully
covering
the
cost
of
their
own
kids
because
it
would
be
outrageously
expect,
like
we
try
to
be
reasonable
because
we're
a
non-profit
we
raised
over
a
million
dollars
a
year
to
maintain
status
quo,
and
you
heard
how
hard
it
is
here.
So
that's
with
over
a
million
dollars
of
philanthropic
dollars,
supplementing
our
budget
that
we're
getting
the
tuition
that
we're
getting
from
the
commonwealth
and
from
copays.
It's
just.
K
I
just
want
to
say
like
dennis
I'm,
so
that's
really
hard
and
my
heart
goes
out
to
you
because
I
don't
know
how
you
were
doing
it
and
good
luck
to
you,
and
I
also
want
to
say
how
wonderful
is
it
that
dennis
has
two
teachers
that
will
want
to
return
and
work
for
him.
K
But
just
remember
that's
two
centers
or
wherever
those
people
are
working
that
forgive
this
language
they're
going
to
be
totally
screwed
when
those
people
give
their
notice
and
they
say
I'm
going
back
to
work
for
my
old
employer
they're
going
to
be
like
what
do
I
do
because
every
day
we
do
that,
it's
the
big
f-bomb
and
it's
like.
What
are
we
going
to
do
to
get
through
this
day?
So
it's
just
hard.
H
Thank
you
thank
you
dennis
and
lauren,
and
all
the
advocates
and
workers
I
my
heart
goes
out
to
you.
This
is
where
I
think
we
could
owd
could
do
a
better
job,
not
that
we
have
been
slacking
off.
That's
not
what
we've
been
doing,
we're
doing
a
lot
of
other
workforce,
training
and
and
worker
protection
bills
and
a
variety
of
things.
H
So
if
there
is
anything
that
we
can
do
in
terms
of
tuition
paying
for
child
care
workers
getting
that
nice
last
bit
of
license
finishing
up
on
an
associate
degree
or
certification,
we'd
be
more
than
happy
to
have
a
conversation
about
that,
it's
800
a
few
thousand
dollars
four
or
five
thousand
dollars.
Let's
talk
about
that,
fifty
thousand
dollars
is
when
I,
when
I
say
well,
I'm
not
sure
I
can
justify
that.
But
you
know
we
are
happy
to
talk
about
that.
H
If
it's,
if
you
can
offer
incentives
for
workers
such
as
transportation,
professional
development,
we're
happy
to
talk
about
that.
I
also
think
that
the
city
can
do
a
better
job
with
looking
at
vacant
spaces.
So
what
are
the
spaces
that
are
open
so
that
they
can
lend
to
other
nonprofits
and
to
other
agencies
so
that
it
could
pay
for
or
subsidize
overhead?
H
And
so
you
know
for
the
child
care
industry,
I
mean
the
first
thing
I
mean
a
lot
of
folks
have
said:
hey,
while
we're
waiting
for
legislation
and
the
bill
back
better
bill
funds
and
and
bills
to
come
down.
There
are
things
that
we
can
do
here.
What
are
the
list
of
things
that
we
can
do
now
and
then
and
start
putting
together
action
items
that
we
can
work
together
as
a
as
as
a
city
to
really
just
do
it.
A
Fantastic,
thank
you
and
then
sarah
will
start
we'll
go
to
you
and
then
I
think
we'll
wrap
up
this
hearing.
Thank
you.
J
J
It
would
only
cost
about
60
or
70
thousand
dollars
to
do
it
for
the
entire
city
of
boston
and,
if
folks
want
to
look
at
it,
if
you
go
to
the
reinvestment
fund
and
look
at
their
early
ed
maps,
you
can
see
other
cities.
You
can
see
buildings
that
used
to
be
child
care
that
aren't,
you
can
break
it
down
by
language
spoken,
neighborhood,
all
sorts
of
different
things,
but
a
lot
of
other
cities
have
seen
the
reinvestment
fund
heat
maps
and
that
work
as
a
real
catalyst
to
be
able
to
make
impactful
changes.
A
Thank
you
very
much.
I
appreciate
everyone's
input
this
afternoon,
answers
to
the
questions
and
presentations
and
very
thoughtful
discussion
about
the
work
that
we
have
to
do,
especially
in
the
space
council
mejia
is
you
have
a
lead
sponsor
if
you
have
any
closing
remarks
and
then
we'll
adjourn
this
meeting?
No,
I
just.
B
Wanted
to
say
thank
you
again
to
janae
janae
from
509
and
sarah
and
kristen,
and
laura
and
trent.
I
mean
everybody
really
stepping
up
and
really
helping
us
understand
the
work.
I
think
that
oftentimes
people
take
for
granted
what
they
don't
know
and
so
and
to
kristin's
point
in
terms
of
what
we
can
do
in
the
city.
B
I
think
it
is
really
clear
that
this
is
the
moment
for
us
to
see
super
really
serious
about
economic
and
and
justice
and
equity,
and
really
centering
this
conversation
in
a
way
that
no
one's
going
to
be
left
behind
or
short
changed.
We
have
an
opportunity
and
a
responsibility
here
as
the
city
to
take
the
lessons
that
we've
learned
here
and
take
the
work
to
another
level,
and
so
we
look
forward
to
working
alongside
you
in
partnership
to
do
just
that.
B
So
thank
you
all
for
your
work
and
your
commitment
and
looking
forward
to
building
and
getting
us
to
where
we
need
to
be.
Thank
you.
Thank.
A
You
councilmember,
and
also
to
jason,
tierra
and
ayanna,
I
think,
is
who
we
missed
have
a
great
afternoon
every
everyone.
This
meeting
is
adjourned.