PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Keith Hicks, Vice President of Programs at Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco)
3:01:09
·
3 min
Keith Hicks, formerly with DYCD and now VP of Programs at WHEDco, provided testimony on the Summer Rising program, highlighting its challenges and suggesting operational changes. He emphasized issues with the enrollment process, teacher shortages, and difficulties in managing participants with special needs.
- Enrollment process improvements are needed to maintain provider-parent relationships and ensure continuity for children.
- There are often not enough teachers to provide the scheduled 3 hours of morning instruction.
- Providers lack proper training and support to manage participants with special needs and IEPs effectively.
- Overcrowding in summer programs due to school closures is a concern that needs to be addressed.
Keith Hicks
3:01:09
Okay, Rousette.
3:01:10
Good morning.
3:01:11
Good afternoon.
3:01:12
The distinguished coaches and council members.
3:01:14
My name is Keith Hicks.
3:01:14
I'm the vice president of programs with the woman's housing and economic development court.
3:01:19
Betty, known as wet coal.
3:01:20
I'm speaking with you this morning from an interesting perspective.
3:01:24
I I I formally worked with DUI CD.
3:01:26
I was the middle school director when they started summarizing program.
3:01:32
And I previously worked in, and I had to implement the program or support the providers with implementing the programs.
3:01:38
Now during the initial years of the program, it was very hard to implement.
3:01:43
And now I'm on the other side of the the the coin trying to implement programs with my with my team.
3:01:48
Have a profound respect for the former my former colleagues and understand the hard work they are burdened with.
3:01:53
I had concerns then, and I have even more concerns now about the Sunrise and program.
3:01:58
While well intended, Sunrise and has many floors.
3:02:01
Because the initiative is supposed to provide you with the combination of academics from professional teachers in the morning and the rich activities in the afternoon from the part unit provider.
3:02:11
If this program is to be successful, there needs to be operational changes only to meet the expected outcomes.
3:02:16
Number 1, the enrollment process has improved over the previous years, providers are responsible for enrolling participants and working alongside parents to provide safe spaces for their children.
3:02:27
The relationship with the provider and the parent is immediately fractured when they have to go into another system now to enroll kids.
3:02:37
What happens with that is that all year long, we've worked with children.
3:02:41
They're comfortable with our staff.
3:02:42
They're comfortable with our parents.
3:02:44
We have this bonding relationship, but the new enrollment process totally disregards that and takes that away and takes the provider's intimacy in contact with the parents away.
3:02:56
Although we're able to prioritize certain participants, there are still too far many times when we're not able to enroll a student who has a sibling and attended the same program or a child who who where we have worked with all year.
3:03:08
So there's some changes that need to be done with the enrollment process.
3:03:11
There are also many occasions when they are not enough teachers to earnestly provide to schedule 3 hours of instruction in the morning, thus leaving it to the provider to work with a subset of children during the morning time, own their own and not really providing academics.
3:03:24
Now I know we attest to having academics done in a fun way in in meaningful approach to it.
3:03:30
I totally believe in that, and I think we can do that as providers, but I still think it has to be planned out appropriately and have the intentionality or for the efficacy of what's what the program is supposed to be at this academic construction in the morning, it should be enough teachers to provide that that academic support.
3:03:49
While we never have to exclude and we never will exclude any child, from attending and working with that child in the best best manner we can provide us a not equipped and trained training properly to manage all participants with special needs and IEPs.
3:04:04
During summarizing, we have received limited support to address this.
3:04:08
Thus making it difficult for participants to have a full inclusive experience in enriching activities.
3:04:15
If I may, just one more one more point.
3:04:17
While we are closing why we're closing schools during this summertime, we have overcrowded in this in our summer programs that we have to address that as well with limited space.
3:04:27
If the initiative is going to be successful, we need to reconsider some of the operational flaws that restrict the work of providers who have worked diligently in some programming over the past few years.
3:04:38
Thank you.
