|
California Continuation Education Association Council of District Representatives Minutes Meeting Location: Sheraton Gateway Hotel, Los Angeles Meeting Date: October 19, 2002 Approval Date: Approved 5/2/03
COUNCIL OF DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVES
California Continuation
Education Association Seated Representatives
President
Jim Caswell Call to Order 8:15 by Jim Caswell Minutes of previous CDR meeting approved as printed 8:20
PRESIDENT’S REPORT There have been eight district meetings set up by members at large and we have seen more than 100 principals. The purpose was to make sure every school in the state had a personal contact to get addresses /fax/email/ and changes of principals. The first meeting was in District V, and 25 schools were represented. It was very successful. There were lots of good comments. Janet Knoeppel presented at three meetings by herself; Jim presented at two, and there were six meetings in all. Talking about the no child legislation and other topics, administrators in regular schools have no idea what the No Child Left Behind legislation is. A typical attitude from administrators is "not worry" about it. What CCEA is trying to do is say you better worry about it; it’s not going to go away. Accountability is here to stay both on a federal level and a state level. If you are getting ANY kind of federal dollars, you are responsible and held accountable to make sure your students make average yearly progress. The ASAM will probably not serve the purpose. A loophole in California is that in our state it may not apply. Students must be long term and of course they think ours are not long term. We know we have them sometimes for 4 or 5 years. All of this is still to be determined at state level. Often the CCEA rep knows more than superintendent. Jim has prepared a letter to school site administrators. He said there is a partnership between CCEA/CDE / and the state department does not have funding to provide for collection of data to determine what is happening in the alternative programs. So we are asking for a voluntary form for data gathering. Please fill this out; it takes 15 or 20 minutes to fill out most of it, and it tells what information you can start gathering for next year to make it easier. One of things we are finding is California has set the standards higher than any other state's final exam. many other states have no under achievers because their standards are lower. You can still be an under performing school if all of your populations don't increase scores. The person in Jim’s district who said he wasn’t concerned about NCLB heard only one side. He wasn’t listening to the other side when the superintendent, that week, ordered that all children in the low-performing schools be mailed a letter indicating that they had the right to know the ability level of their teachers and paraprofessionals, and in the next school term, they had the right to transfer to a high performing school at district expense. Their Title I budget, that day, was frozen by 20% to cover transportation costs. Fresno was one of the areas with two schools that received sanctions. There are 18 schools that will receive sanctions this year. No continuation schools because this is the first year that we’ve had an API and accountability. The state is carrying through on its threat of sanctions. We’re told the state is looking at schools in the first quartile. Those are the ones they will bring the sanctions on first. That’s where we are. .2 years down the road, we better be ready. So, this is some of the activity we have been involved in. Are there any questions? Brent Bailey said the consensus among principals is that they would be in favor of everybody having the same criteria on the ASAM. Somebody needs to tell us what the criterion is. Gerry Catanzarite said it is a point well taken. In his district they all choose the same things. But there are other schools in the ASAM besides continuation schools, such as court schools, community day schools that are not going to use the same criteria. Court schools, for example are not going to take attendance; a juvenile hall kid might only be there for a few days. That’s why there is a huge range. Maybe we need to take a look at recommendations for continuation schools. Jim then asked the district presidents to list all their officers for the new year, and indicate when those officers took their positions. Was it the beginning of the school year or January 2003? We need complete addresses and emails etc. so we can send news and requests. Also in Jim’s letter is a place to list all the names and email address of all of your staff members. What we want to do is create a data base for each district so that when the CCEA president sends out information to the district presidents, they can easily send down the line information to every school site and every member throughout the state, whatever is going on, legislative updates etc. Send Jim your information about teacher /administrator/classified person of the year. Send it electronically so Jim can fix it on the computer so everything looks the same. He thanked all of the people involved in putting together the one-page presentations for the awards ceremony. It was agreed that it went very well being streamlined and smoothly orchestrated. District V provided a sample form for nominations for teacher/ administrator/ classified person of the year, and contact Mark Cusator if you want the form emailed to your district Jim complimented the district newsletters saying they look good/colorful/using technology well. We also have been working on conferences for the state level. We're trying to show with the loss of 1882 funds, there is a lot of money available under No Child Left Behind, such as the Eisenhower money, the class size reduction money, which is coming from the federal government, has now been put into the No Child Left Behind funds, and districts may apply for that money. Go to CDE website, which shows a 240-page state document, the state plan for No Child Left Behind. The document mentions a lot of grants that are out there. If you get Title I or EL funding, up to at least 10% can be used for staff development. It said “no conference”, but actually, there is money for things that have real substance. Our CCEA state conference qualifies for No Child Left Behind Title I funding. But what we are trying to do is keep costs down. San Francisco is expensive, so we had to go back to Hyatt Regency, but when you pay the tax, the room is $150 a night. We have been looking for places that are cheaper. The Sheraton has offered us a GREAT deal. 2003/north/ 2004south/ 2005north/ 2006 back at this hotel. They are offering lots of perks and freebies and reduced rates for CDR meetings. They will lock in meal prices at today's prices. They are willing to do this for 2006 and 2008 and two more CDR meetings in the off years. Requests from floor on comments: Bob Meier: It sounds too good to be true. In Glendale the management changed and the district lost money. Why such a good deal? Jim: Since 9/11 hotels are hurting. Joyce Bowcock: Do we get the same contract if management changes? Jim: Yes. Brian Schoenfield: What about up north? A short discussion ensued on hotel contracts. Discussion on hotel contract up for group approval. Bob Woodward: suggested a notice in the newsletter about the letter saying school people don't have to pay occupancy tax. Karlene Dockery: said the contract sounds wonderful, with the food prices locked in. Motion to accept offer Bob Meier so moved to accept. Bob Woodward seconded. Motion carries unanimously.
VICE
PRESIDENT’S REPORT Jeanne has sent out 600 letters/ got 15 back/ only one school, Ponderosa, came back 3 times; must not be there anymore. Exemplary programs. There were only 7 applicants. She wants to make the application later than December 15th to January something/ February first/ All she has to do is just print the program. Model Schools. Dennis Fisher will be here soon to talk about new forms for model schools. He'll tell us the exact date. The reading will be February 7th or 10th at this hotel. (Sheraton Gateway, Los Angeles)
TREASURER’S REPORT We are going to accept Sheraton’s offer for future dates. There are two forms for school and professional memberships. Notify him of any changes. He reiterated the rate for membership reimbursement A couple of districts have really gone up. District VII membership has gone up unbelievably. District V is really good. Districts IV and XI are doing really well. There is a change this year. You must be a professional CCEA member to be a CDR member. He then asked for the districts to give him their treasurer's report, please. As of 10/16/02 our balances are:
CCEA
$32,774.21
SECRETARY’S REPORT Future newsletter deadlines will be January 15th, March 15th and August 15th. Please send me any articles you wish to be included in the subsequent letters by those dates. Letters will be sent out and will arrive during the first week of the following months, i.e. February, April, and September. PAST
PRESIDENT’S REPORT She has been to 8 of the 12 CCEA districts to visit and will soon be going to district IX. She and Jim have seen over 110 people on a one-on-one basis since the beginning of the year. She talked about the updates on the ASAM form. Also, she had news that President Bush said teachers in the fast start program are considered to be highly qualified even if they have not finished all the current requirements. Janet said in meetings that this particular legislation is a back door into vouchers. It gives parents license to say “I'm putting my kid into private school and you will pay for transportation”. If anyone wants more information on this subject, ask Janet anytime. On the ASAM, questions are always “when do we get our reports?” Janet is going to the state department in late October. She thinks the state department doesn’t know what the report is going to look like. It will have the CAHSEE, CAT 6, plus three other indicators that you have chosen. Sunshine Sepulveda-Klus reported that the ACSA meeting said ASAM for continuation is going away and that we are going to be placed in the API. Janet said that's wrong. The chair of the CEO got the wrong information from CDE. The CDE is looking right now to find a different measure other than the API to give to the government. They can see we are going to lose all our federal moneys. The plan is to select 4 to 5 indicators for reading and 4 to 5 for writing. At this time there was a pause in the proceedings as Wilson Prado from the Sheraton Hotel made a presentation on hotel business. After Mr. Prado’s presentation, the meeting resumed where it left off, and discussion continued. Sunshine asked regarding pre and post testing. Is it individual school deciding or what? Janet said it's an internal thing. The indication is the State Board of Education is considering delaying implementation of the test because over 40% of the juniors aren't passing it. However, don't stop pushing the kids. Now everybody is starting to wonder how this could happen. The executive board is going to try to meet face to face with Jack O'Connell, assuming he will win. We have hopes to get him to our conference. Jack is a former continuation school teacher. One of the questions we will ask is about the CAHSEE. Janet’s group has completed the new continuation manual. It is superb. Kinko's has offered us a corporate rate even better than the 25% for education. Get in touch with Janet for large runs. In working with Dennis Fisher, there are a few changes in model schools applications. The partnership that the CDE has with CCEA is of great value because of the services we provide. He asked for documentation. Just the board members alone provide over $200,000 of services to CDE. Last week at District V Conference Dave Bishop said our two organizations need to get together. So we are looking at pulling the two groups together. Since we embrace the community day school too, there is no need to form another organization. We would certainly welcome the blending of the two groups. Sunshine works with community day school network, on the board, and asked if CCEA could be the umbrella organization. Janet said, “No. .we don't want to be an umbrella, we want it to be ONE organization”. Dick Chadwick said the CAHSEE crisis allows us to have a part of special ed organizations. Bob Woodward said we need to be careful in changing our focus lest we lose our continuation school identity. Janet said tell her if you have any concerns
WEBMASTER’S REPORT The web site is getting bigger and bigger. There are new features/ additional web addresses. Top level domain names include: www.ccea.us, www.alted.us, and www.alted.info. He has moved the web site to a larger 200-megabyte server for 5 cents a month more. Regarding the online form for discussion forum, sometimes when you click on it, it doesn't work. .email Gerry and tell him so he can fix it. CDR members need to get on the forum and answer peoples’ questions. Give Gerry an update on your school so he has accurate data. He can make lists of about anything, but he needs accurate data. Be sure to tell him what page you were on when the website malfunctioned. A discussion ensued on actual language in the district charter as to who can sit on the district board. A discussion ensued on chapter IV a. 1. Who are current or previous employees to continuation education? The focus is on officer qualifications. Break:11:00 – 11:10 District Charter pages 3-7 article IV a. 1. Does the person have to be a professional member of CCEA ? 1. Put a period after the word CCEA. 2. The other discussion is to add “employee in a recognized continuation field”. The VOTE goes to #2 Section IV. a. changed to “Anyone who is a PROFESSIONAL member”. Page 9 section VIII. A. To decide whether legislative committee said “The past president”. Changed to “A past president”. Page 5 section V. b. Scratch the whole 'b.' section Page 9. VIII. A. Persons appointed to serve. Last thing is the last page. Add Sonoma county to District III. Madera county spelled incorrectly. Karlene Dockery moved to accept the by-law changes. An intensive discussion ensued regarding language changes and whether or not the position of webmaster should be an executive position. It is duly noted that one of the CDR members felt strongly that the webmaster position shouldn't be on the executive board. Page 4. Scratch section IV. C. 2. with the mailing address Page 6. VII. e. Remove the word ad-hoc. Motion on the floor to accept by way of a general vote by-law changes as made. Motion carries unanimously. Page 5. District charter VI. a. Decide wording on co-president status. .Sunshine Sepulveda-Klus made motion to approve district charter wording as corrected. Marion St. Amant seconded. The motion carries unanimously. Everybody will get a clean copy at the next CDR. MEMBERS’ AT LARGE REPORTS Lots of success with principals meetings. The tri district representatives were recognized for their excellent efforts and thanked by executive board and CDR membership. REPORT OF
STATEWIDE DATA SURVEY It is out in the mail. Please get it filled out and sent back by the 15th of November. Jim will get survey results back as soon as possible. Janet said there will be no Educators Institute this year because she is chairing the conference. Think about it and email her with your opinions. Focus on report from White Paper committee: results of committee turned into a booklet replacing the old CDE book. It was going very slowly, so the committee (Janet got a better deal from Kinko's than the state department could give) Final result is a 64 page booklet which is selling like hotcakes. .She explained contents of the booklet. They are $10 each and are free to superintendents. Seventy-five have been sold already with orders for more coming in every day. Dennis Fisher commented on FAQs from new principals. He said the books contained very useful information; a great compilation. Georgeanne Fulstone-Pucillo said thanks to Janet for heading up the committee and producing such an excellent product. The CDR assembly gave Janet a round of applause. The cover page and the order form will be on the CCEA web site. Lunch Break 12:00 noon Reconvene 1:00 Dennis Fisher had the recommendation from CDE to California State Department, then pitched us to the U.S. gov't. to assure them we meet No Child Left Behind requirements. We should keep ASAM for alternative schools and they argue in the paper, that he has, which goes to the state board of ed. The paper helped the state board understand who we are. There are five arguments for continuation education. One said keep thing as they are. The chart on page five indicates there are only 41 alternative schools in API and 400 plus schools in the ASAM. Another alternative is to keep things as they are and let schools decide where they want to be. Another argument is for continuation schools to go back to API. If they went back into the API then we would get low performing schools money. Dennis Fisher said the Model Continuation School applications should have been out, but the deputy superintendent wanted to add an assessment component. The due date is Jan 10th. The applications should be out by Oct 30th. Theresa Inslee said the governor finally signed the budget. She brought two reports. Bob Meier move to accept the contract for Birdsall and Associates at $35 more a month Mark Cusator seconded. Bob Woodward questioned the need for services from Birdsall and Associates. Jim Caswell asked him if he would like to head a committee to look into the issue Bob Meier said “Yes, I agree with Bob Woodward, but this is like an insurance policy. We want them to be there for us”. Janet Knoeppel said Peter's work has been to explain our position. Peter Birdsall and Theresa Inslee are directly responsible for our receiving Safe Schools money, etc. Their service gives us answers and access to legislators. It's because of Theresa that we have an audience with Jack O'Connell. They have provided us with entry to these people. Motion carries unanimously. The new bill is 2% more which is an additional $24. COMMITTEE REPORTS STANDING COMMITTEES 1.Constitution and By-laws: Bob Meier and Gerry Catanzarite. Gerry had to leave the meeting prior to this time. One thing to keep in mind is that the legislators have discovered continuation schools will be around, but additional money from Low Performing Schools may keep us from being staffed at 35 to 1. We need to be proactive rather than reactive. Jim Caswell asked, “Where do you think the world sees us?” Sunshine Sepulveda-Klus said, “Families love us if they have kids in our schools”. Bill Chapman said, “ We don't get the pr. we need”. Janet Knoeppel asked, “How many of you have a WASC accreditation? Be sure to get your schools accredited”. A discussion ensued about district and public awareness led by Bill Pierce, Mark Cusator, Janet Knoeppel, and Joyce Bowcock. Theresa Inslee said, “The legislature is so focused on the traditional schools they forget we even exist”. She encouraged us to invite our legislators to our schools so they can see who we are and what we do. Dennis Fisher said there is the image problem. We make tremendous student gains and we need to show valid and reliable data, such as moving from 2nd grade reading level to 7th grade level. What are the benefits to the community to keep these kids off the street? Janet Knoeppel said that the majority of the people making statements about us are from the old school that sees us as bad kids. Our kids can and will pass the CAHSEE. We have to look at where we are. There were 449,000 students served in the ASAM numbers. Bill Chapman said the ASAM is not a good indicator to show growth. Jim Caswell said that the issues facing us this year include: 1. funding 2. key issue, the CAHSEE and school accountability. Question to CDR “Do you want Peter and Theresa to get out there and do more work in this area?? Theresa said O'Connell is the father of class size reduction. Their concern for CCEA is how to modify the ASAM to really be right for us. what should it look like?? They want to be more active at the state level Jim said the state is going to be more involved and it is better for us to be WITH them, than to be DONE TO by them. It is important for us to be represented in the state department. The rest of us have been sitting around. We need to be part of the action. Dick Chadwick made a motion for Birdsall and associates to get $500 extra per month. Georgeanne Fultsone-Pucillo seconded. Motion carries unanimously. CONFERENCE REPORT Hank Johnson: There were big problems with the hotel. At least 23 people were in the hotel that we did not get credit for until Vic Whittaker fought the battle. The presentations were well received, particularly the “How To…” presentations. Peter Birdsall was very well received. The food was wonderful. The program was beautiful. Eleven cars caravaned to the visit to Silverado High School. The vendors very well received and everybody loved the 3-minute 9/11 video. One of the presenters didn't show, so several principals got together and did a spontaneous presentation which was very good. The casino night was a lot of fun. Comments were it gave non-dancers something to do. The date for April 2008 is the 26th,27th,28th, and we are discussing 2007 dates so Vic Whittaker can get the contracts signed. NEW BUSINESS Janet Knoeppel passed around conference forms. There are a few changes. Marilyn George is coming on Friday. Middle College High School will deliver a 1 1/2 hour presentation in the afternoon. The program has evolved until it is international in scope. .Mark will give a three-hour presentation on Saturday. He will have two back to back 1 1/2 hour presentations. THIS WILL QUALIFY US FOR NCLB FUNDING. There will be “How-To” workshops. Peter Birdsall and Theresa Inslee will present. There are thirty-four presenters already signed up. The cutoff date for presenters is Dec 15th. We will be adding a Sunday morning workshop before the brunch. There will be a job-alike round table with somebody in social studies/special ed/and technology. There will be 16 different workshops, and a meal will be added Saturday morning-a continental breakfast cart. There will also be 1/2 hour before and after lunch only for visiting vendors. So for 20 vendors have responded. Janet sent out 100 letters and twenty have gotten back. She is hoping for at least 40. There will be a live band Friday night. She has two great conference bags. One is an extra nice one for professional members only. There will be no difference in price for professionals and non-professional members, but there will be nicer gifts for the professional members. Barbara Wenk said there is a huge concern statewide. Doug Reeves, a spokesman for the standards is said to have a presentation on “unwrapping the standards”. (also said only 6 in algebra) Jim Caswell said as a last comment, his district is doing power standards. His district is finally doing just the power standards. Jim suggested putting together a standards curriculum guideline for U.S. History, algebra, and science, etc., and put it on the website. We could form a committee of 4,5,6 people to develop the standards appros to continuation kids. Jim said the goal would be create a continuation curriculum on the website. Do we want to form a committee? Call it aligning standards in the continuation school. Sunshine Sepulveda-Klus and Bob Meier will chair the committee. MEMBERSHIP
COMMITTEE REPORT Marion said professional membership people will get their very own forms.
NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE The nominations committee in regards to the elections at the spring CDR, each of our officers has expressed the desire to continue on and will be nominated at spring CDR. Meeting adjourned 3:30p.m.
|
