Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, Inc. Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, June 19, 2018 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. TD Bank Conference Center Members Present: P. Bailey K. Dunkelberg N. Kashouh J. Scavotto C. Burton M. Ferrer S. Levesque R. Smith-Miller P. Canavan M. Galat J. Mitchell J. Sullivan E. Cassidy F. Grassetti V. Otero J. Waah J. Cook S. Kasa C. Royal M. Wise REB Staff: Others Present: D. Cruise E. Johnson R. Devine C. Abramowitz J. Lyons D. Gadaire D. Carr L. Martin K. Lynn M. Chechette S. Trueman M. Mastriani MINUTES OF MEETING Meeting Materials Mailed Out: June 19, 2018 Agenda, Minutes of the March 6, 2018 meeting, Executive Committee Report, One-Stop Career Center Committee Report, WIOA Regional Planning Final Blueprint and Approval Letter Handed Out: WIOA Youth FY19 I. Welcome & Introductions Chair Jeff Sullivan called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. and first welcomed new Board members Dan Butterfield, President of U.S. Tsubaki Automotive (who was unable to attend today) and John Scavotto, Jr., Business Rep for Sheet Metal Workers Local 63. Jeff also welcomed guest Mike Mastriani who attending the meeting with Rich Devine noting that Rich will be retiring from the Sheriff s Department. II. Business Items a) Approval of the Minutes Jeff asked for a motion to approve the minutes of the Board of Directors meeting held on March 6, 2018. Action Taken: A motion to approve the minutes of the March 6, 2018 meeting was made, seconded and approved. b) Executive Committee Report Jeff asked members to turn to page 5 in the agenda packet and advised the Board that due to a lack of a quorum, the Executive Committee did not meet on May 16, 2018; however, pursuant to our by-laws the following actions were taken in writing and were approved: A Finance Committee Report on the 3 rd QTR Financials was provided which were noted to be mostly on track and as expected at this point and an FY18 Budget Modification was approved. 1
Action Taken: A motion ratify the budget modification shown on page 6 of the board packet was made, seconded and approved. WIOA Youth Vendor funding through the new 2-year procurement cycle was approved at estimated levels based on a level-funding allocations and final allocations were subsequently issued, as follows: WIOA YOUTH FY19 FUNDING Out-of-School Vendors (75% of Funds) Current New New England Farm Workers Council $ 440,693 $ 492,648 YWCA $ 79,087 $ 98,392 Square One $ 132,208 $ 147,794 Valley Opportunity Council $ 96,953 $ 98,402 Total $ 748,941 $ 837,236 In-School Vendors (25% of Funds) Current New Holyoke Public Schools $ 126,252 $ 141,137 Pathfinder Vocation Technical HS $ 39,662 $ 44,338 New North Citizens Council $ 44,069 $ 49,265 Bay State Medical $ 39,662 $ 44,338 Total $ 249,645 $ 279,079 Not recommended for funding: New England Business Associates (not for ISY or OSY) Viability, Inc. (ISY) Action Taken: A motion, based on the recommendations of the Review Team, REB Youth Council and Executive Committee, a motion to ratify the amounts above, which were adjusted proportionally to their share of the final WIOA Youth Allocations for the 75% OSY and 25% ISY was seconded and approved. Governance Committee items which require further action: Actions Taken: A motion to elect Meredith Wise as Vice-Chair as the 1 st year of a 2-year Term, to be consistent with the end of the Jeff s term as Chair was seconded an unanimously approved. Actions Taken: A motion to approve the appointment of John Scavotto, Jr. Business Representative, Sheet Metal Workers Local No. 63 & Central Western MA-VT AFL-CIO to a term ending December, 2019 was seconded and approved. Jeff also advised the Board of the resignations of 2 long standing Board members, Helen Caulton- Harris and Hank Abrashkin and asked members to make any recommendations for future candidates. The Governance Committee also had approved the FY19 goals for the President & CEO (see page 7 of Agenda Packet). This does not require further action. 2
III. President & CEO Report Jeff turned the meeting over to David Cruise who first thanked Meredith Wise for accepting the Vice Chair position on the Board and also thanked new Board member John Scovotta, Jr. from Local 63 which was part of the development of CRRC. David then highlighted the FY 19 federal budget advising funding of $3.7M will be allocated to the Commonwealth with an increase of $206K over last year to Hampden County. He thanked Steve Trueman for sitting on the State Allocation Formula Committee. David went on to review the FY 2019 State Budget and highlighted the increases in School-to-Career ($4-4.5M) and ABE funding ($32M) and the new funding ($1.75M) for an Early College program. He also highlighted the EOHED manufacturing training line item which the Senate restored and increased with Sen. Lesser s assistance. He went on to also review the following: Congressman Neal introduced legislation to help low-income parents overcome employment barriers and train for in-demand jobs. The bill, David noted calls for a $1 billion investment to help train parents who receive cash benefits under the Transitional Assistance for Needy Families program seek better employment opportunities. David advised that on July 1 st the REB s new FY 19 begins, and with that, a revised Table of Organization will be established to demonstrate the infrastructure that will support all the new work coming to the REB. David noted that he will email the new table to members. He touched on a State Pilot Teacher Externship Program that he and Christine Abramowitz are working on which is designed to better equip teachers with the skills necessary to guide students into STEM-focused secondary education and careers. Lastly, he noted that this would be the last meeting as the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County noting that the Governor will be making an announcement across the State on the new MassHire branding initiative. Our new name will be MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board! IV. OSCC Committee Report & Year 2 Re-Charter & Re-Contracting In the absence of Chair Doreen Fadus, Jeff turning the meeting over to REB Vice President of Workforce Development Operations, Steve Trueman who asked members to turn to pages 8 & 9 in the agenda packets. Steve advised that in Fiscal Year 2018 the One Stop Career Center Committee (OSCCC) implemented a process and activities to: Complete the Career Center Certification process outlined in the One-Stop Career Center Certification Policy and in accordance with Mass Workforce Issuance 100 DCS 17.103.1. Determine re-contracting recommendation for Year 2 of each of the Career Center s four-year charter Steve also noted the OSCCC conducted the following activities as part of the Career Center Certification and Re-contracting process for FY'18 as follows: Each Career Center submitted a written Self-Assessment against the One-Stop Career Center Certification Standards. After reviewing the Career Centers Self-Assessments, a team of Committee members performed onsite visits to each center to allow for a presentation by Center staff to elaborate on their Self- 3
Assessment and respond to Committee members requests for additional information or clarification of Self-Assessment responses. The full One Stop Career Center Committee met on May 7, 2018 to: Review the Self Assessments and onsite visits; Review On-site fiscal and programmatic monitoring of both centers, to ensure that funds are being utilized for program specific expenditures, that appropriate documentation is maintained for clear audit trails, that internal controls are in place and that both Centers are complying with approved accounting procedures and maintaining fiscal records in accordance with contract requirements; Conduct an in-depth review of performance data through March, 2018; Based on the information discussed in the prior three activities, the Committee members discussed and individually applied a rating to each of the eighteen (18) elements for each Career Center. Individual ratings were aggregated and averaged for each element and the sum of the elements was calculated. Action Taken: A motion, based upon FutureWorks Career Center having achieved the necessary score required for One-Stop Career Center Certification designation in accordance with Massachusetts Workforce Policy Issuance 100.DCS 17.103.1: Career Center Certification for Local Workforce Development Boards to recommend to the REB Board of Directors to approve One Stop Career Center Certification for FutureWorks Career Center was seconded and unanimously approved. Action Taken: A motion, based upon CareerPoint Career Center having achieved the necessary score required for One-Stop Career Center Certification designation in accordance with Massachusetts Workforce Policy Issuance 100.DCS 17.103.1: Career Center Certification for Local Workforce Development Boards to recommend to the REB Board of Directors to approve One Stop Career Center Certification for CareerPoint Career Center was seconded and also was unanimously approved. Action Taken: A motion to recommend to the REB Board of Directors Re-contracting with the CareerPoint Career Center for FY 2019 be approved for the second year of the four-year Charter period was seconded and approved. Action Taken: A motion to recommend to the REB Board of Directors Re-contracting with the FutureWorks Career Center for FY 2019 be approved for the second year of the four-year Charter period was seconded and approved. Steve also advised that the One Stop Career Center Committee will continue to review FutureWorks and CareerPoint s progress in performing its obligations pursuant to the Charter, including, but not limited to, Employer Engagement and Talent Bank development to determine re-contracting with the Career Centers in subsequent years within the Charter period. 4
V. WIOA FY18 Regional Planning Final Blueprint Jeff turned the meeting over to Christine Abramowitz who provided an overview and of the Pioneer Valley Labor Market Blueprint, which was mailed out to all Board members, focusing on the goals and strategies outlined to be completed in the in the 2018-June 30, 2019 timeframe, picking up on where we left off from the December Blueprint presentation. Christine also highlighted the letter we received from the Commonwealth of MA Workforce Skills Cabinet which formally approved our submitted Labor Market Blueprint. She went onto to highlight a few of the activities we have already embarked on including: reconvening the Planning Team post approval to map out the work ahead; our plan to expand the team to include representatives from adult education and transportation; to meet with UMASS and Valley Venture Mentors to look ahead to new research-based innovation related to our priority and critical industries and occupations and gain the perspective of entrepreneurs; reconvening our Data Group to refresh the data; holding an employer workgroup meeting to share the blueprint plans and who represented all the priority and critical industries; looking at holding a possible Regional Workforce Summit; plan to expand at least 1 existing career pathway that embeds employability readiness skills; and deepening the connection between educators and employers, such as via the Teach Externship pilot previously mentioned. She ended by noting the ultimate goals as being increasing labor participation rates, shortening the supply-demand gaps and having more high-quality jobs in the region in our priority-critical areas. They are stretch goals, but hopefully attainable by the 2022 end date of the Blueprint. VI. MASSHIRE: Broadening Visibility-Deepening Awareness Jeff introduced Maura Geary to talk about the branding transition to MassHire. She talked about the value of unifying the state workforce development system under a single name with a shared mission, vision and values of Collaboration, Respect, Reliability, and Ingenuity, and showed a video designed to promote the new name, logo and message. Board members were asked to share ideas about how to engage the business community throughout this transition to increase awareness of the services offered by the workforce board and career centers, and strengthen partnerships with employers in our region. Several board members offered to make connections with existing business or labor associations following the regional launch on September 6 th at Universal Plastics. With no further business, David called the meeting to a close at 4:40. Submitted by David Cruise 5