Since receiving our public funding (thank you Rep. Harry Warren), we have been hustling. Here are some specific actions:
We have started producing 10,000 Seedling touchpads and headsets. The headsets are new this year. Thank you to Head Start in Salisbury for this recommendation.
One of our application developers (RV AppStudios) has agreed to customize our Touchpads. The next version will be faster and ApSeed branded.
The interviewing process for prospective counties has begun and will conclude this month. The response has been overwhelmingly positive! Here’s a list of most of our county prospects: Yadkin, Davie, Rowan, Granville, Duplin, New Hanover, Buncombe/Asheville, Davidson (Lexington), Iredell and Ashe. We still have interviews to complete with counties in the Northeast corner of the state.
We plan to formally select our locations by year’s end. We have requested a one-page action plan from each county. So far, all the plans have been impressive with multi-agency involvement highlighted.
ApSeed will provide a “resource” for each county. This resource is a person who will help with Seedling delivery, parent applications, surveys, and assessments. We are refining the job description and plan to hire these folks in the next 90 days.
We are exploring the use of a third-party research service to create a rock-solid presentation of our results and value. All ideas are welcome. The long-term goal is to deploy our model statewide on an ongoing basis.
There are a lot of moving parts, so our business experience is coming in handy. We are comfortable and excited with this program’s size and speed. It is GO time!