Call to Order: The spring meeting for the Council of District Representatives was called to order by President Janet Knoeppel at 8:15 AM.

Seating of Representatives: Members present included: Ross Bauer, Joyce Bowcock, Jim Caswell, Nancy Christopher, Mark Cusator, Karlene Dockery, Myrtle Foster, Georgeanne Fulstone-Pucillo, Kay Eatmon, Gerry Catanzarite, Arlene Gluck, Linda Gragg, Jim Ingram, Hank Johnson, Dennis W. King, Janet Knoeppel, Bill Lincoln, Lee Newman, Leo Petty, Bill Pierce, Robert Rivas, Marion St. Amant, Ken San Filippo, Richard Savarese, David Scott, , Sunshine Sepulveda-Klaus, Eric Spears, Joe Stits, Tina Tomaschke, Bob VanCleave, Bernard Vigallon, Barbara Wenk, Bob Werner, and Jeanne Yttreness.

Janet introduced and welcomed guests. They included Dennis Fisher representing the California Department of Education, Dick Kuester (Retired/Past President), Fuschia Ward (Kern USD Director Alternative Education/Conference Chairperson), Vic Whitaker (Chaparall HS and Assistant Conference Chairperson), Bill Lincoln (Robertson HS and 2001 Conference Chairperson), Betty Reed (Student Art Coordinator for conference), Bob Meyer (Central HS/Conference Hospitality Chairperson), Ron Mayeda (Renaissance HS), Carol Dray (Alvord HS), Mark Tellis (Salisbury HS), Juliet Montevirgen (Downtown HS) and E. Dominic Black (Nogales HS).

President’s Report: Janet gave an overview of the Executive Board’s activities since October as well as her own activities on behalf of CCEA for the last membership year. Her report included:

• A presentation of the arrangements for a Continuation Educator’s Institute that will be held in June of this year at the Kellogg West Conference Center on the Cal Poly Pomona campus. She described the workshop and the presentations that will be included. She encouraged all districts to become involved in sending teachers to the conference.
  
• She described attending the High School Exit Exam Committee and the Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) meetings in Sacramento so that the interests and concerns of continuation schools will be presented.
  
• Our new legislative initiative, AB 972 (Goldberg) to provide adequate funding had received support from ACSA, CSBA and LAUSD and it is in the process of finding its way through the committee process.
  
• She reported that the Executive Board has made trips to Sacramento during the year in the months of September, November, December, January and March and will return during the summer. The Executive Board will continue to meet as the bill goes forward.
  
• She said that a pin for professional members has been created and is available.
  
• She shared that she visited many CCEA Districts including Districts I, II, V, VI, VIII, X, XI, and XII.
  
• We’ve had a very successful year with Model Schools and Exemplary Programs. Dennis and Jim will share more information regarding both programs.
  
• Finally, she expressed her thanks to the Executive Board and others who were there for the advancement of our students and organization.

The next CDR meeting will be held in San Francisco on October 26, 2001.

Minutes: Joe Stits presented the minutes for the October 20, 2000 CDR meeting held in Costa Mesa, California. The minutes were approved unanimously, without amendment, by a motion by Dennis King that was seconded by Dave Scott.

Vice President’s Report: Jim congratulated Janet on her leadership and activity on behalf of the association and our students. He asked for information on any who may have supported the Governor financially so that we might ask them to put pressure on the Governor once AB 927 is passed. Exemplary Programs had 14 applications. Nine were approved and they will receive their awards on Sunday. Twenty-one schools applied with 14 being approved for Model Schools and they will also be recognized on Sunday morning. The Model Schools application and support information has been redone and it is a much better process. The screening process has been improved and the new application now asks for evidence for all indicators that can be checked by the visiting team. Membership now stands at 350 professional members and 150 school members for this year. The goal of 40% school-wide membership has fallen a little short of our goal for this year but that may change with this conference as we are at about 35% currently. Continuing to recruit members is essential for the organization and he encouraged all to work on this area.

Treasurer’s Report: Ross Bauer, Treasurer presented his report which included the Budget proposal for 2001-2002 membership year. A motion to approve the budget was moved by Joyce Bowcock and seconded by Dave Scott. Discussion on the budget ensued and Lee Newman requested that the Awards Committee allocation be increased to $1600.00. The budget was amended to increase Awards from $700 to $1600 and to decrease the Institute allocation from $22,000 to $21,000 thus leaving the budget in balance. The amendment was moved by Jeanne Yttreness and seconded by Dave Scott and it was approved. CDR returned to the main motion, as amended, and voted unanimously to adopt the 2001-2002 budget. Ross gave an update on returned newsletters and asked for district support in correctly identifying schools in their area.

Secretary’s Report: Joe Stits presented the Secretary’s Report in which he stated that the newsletter circulation has grown from 2000 copies printed to 3000 copies because of increased membership. He expressed appreciation for the help of Nancy Christopher, assistant secretary.

Past President’s Report: Bob Werner gave a brief report.

1. Report on Classified and Administrator of the Year category recognition.

Lee Newman, Chairperson stated that these two new awards will be presented at dinner Friday night. She also reported that 10 districts participated in the Teacher of the Year competition this year. She made the CDR aware that we have awards for Life Membership/Retirement, Jerry Dean Award, and a 25 Year Certificate. She has all the awards with her if you are interested.

2. Report on Professional Development Institute. Information was given on this in the President’s Report.

 

3. Constitutional Changes Report. Joe Stits presented the proposal for a pilot program for changes in the Executive Board to include ad-hoc members. The main motion was made by Bill Pierce and seconded by Mark Cusator. Eric Spears offered an amendment when he moved to delete the word "pilot" from the proposal. This change was seconded by Geogeanne Fulstone-Pucillo. The motion passed. Further discussion was held and the call for the motion resulted in adoption of the motion as amended. A further change to the By-Laws to include a new member of the Executive Board, the Webmaster was moved by Dennis King and seconded by Karlene Dockery and the motion passed.

Committee Meetings: CDR adjorned to committee meetings at 9:50 am and reconvened at 10:43 am.

Legislative Committee: Dennis King reported that there is a bill to prohibit summer school instructional delivery via Independent Study. This bill information was discussed. CCIS is working on the issue to oppose its adoption. Gerry Catanzarite reported that the website will be updated with information about the funding bill during the summer break.

Advisory/Liaison Committee: No report.

State Conference Committee: Fuschia Ward introduced Vic Whitaker who will be working on the conference site location and conference development. The State Conference 2002 chairperson will be Hank Johnson from District X. The calendar of future conferences was distributed to the CDR. Lee Newman raised a question about the possibility of having a conference price break for retirees who want to attend. Lee Newman moved and Marion St. Amant seconded a motion that CCEA provide a price break such as waiving the conference fees for retired members to attend the state conference. Following discussion, the motion was approved.

Awards Committee: Lee Newman reported that the state will have regional coordinators for awards and Bernie Vigallon will be the northern coordinator. The forms for application for the Teacher of the Year will be placed on the website for reference. She recommended that each district do something to recognize their teacher of the year. The committee recommended that CCEA keep the Classified and Administrative awards as it was conducted this year for future recognition. These awards will continue to be district awards, not state awards. All awards will be available through the website. Schools can purchase Model School flags however the CDE wishes to purchase flags for the schools as part of their award. It was suggested that this information be both on the website and in the first newsletter of the year with all the timelines for all items for CCEA awards be listed.

Membership Committee: Leo Petty recommended that districts add schools in their district to an email communication system, and to inform them about alternative school issues. It is recommended that the mini-conferences focus on common themes related to the HSEE and PSAA requirements. The committee wants to update the brochure on CCEA and it was noted that the current brochure is now available on the website. A district communication such as that in District XI could be a very valuable tool in building membership and Ross Bauer can provide labels for schools in the district. In discussion it was recommended that a handbook for new teachers in continuation be developed. Jim Caswell volunteered to take on the responsibility to pull together information for new teachers if people will get information to him.

Theresa Inslee from Peter Birdsall’s office was introduced. The CDR adjourned for district groups to select ad hoc representative to the Executive Board. The CDR adjourned for lunch at 12:00 noon.

CDR reconvened from lunch at 1 PM. Janet announced that at this time there are 641 persons registered for this conference.

Theresa Inslee from Peter Birdsall’s office reported on a number of bills which may affect our organization. These bills including SB 508- Low Performing Schools, SB 753-Education Trailer Bill (allow participation in Governor’s Scholars Program), AB 481-Low Performing Schools, AB 927-CCEA funding bill, AB 1288-Academic Performance Index, and AB 1295-Academic Performance Index. She provided information on letter writing to the legislature on issues. She recommended that we write letters to John Vasconcelles and Governor Davis on our funding bill. AB 508 is important to add funding to schools identified as Low Performing and our attempt is to include continuation high schools in this category.

Nominations and Elections: It was moved acceptance by acclamation of the slate of officers presented by Bill Lincoln and seconded by Hank Johnson. The motion was passed. The officers for the 2001-2002 membership year are as follows:

President: Jim Caswell

Vice President: Jeanne Yttreness

Treasurer: Ross Bauer

Secretary: Nancy Christopher

Ad-Hoc Members of the Executive Committee:

Leo Petty representing Districts I, III, and XII.

Jim Ingram representing Districts II, IV and V.

Eric Spears representing Districts VI, VII, and XI.

Tina Tomaschke representing Districts VIII, IX, X.

Department of Education: Dennis Fisher reported that there has been progress in raising the awareness of CDE personnel about continuation high schools and what those schools are doing. The Model Schools Program represents positive collaboration. He handed out a list of the newest model schools and a comprehensive list of all model schools. He also distributed a list of the Alternative Accountability System list of presentations by the CDE on the process.

Audit Committee: Jim Ingram stated that the books appear to be in good order and recommended approval of the books for this year.

Richard Sevarese distributed a report from his school developed by an external evaluator who was employed to assess his school program and ascertain the attainment of program outcomes.

Gerry Catanzarite made an appeal for assistance in securing information on schools for the website directory. He indicated that any changes in the data can be emailed to him.