Last night was somewhat disappointing. In an effort to thwart concerned citizens, parents, and team members, the SOMC Public Meeting started 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, and was rushed to finish before the scheduled start time. This was clearly a tactic to prevent what naturally occurred at the HUMC Public Meeting. The Q&A portion of the HUMC meeting was completely overtaken by concerns over the decision to close the daycares.
I have to say, Mark Sparta handled the onslaught incredibly well. He responded with professionalism and compassion. Whether the latter was genuine is yet to be seen, but one can hope.
The same cannot be said for the SOMC meeting. This movement, its supporters, and constituents, have been very clear about our expectations. We have been begging for open lines of communication with HMH Leadership. We have been ignored. We were fed an email address to which we should submit our concerns - - yet save for some generic auto-responses, the emails go unanswered, as if falling upon deaf ears. So, what are we to do? We found the only avenues to interact with leadership - the public meetings - and we're pouring our hearts out.
They underestimated us once again. I'd have hoped they'd learned that lesson by now.
I'm saddened that HMH has not been more forward and transparent in the face of this unexpected situation we find ourselves in. I think we need a dedicated public meeting specific to the topic at hand. In that meeting, I would expect a panel or task force to be formalized, members explicitly named, and some standards for 2-way communication created. From there... "the rest of us" would need to focus our concerns through our representative(s) on the panel.
A formalized panel and focused communication would "quiet the internet" and also allow the rest of the campus meetings to take place as intended, I'd think.
Until that happens, we need to keep pushing, or we risk being pushed aside - along with our children and their incredible teachers.
That said, while HMH leadership is 'aware' of our concerns, they are not addressing them in a timely manner. As a result, we believe some 'top down management' is needed. We need to focus our efforts in reaching our elected officials. Please continue to attend the HMH meetings, but also redirect your energy to reaching our elected officials by phone and/or email.
If you write to these officials and willing to share, please post your message into the Facebook comment section for all to see.
NJ Senators:
https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislative-roster
Governor’s office:
Submit a concern to Governor Murphy’s office through the website below. There are specific drop down menus for ”Children and Families” and “Childcare Centers.”
https://www.nj.gov/governor/contact/all/
The petition numbers have slowed - that's expected as we hit a certain saturation - but it's still critical that we get word out there and keep gaining support. There are still many team members who are, as of yet, unaware of the circumstances our executive leaders have created. Please continue to share this petition and the Facebook group. Continue writing emails... even if you have to send the same email every day until you get a response... keep the activity up! I know we can do this. We owe it to our children, to the incredible team members who have educated, nurtured, and supported them - - and we owe it to all current and future patients, because deep down, we know that this is also for them. When our minds are free from the worries of childcare, we'll be able to focus so much more on delivering the best care in New Jersey!