California Continuation Education Association
Council of District Representatives
Fall Meeting
Hyatt Regency Hotel San Francisco Airport
October 26, 2001

Call to Order: The fall meeting for the Council of District Representatives was called to order by President Jim Caswell at 8:20 AM.

Seating of Representatives: Members present included: President Jim Caswell, Past President Janet Knoepple, Treasurer Ross Bauer, Secretary Nancy Christopher, Webmaster Gerry Catanzarite.

District I Georgeanne Fulstone-Pucillo, District II Robert Rivas and Joyce Bowcock, District III Bob VanCleave, District IV Bill Pierce and Jim Ingram, District V Mark Cusator and Linda Gragg, District VI Barbara Wenk and Kay Eatmon, District VII Dennis King and Marion St.Amant, District VIII Richard Savarese and Dan Plough, District IX Karlene Dockery and Tina Tomaschke, District X Hank Johnson, District XI Robert Meier and Sunshine Sepulveda-Klus, District XII David Scott and Bernie Vigallon.

Absent were: Jeanne Yttreness, Betty Reed, and Eric Spears

Guests included Bill Lincoln, Fuschia Ward, Vic Whittaker, and Dennis Fisher from the California Department of Education.

Minutes were read and while members were looking them over, the president reminded everyone that to be a CDR member he or she must be a member of CCEA. Changes included corrections; Robert Meier's name to be spelled correctly, Myrtle Foster no longer principal at Alvord H.S. but is now a county level administrator, and on page 3 Hank Johnson corrected his district as X and not IX. Minutes were approved unanimously as corrected at 8:30.

President's Report: Jim Caswell
In August the executive committee met at Janet Knoepple's home to discuss the upcoming year. We have been in contact with Peter Birdsall's office: AB 927 is on hold. We thought the only obstacle was the governor's signature, but the budget surplus went for electricity. Our bill is in the suspended file, or "on hold," which means at any point we can bring it to the legislature. In seeking strategies to get the governor's attention, it was discovered that a number of bills have his ear, already, but continuation education was not mentioned, as usual. Our lobbyist, Peter Birdsall, found some bills and was able to get continuation education included in the language. Just recently passed is AB 961 which includes our students in the API. This will give an additional $400 ADA to help improve scores. If you are in the lowest two percentiles, you qualify. If your school was built after 1980 you probably already get an add-on. Our idea was to help those schools not getting any add-ons. AB465 is a bill to train every teacher and administrator in California in math and language arts. This bill was just signed last week, and there are four or five others that directly affect continuation education.

A discussion ensued wherein the president asked the CDR what action they would like the Board to pursue in the coming year. Adding suggestions were Robert Meier, Janet Knoeppel, Richard Savarese, Dennis Fisher, Gerry Catanzarite, Jim Caswell, and Joyce Bowcock. The idea developed that a new survey for reporting continuation data be created to greatly assist our CDE representatives and lobbyists in getting our message to the legislature. The biggest problem is they do not have sufficient data to state the case for continuation education. Current documents indicate that continuation education serves only about 60,000 students, but in reality there are three to four times that number, and when you include all alternative programs there are more like a half a million students. Gerry Catanzarite suggested that a committee be formed to develop the form with the department of education and then have the form approved at the next CDR in the spring and then collect the data next year. Bob Meier moved to proceed to do the study to do the form. Georgeanne Fullstone-Pucillo seconded. The vote for "All those in favor of this organization putting together a statewide survey" passed unanimously. Janet Knoeppel, Barbara Wenk, and Bob Meier will help put together the form.

Moving on, Jim Caswell gave an update on how the awards presentations will be made at the next State Conference. On the state applications for administrator, and classified persons of the year, there will be a 100 to 150 word justification statement, and that is what will be read at the luncheon. The bios will be on the tables for everyone to read, and the process will take only fifteen minutes or so, and winners can get their awards and get their pictures taken, etc. For Teacher of the Year, # 7 on the application is a 250-word justification statement. When we do Teacher of the Year at the luncheon, there will be a very nice folder on each table with all the information about the teacher, but the 250-word justification statement will be the thing read from the microphone. This would also mean that if you have someone who is retiring and you want to do something special for him or her, that is not the place to do it. You can have a little reception and say something special about that person, but this will streamline all of our operations. We already do this for the Exemplary Program recognition. So all of our awards then, will follow this format. There is deadline, March 15th, 2002 that all the information needs to be sent to Jim Caswell, so he can get it published. If he does not have your information on Teacher of the Year, Classified or Administrator of the Year, then no plaques will be ordered. If you get behind, and do not have your information by that deadline, then you will have to get your own plaques. Most of the districts, already, have their information well ahead of this deadline. Jim Caswell only wants the justification statements mailed to him. The big application packet will go to Lee Newman as it always has. Also, the plaques are very expensive-over $1500 last years-and Jim has been in contact with a company that will make them for half that price. The question was raised if we had a school that could make them for us. Bill Pierce said his school could make 9"x12" plaques. Jim cited a few more statistics about costs incurred with the business of plaques, and suggested if anyone knows a place where we can get a package deal, of say fifty plaques, to let him know.

Jim went on to say, "If there is no award given in your district for classified, administrator, or teacher of the year, the question is, Why not?" He says he hopes every district is looking at recognizing an outstanding person, whether or not they are active in CCEA. It's a good way to bring people into CCEA. All of this information will be on the web.

A brief discussion arose regarding whether or not a school with an Exemplary Program or a Model School had to have a membership in CCEA. Jim Caswell said the Exemplary Program is a CCEA function, and yes a school would have to have membership in CCEA. However, the Model School Award is a CDE program, and Dennis Fisher said that the state cannot require membership in a professional organization as a condition of competing in an open application.

Vice President's Report: Jeannie Yttreness
(Via letter) Membership information was sent to every continuation school in the state. Only five returned with the wrong addresses. Those addresses were sent to Ross Bauer. Lots of people have called asking for information about CCEA and the vice president has referred them to the website. Many principals have called back saying how useful the site is. Many Thanks to Gerry Catanzarite for all of his work. Jeanne has mailed out information about the Exemplary Program Award along with the membership package. Also, letters were mailed to each professional member. If you know someone who was a professional member last year and did not receive their pin or plaque, please let Ross or Jeanne know. There was not one returned letter from this list. Dennis Fisher from CED has mailed out the Model School Information to each school with the deadlines. There were more corrections from last year's application and a checklist will be included in this year's application. Jeanne will be hosting the reading of the application son February 22nd in Ukiah. If you are interested in being a reader, please contact JeanneYttreness.

Treasurer's Report: Ross Bauer
As of 10/24/01 the net worth of CCEA is $26,020.92. The CCEA CD is $16,773.67. Total Cash and Bank Accounts $42,794.59

After today, that should increase a little. Ross gave all the CDR members three lists of all the members per district; one for secretary, one for the president, and one to send back to Ross with corrections and additions. He also included membership forms to copy off to be sure everybody has access to them. He also included a check for the professional memberships and school memberships. Districts get $14 per professional membership and a prorated amount for school memberships depending on the number of staff at the school. He asked the members to check for discrepancies in the figures and let him know if there are any.

As of this CDR meeting, there are 65 school memberships and 142 professional memberships. Last year there were 400 professional memberships, so we expect that number to grow. If CDR members need labels for their districts, they are to contact Ross. He also has a database, which he can send via email. Contact by phone or email.

A discussion ensued regarding the loss of membership. Robert Meier raised the question, "What are we doing to lose our old members?" Marion St. Amant responded with voices from her district that asks the question, "What do I get for it?" She says people say there is not enough coming from the executive to keep them interested. Gerry Catanzarite suggested that services to the district need to come from the district. It is the executive board that goes to Sacramento and tries to pull for legislation and conducts the CDR agenda. The individual districts should be doing much for their districts. He said the question falls back on the districts. "What are you doing for your constituents? It shocks me to see that if we have 600 schools, we only have 65 memberships!" Districts need to think through what services they offer. Are there good directories, good conferences, newsletters, and support? The district officers need to provide services to the schools in their districts. Robert Meier said that in his district they provide services whether members or not, so the constituents say, 'why should I join'? Janet Knoeppel reminded the CDR that the $35 dues for a professional organization are the most inexpensive of any organization she is aware of. And as professionals, we need to support our professional organization because it is CCEA that works with legislators to try to get us more money for our programs. She said the District officers need to call the schools in their districts and personally talk to the nonmember schools. Marion St. Amant said that, actually, the school memberships are cutting into the professional memberships. People are just sitting back and letting the school budget handle memberships. Karlene Dockery, having been the CCEA treasurer years ago, said that there used to be a thousand professional members. She can see the good side of school membership, but on the other hand, there is a lack of personal commitment. She said when administrators get involved, then that is when we get more things done. She said a lot of today's principals do not have alternative education backgrounds and their hearts are not in alternative education. They do not understand there is new information every year. Gerry Catanzarite reflected on past efforts to have district-wide principals meetings to talk to those people. He said we need to look into some kind of program to continue this effort. There are so many new principals coming into alternative programs. One of the answers to 'where have our professional members gone', is that they have retired, and the new people coming in don't know what is happening. Hopefully the executive members at large can organize some of those meetings. Jim Caswell said the executive board is willing to come to those meetings, but district officers need to set them up.

Barbara Wenk says the list of members is not current. Ross Bauer says he has the most current information. Joyce Bowcock said to be sure to tell your districts to send the purchase orders to Ross and not to her, because she is still getting checks sent to the wrong address. Ross also said that some people expect to get an individual card when they have a school membership. What they get is the blue cardboard 'school membership' card.

A lengthy discussion ensued regarding membership ideas.

Secretary's Report: Nancy Christopher
There is always a need for newsletter articles. The deadlines for publication in the following issues are Jan 15th, March 15th and August 15th. Email articles directly to the secretary at nchristopher@eee.org

Past President's Report: Janet Knoeppel
If a legislator gets only fifty faxes or emails on a topic, it is considered to be very important. We only need ten people from each district contacting legislators to make a huge impact. Last year at the CDR meeting, we talked about a book to help new continuation school teachers. Janet has developed an excellent book and she passed it around for the members to critique.

Webmaster's Report: Gerry Catanzarite
CDR members are asked to go to the discussion forum on the website. There are lots of posted questions, and Jerry asked for the members to actively read and respond to those questions. The discussion forum can be a very active resource, but we need to use it. There are over three hundred questions on the forum right now. If someone is interested in being the discussion host, contact Jerry. You need to be committed to go to the website every couple of days and keep answers flowing. He talked about the increasing storage space needs for the website, which will soon hit the forty megabyte mark, and the cost will increase $25 a month for server space. Everything has been move to a Windows 2000 server and our secure server is on a new system. He asked the members to notify him if they hit an error on the website. There are 1400 files on the site, and even though test programs are run, there may be errors he is not aware of. Members need to contact him via email if they encounter a problem. Regarding the school directory, notify Jerry if there is a change or correction in your school address or name. We need people to write position papers on class size in the continuation classroom. Many continuation schools are being pressured into having thirty or thirty-five kids in the classroom! Dennis Fisher underscored the value of a position paper about successful practices regarding attendance. He gets three to five calls a week on that exact subject, and says there is tremendous strength in the practices of successful programs. Jerry Catanzarite has a mini web site for each district. Give him your information regarding news from your district. You can post specific information on the website. Send Gerry the electronic version of your district updates. He can post teachers of the year, conference information and dates. We had over 2000 hits in the last month and a half on the homepage. People are using it and being referred to the website even by the California Department of Education. Jerry also said he is the CCEA historian, so before you throw away CCEA historical documents, carefully look at them and decide if CCEA should have them.

Members at Large:
Tina Tomaschke, Jim Ingram, and Eric Spears came to the August board meeting; one of the topics of discussion was how the members at large can help. One area is membership recruitment and another is to bring news from your districts to bring to the secretary for publication in the newsletter. Regarding membership, Doc Savarese suggested getting district personnel involved or at least aware of CCEA. Robert Meier said when his school does school memberships they also give an honorary membership to the superintendent. Maybe we need to be sure that we get to those people. Jim Caswell reaffirmed that as a local responsibility and hoped that all of us would follow through on that. Gerry Catanzarite said we could send a letter to each superintendent recognizing the CDR members and rah-rah-ing CCEA: a Letter of Recognition at the superintendent level. Jim Caswell liked the idea and said he would send a letters of recognition and asked the CDR members to email him the name and address of their superintendents.

Dan Plough said his district always notifies the superintendent and the school board president of people working on special projects at the state level.

State Conference Report:
Bill Lincoln and Bill Pierce gave reports on the state conference including financial statement and evaluation survey results. Both expressed thanks and appreciation to all the people who helped with conference, particularly Janet Kneopple: presenters/program/ordering needed things, and Bill Pierce: registration /all financial dealings involving thousands of dollars. A small discussion ensued regarding billing procedures, and it was agreed by the CDR committee that purchase orders are necessary even though irksome. Bill Pierce, Gerry Catanzarite and Jim Caswell hope to work with the conference chair so "we are not recreating the wheel".

Break-out for Committees 11:15

Committee Reports:
Constitution and By-Laws/Bob Meier the Webmaster was appointed as 'Keeper of the Changes' regarding correct language in the constitution. Leo Petty has retired from CCEA and as Member-at-Large. The president appointed Kay Eatmon as the ACSA representative who can bring us to their attention. Advisory/Liaison Dennis King stated the AB1609 is very important regarding exclusion of 9th graders from the CAHSEE. SB 374 regarding categorical funds actually makes things easier for us. "There are the same number of hoops, only the hoops are smaller".

Lunch 12:00-12:50

Ad Hoc Committees:
Awards / Lee Newman -South (absent) Bernie Vigallon -North... 1.) It is important to get your information to Lee as soon as possible, at least by February. The deadline is March 15th, but this information is available much sooner. 2.) The committee had a question regarding the Justification Statements. The president said he needs the statements by March 15th. All of the rest of the application goes to Lee Newman as always. The only things the president wants are the justification statements. The March 15th deadline is necessary in order to get them printed and available at conference. Any statements generated after that cut-off date will have to be printed by that particular district. 3.) It is important that the local board members know who the winners are. Bernie's group is going to organize a method to notify all such venues. Bernie asked the district presidents to notify the local media.

State Conference 2002:
Hank Johnson 's district, which is hosting the conference in April, requested 'seed money' to get started.

Jim Caswell said he would help coordinate the awards ceremony.

Hank said all districts are encouraged to bring raffle prizes and that the theme of the conference is "Fiesta at the Beach".

Legislative Report: Peter Birdsall
The state budget has everyone scared. There is a $14Billion shortfall in the budget. There are assumptions that the state will not be able to pay revenue funds. Peter's personal instincts say, "We're in trouble, but the sky is not falling." Regarding Proposition 98, it is not likely that the governor will suspend it in an election year. However, this is not a particularly good year to go after anything other than COLA and growth. CCEA should become involved in putting someone in a provider slot for principals' training. Continuation schools are obviously different than traditional ones. AB 961, the low performing schools bill has some high priority grants, which require applicants to have an action plan for improvement. You get three years to improve and if your kids improve or your school improves, you get four years in the renewal instead of three. There is a bill providing for professional development and support, as long as state board approved materials and providers are used. The push is on for increased training for teachers in English/Language Arts and Social Studies areas. We need to be pro-active and get attention. Even if we don't win this fight, we have the ear of Sacramento, which is very good for continuation education when the legislators talk about us. They are beginning to realize they are excluding a huge batch of students not getting proper consideration in the legislature. More assembly bills were discussed, especially ones concerning the CAHSEE and the exclusion of ninth graders this year. AB233 is the testing program. Effective 2003 it will bring many changes, especially at the high school level. They will be developing over many years, but it is the direction most people want to go. In 2003 they will remove from the norm-referenced test program the history and social science items because they are not online with the California State standards. It says the Golden State exam will be aligned with the California sate standards. They are working with UC and CSU so that down the line three or four years from now, the universities will be able to accept that as placement exams. The governor's office and the state board support these changes. There is much discussion going on in Sacramento at this time. As another answer to the question, "What does CCEA do for me?" there are six bills passed that previously did not have continuation students in the picture. Now, they are included in these bills. Also, for twenty years, continuation programs were excluded from Cost of Living Adjustments, and because of CCEA we now get them. (Be sure to read Peter's full report in the December CCEA newsletter.) This is the time to send email to our legislators, particularly Susan Hamner, who is now a senior member on the board.

State Department Report: Dennis Fisher
We will be in the loop getting information and feedback from the Dropout Prevention Network, which is working to get all at-risk programs to work together. The Dropout Prevention conference at the Santa Clara county convention center had 2700 attendees and on of the CDE Model Schools presented a program and the audience was standing room only. There was huge interest in the session. People in the DPN had no idea of our programs such as, cultural caring for students with student success, ongoing monitoring, feedback, case management, etc. and they were surprised to learn that any continuation school functioned like that. Dennis then passed out the Model School applications and went over a few changes in the form. The applications were mailed to all continuation high school principals, and they are also available on the web. Fuschia Ward, who was at the DPN conference, said that the Dropout Prevention Network is not a California Department of Education branch, but a group of people working together to create an umbrella under which the various programs can work together to get connected to the legislature and get things moving.

SB 65 is he Alternative Education Center Program: a school-based program funding positions of outreach at schools to do early interventions. The idea is to keep students in the program. The program is interested in studies regarding brain research and adolescence. SB 65 is an exciting program very much aligned with all the best characteristics of continuation education. There is a Dropout Prevention Specialist Certificate program sponsored by six CSU campuses, and it is a 12 -unit graduated or undergraduate course. The CSU system is interested in looking into a program specializing in alternative programs. Dennis then gave more handouts including press briefings on alternative accountability system, comparisons between main API and alternative accountability systems, a notice of the State Board of Education agenda, the ASAMs, STAR indicators, etc. Dennis gave us Bob Bakkie's number.... 916-445-7746. Bob is the consultant for the ASAM. Dennis says Bob is very nice and very patient and happy to take any questions. A brief discussion arose regarding ADA and different ways to calculate continuation attendance. Dennis then gave a handout regarding a web age dedicated to the CAHSEE.

Membership Report: Marion St. Amant
In the morning breakout session, a suggestion was made that the district secretary usually stays the same more than the principals. A good method to keep database current is to contact the school secretaries and have them put CCEA on their lists of contacts. Another factor in membership problems could be that mailings came to the school with no return addresses and often wound up in the trash. Also Marion suggested that on the renewal forms for membership, if an addendum could be put on the label saying 'new' or 'renew', so she could contact the new people and give them more information. Ross Bauer said you could tell if the member is new because the label will not yet have a member number on it.

Audit Committee: Jim Ingram
Jim said the financial report looked real good. Jim gave thanks and kudos to Ross Bauer for personally covering some of last year's conference expenses until he could be reimbursed. The recommendation was made that when the office of treasurer is changed, the new person should sign the proper bank forms to have access to CCEA accounts so that matters can be handled without having to contact the previous treasurer. A discussion came up about Ross's term in office, being somewhat shorter because of previous circumstances. Jim Ingram felt Ross was a valuable asset to CCEA and wanted to find a way to keep Ross in office longer than the two years. A motion was made to develop a committee to explore the possibility of changing the treasurer's term of office. Dennis King so moved. Bill Pierce seconded. The motion carried unanimously. Then it will be brought up at the spring CDR and voted on at that time. Robert Meier will work on the language.

New Business:

#1.New list of district officers

#2. Peter Birdsall contract: rather than $1100 a month and plus additional $500 for extra work on legislation. The new contract would eliminate the extra $500 because we are not pushing legislation, but his fee has gone up a hundred dollars. In three or four years this is the first increase he has given us. So, it would be $1200 a month to continue his contract. Peter is always represented at CDR meetings and puts on presentations and workshops, which are very well received. Robert Meier moved to continue the Peter Birdsall and Associates contract at $1200 a month for the 2001/2002 year. Marion St. Amant seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.

Fiscal Reports: Financial reports were turned into the treasurer.

Meeting adjourned: 3:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Nancy Christopher