Membership

Membership Application

The Kern County Superintendent of Schools accepts applications, on an on-going basis, from individuals interested in serving, in a voluntary capacity, on the Early Childhood Council of Kern. This Council has been formed for the purpose of providing a forum for the identification of local priorities for child care and the development of policies to meet the needs identified within those priorities. Members are appointed in conjunction with the Kern County Board of Supervisors with each entity appointing half of a thirty (30) member council.

The Kern County Commission on Child Care (now named the Early Childhood Council of Kern), originally formed by the Kern County Board of Supervisors in 1988, was appointed jointly by the Supervisors and the Superintendent of Schools to serve as the Local Child Care and Development Planning Council in 1991. The CalWORKs legislation mandated the Board of Supervisors and the Superintendent of Schools to re-establish the Council taking into consideration specific composition categories of the members. The Council membership shall be composed of :

Membership Composition & Appointing Authority Member composition

20% Child Care Consumer – a parent or a person who currently is using or used child care or center based care within the past 36 months.

20% Child Care Provider – a person who provides child care services in Kern County (family child care or center based care)

20% Community Representative – a person who represents an agency or business that provides private funding for child care services, or who advocates for child care services
through participation in civic or community-based organizations, but is not a child care provider and does not represent an agency that contracts with the California Department of Social Services to provide child care and development services.

20% Public Agency Representative – a person who represents a city, county, city and county, or local education agency and who funds, regulates, or monitors the delivery of childcare services

20% Discretionary Member – appointed from any of the four above categories at thediscretion of the appointing agencies

2023-2024 Membership Executive Committee

Alesha Brown, Chair
Discretionary Member
Membership
Kaiser Permanente

Yadira Mendoza, Co-Chair
Consumer Member
Kern County Superintendent Of Schools – Kern Early Stars

Melissa Vittoria, Treasurer
Community Member
Kern River Valley Family Resource Center

Mike Bledsoe, Secretary
Community Member
Kern Chapter of California Association for the Education of Young Children

Child Care Consumers
Tracey Wheat
Kern County Superintendent of Schools-Kern Early Stars

Jennifer Wood-Slayton
Lamont School District

Child Care Providers
Jessica Krall
Cerro Coso Child Development Center

Gladys Garcia-Jara
Kern County Superintendent of Schools

Michelle Lynam
Michelle Lynam Family Daycare

Yolanda Gonzales
Community Action Partnership of Kern-Head Start

Janet Rubio
Wonderful Preschool-Lost Hills

Carolyn Coffey
FIELD Institute

Community Representatives
Kevin Bartl First 5 Kern

Hector Gutierrez
Transportation Authority

Christine Lollar
Adventist Health

Public Agency Representatives
Deborah Murr
Kern Health System

Lily Pimentel-Stratton
Bakersfield College

Shirelle Perez
Kern County Superintendent of Schools-Community Connection for Child Care

Maria Aleman
Kern Behavioral Health & Recovery Services

Elizabeth Rose
Kern County Department of Human Services

Discretionary Members

Betty Phillips
Retired PreK Teacher

Amanda Tumblin
CSUB/Bakersfield College

Megan Gretona
Kern County Superintendent of Schools- California Preschool Instructional Network

Myetta Beavers
Bakersfield College

Meghan Hall-Silveira
Taft College Children’s Center

Member Vacancies
3 Child Care Consumer Vacancies
1 Community Representative Vacancy
1 Public Representative Vacancy