2013年1月7日 星期一

ELNC's first 'Little School' opens to get vulnerable

A ribbon-cutting was held on Monday, Jan. 7 with ELNC partners, parents and community member in attendance.

ELNC, a nonprofit organization, has designed and is currently implementing an intentional preschool service system aimed at providing, expanding and sustaining the capacity of high-quality early care and education programs to low-income children living in predominately black and Hispanic communities.

In 2011, ELNC received a $5 million, four-year grant, from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to increase the number of children ready for kindergarten living within targeted neighborhoods, by providing resources and technical assistance to its neighborhood partners that would enable them to increase existing or create new capacity.

ELNC is currently providing financial resources for 110 children to attend quality pre-school programs. Ezeh, who is also associate professor of education & director of Early Childhood Education Faculty of Education at Aquinas College, said resources coming into Kent County too often are not reaching children and families most in need.

"This is definitely a program that I was looking for," said Kendra Bitner, who said she lives in walking distance to the preschool program her sons, Xavier, 4 and Zaiden, 3, attend the preschool class in the SECOM building.

"They were going to attend a paid program over on 44th Street, but I would have had to get them up very early to catch the bus there. I am glad the class is small so that each child's needs get attended to.

Teachers Lynnelle Mulder and Araceli Ojeda today was just trying to get the students used to being in a structured learning environment and learning the daily routing. After a breakfast of cereal, the students gathered on the carpet as Mulder read the book, "The Kissing Hand" to them. The story features Chester the raccoon, who is starting school and has some fears.

Most parents, like Bitner and Velasquez, stayed in the classroom, which has everything written in English and Spanish, for 10 or more minutes after dropping off their children.

"The children are not used to being in school, so we are getting to know them today and teaching them to raising their hands, to listen and follow instructions, and helping them get used to the routine," said Ojeda.

In addition to the SECOM site, the other ELNC programs slated to open in the coming weeks with its partners are at Wellspring Church of Grand Rapids, 811 Wealthy St. SE, and the Hispanic Center of Grand Rapids. The preschool classroom will be at San Juan Diego Academy, 1650 Godfrey Ave. SW.Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings?

“We are trying to get as many schools as possible going because of the need in these communities,” said Ezeh, who said rehab work was required to create the preschool classes. “If the program needs to run through the summer to get children, we are prepared for that.”

Shawnte' Williams, ELNC project/compliance director, said the organization is moving with a "sense of urgency" to address the access issue in inner-city neighborhoods. She said their parents face financial, transportation and other challenges to getting their children in structured learning environments.

In September, ELNC plans to open a preschool that would allow them to serve 84 children. The Grand Rapids school board approved a lease for four years at $30,000 per year for ELNC to operate the school in its old Roosevelt Child Development Center, 644 Cordelia St. SE. The school was initially planned to open this month but rehab work on the building, vacant for three years, is still underway.

More than 80 percent of Grand Rapids schools students enter kindergarten unprepared. There are a few efforts targeting that problem, including First Steps, Grand Rapids Public Schools, and the Great Start Collaborative opening Early Learning Communities hubs.

"We want to these schools to become a part of the fabric of these neighborhoods," said Nadia Brigham, program officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "We are trying to provide access to preschools across the city, so that these kids have the same access to a quality education as those in middle and upper income families."

Ezeh said her group will measure their success, not just by children being prepared for kindergarten, but by parents in the neighborhoods they target becoming more engaged, understanding and embracing the importance of early childhood education.

Sorry, but this kind of apology should come standard-issue from all 30 teams, especially those like the Flames and Bruins, who certainly led the charge for a lockout despite having massive fanbases, popularity, and most importantly, war chests.

Never forget this was a lockout. Never forget this was put upon you and the players and the sport by the owners. Never forget the two biggest engines in all this weren't poor, put-upon teams in tough markets, but rather financial giants whose sole motivation was greed and the desire to squeeze just an extra dime or two out of every dollar spent. They certainly accomplished their goal.

The fact that as far as I can tell the majority of the league's 30 teams haven't so much as considered apologizing is beyond irrational. Obviously, not every team wanted this lockout to happen, but those that stood idly by, hands in their pockets, while Gary Bettman, Jeremy Jacobs, Murray Edwards,If you have a fondness for china mosaic brimming with romantic roses, and the rest of their villainous cohorts did this are as guilty through their inaction as any actual negative actors in this process.

They should be down on their hands and knees, groveling for the fans to return to their arenas to buy seats and concessions and jerseys after all this. Everything should be half-price. Every purchase should come with the warmest "thank you" imaginable. But of course, they don't. Because the league doesn't give a rat's ass about its fans, no matter how much free Center Ice they throw at us.

Oh yeah, fans are excited to have the NHL back in their lives and, if you like hockey, you can't really blame them. I know many fans have already started buying tickets in a blind scramble to turn over more of their money to the oligarchs who just robbed them of their favorite sport for four months, and I know that all across the league, games will be played before packed houses sometime in the next few weeks. It disgusts me, obviously, but that's the way of the world. I'm sure the "Thank You (Again) Fans!" that's painted at both blue lines will more than make up for it.We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. That's bridge-building for the NHL in 2013.

This league, which seems content to have itself reduced to a national sports punchline every seven or eight years (clock's ticking on that opt-out work stoppage!), has never cared about you, and will do so. Not really. Not as long as you're willing to throw wads of cash at it the second it gives you what it should have been giving you all along.

Everyone's giddy now. Many have lost any sense of reality they had throughout the process. I still can't believe I'm seeing legitimate hockey reporters — and not just the dummies in the owners' pockets — saying stuff about how the NHL gave the Players' Association concessions at the 12th hour.

Did it really? Almost everything the players once had still got rolled back,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. just not as much as the NHL would have liked. They didn't make concessions, they backed off absurd demands only when a federal mediator told them to stop being ridiculous, and even then, it took a pair of back-to-back days of 13 to 16 hours. That's near-indomitable malevolent will, eroded on a timeline not dissimilar what desert sands do to the pyramids.

This joyous celebration of hockey's return will only cause the owners to double down on their resolve next time around. They now know, absolutely and unequivocally, that they can treat you like garbage, not even think about apologizing for it,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. and you'll still cut them a blank check every single year.

That is, unless you remember how October, November and December felt. How mad it made you. How the vote to lock out the players for the second time since 2004-05 came unanimously. How the owners lied to you at every opportunity about Donald Fehr's intractability. How they used so-called "moderates" to defame him with absurd press releases. How they had the gall to compare him to a suicide bomber because he would not let the union be broken by their demands. How their steadfastness that the CBA needed to provide better protection for all 30 teams came without a meaningful improvement to revenue sharing. How they tried to move the goalposts the second the NHLPA's ability to file a disclaimer of interest expired. And especially how you swore you'd never give them another cent of your hard-earned dollars.

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