California Continuation Education Association

Council of District Representatives Minutes

Meeting Location:  Hyatt Regency, Burlingame

Meeting Date: May 2, 2003

Approval Date: Not Approved

California Continuation Education Association
Council of District Representatives
Spring Meeting, May 2, 2003
San Francisco, California

Call to Order: The spring meeting of the CDR was called to order on May 2, 2003, at 8:15 AM by President Jim Caswell.

Seating of Representatives: The members were seated. Those members present were:

Note: There were no representatives from District X present

There were also several guests and past CDR members present. Fuchsia Ward, Vic Whitaker, Tom Campbell, Dan Plough, Jim Ingram, Arlene Gluck and Jack Meng were all welcomed to the meeting.

Minutes: The minutes from the Fall CDR meeting, October 17, 2002, were distributed. After one correction, Mark Cusator moved and Bill Chapman seconded the motion that the minutes be approved as corrected. The motion carried.

President’s Report: President Jim Caswell discussed the financial concerns affecting education. He noted a two and a half billion dollar shortfall and stated that some districts may be in more trouble than others. He indicated that layoff notices had gone out to thousands of teachers across the state. He indicated that we will all have to make cuts to our programs, but that we need to ensure that our schools are not eliminated.

Jim stated that he had visited 20 schools during his two years as president. This past year, he indicated that between himself and Janet Knoeppel, Past President, they had visited 11 of the 12 districts and that Vice President Jeanne Yttreness had represented the Executive Board in the 12^th district. The focus of those visits was information relating to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. Their message was to be proactive, not reactive to the issues confronting us, our goal being to maintain what we have and not give anything back.

Jim spoke of the block grant proposals before the legislature as they wrestle with the budget. At the present time, continuation schools are not included in any of this money. We need to be very aware of what happens with these proposals, as it could have a very direct impact on our schools and programs.

One of the ways to protect our interests has been the organization of an Alternative Education Coordinating Council that includes members of several alternative education programs. By organizing in this manner, instead of representing a few thousand students, the group will represent close to a million students. This will give us the power to lobby as a significant block of educators.

Jim discussed some of the misperceptions that currently exist relating to the various pieces of legislation with which we are all challenged. One school was told that the ASAM is gone since we will all have an API. This is not true. The Department of Education is still trying to sort out the guidelines of an AYP. California’s plan to the Federal Government has not yet been accepted, as the Feds do not recognize that California is any different than any other state, despite the largest alternative education population in the nation.

Jim stated we would keep you posted, but need your help. Membership has been down in the past year. Despite the fact that our Professional dues are just $35.00 per year, those numbers are down. We need to actively support our organization! He stated that he had mailed out 620 Year-End Reports to be filled out and returned. He received 93 of them. Next year it will be shortened and hopefully placed online for ease of completion. But, getting this information is critical to being able to help the politicians (state and federal) understand our programs. Jim stated that the excuse of being too busy is no longer valid. We are all busy, but our destiny lies in the completion of this type of thing.

It was mentioned that May 4 through May 11 has been proclaimed Continuation and Alternative Education Week throughout the state by House Resolution 25. You all received blue ribbons to wear throughout the coming week and a copy of the resolution. Please share this information with your districts and your communities.

Member comments regarding Jim’s report included the gap with new people on the boards of the local CCEA districts; new people assigned to continuation schools who are unfamiliar with CCEA and continuation education; and the credential issue due to budgetary cuts.

Jim asked for the district reps to look for anyone from their district interested in leadership positions and to have them meet in his room this evening for a brief time.

Vice President’ Report: Jeanne Yttreness announced that she is withdrawing her name as a candidate for president due to the serious illness of her mother-in-law and the need to assist in her care. She indicated that she’d still like to be involved at some level.

She reported on the Model School program which continues to improve yearly and thanked everyone for their participation in the evaluation and validation of our new Model Schools for 2003.

Treasurer’s Report: Ross Bauer asked the members to complete their reimbursement forms: the hotel room is $161.00, parking is $13.00 and mileage is $.34 per mile. He also indicated that each district had received a packet containing a check for their district memberships, both school and professional. He reported that this covers all new memberships since October 2001. In asked that if the members found any errors, they contact him, and he will check his records. He said there were two copies of the school and professional membership rosters included in district’s packet.

He passed out copies of the proposed budget for the 2003-2004 year, indicating that this represents some significant decreases in planned expenditures. (Jim Caswell offered the observation that this is a 40% decrease over the previous year.) Ross asked Marion St. Amant from District VII what her secret is in being able to show a significant increase in Professional membership. Marion stated that there were lots of activities in the district, and she gets out and bangs on doors. If you are a Professional member in District VII, there are many nice discounts for you.

Jim Caswell reminded the members that we had agreed during the previous year that all recipients of our awards must be Professional members of CCEA. He stated that some of those names advanced to him had not yet paid their dues and they needed to take care of this before the presentation.

Joyce Bowcock moved, seconded by Bob Meier that the proposed budget be approved. The motion carried.

Secretary’s Report: Nancy Christopher stated that there was nothing new to report.

Past President’s Report: Janet Knoeppel stated that she had visited 10 of the 12 districts in the state during the previous year. She thanked everyone for their hospitality and said she enjoyed meeting new members and visiting with everyone.

She stated that the ASAM is not dead. The ASAM will be needed because most of us will not have an AYP due to the rules the government imposes. (You must test 95% of your 10^th graders who are enrolled on the 1^st day of testing for the CAHSEE and you must have 100 valid scores. Most of us will not have 100-10^th graders. Therefore, so long as you test 95% of 10^th graders, the scores will roll up to the district and be "banked" until you reach the 100 valid score threshold. Once you reach a cumulative total of 100 scores, then you will have an AYP.) The State Board of Education supports the ASAM and is in fact relying on it to reflect the progress our students are making.

The NCLB legislation is having a very negative effect on us and our programs. Part of the reason is that the Feds are wrestling with trying to understand why California has several small schools that don’t fit their single purpose mold. It is hoped that there will be more answers after May 21^st. Nothing has been published to date since changes are occurring so rapidly. The Highly Qualified Teacher (HQT) issue is causing great concern in the alternative education arena. Janet stated that she was in a meeting that spent two hours on this topic and the group had made little progress. What we do know is that, under the current interpretation, in the secondary schools (including continuation) you must have a single-subject credential. This means you must have a major in the subject you teach. A minor will no longer be acceptable, nor will a supplemental authorization. At the present time a trip to Washington, D.C. may be in the future to try and speak with the Department of Education in order to try and help them understand our schools.

Janet announced that Sue Stickel, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction for California will attend our Sunday brunch in order to present the Model School awards.

In January, Janet organized the Alternative Education Coordinating Council. Those in attendance represented CCEA, CCIS (Independent Study), JSSACAC (Court and Community Schools), Adult Education, ACSA and the California Department of Education (CDE). The mission of the group is to discuss issues that pertain to all of us. This is not a separate organization. Rather, it is an umbrella that will encompass all of the organizations and allow us to speak with a single voice that represents a million students. This will give us the power we need to be heard. The group has met twice so far and will be planning an all day Summit this summer.

Janet urged the members to do things that will get their schools positive recognition. Positive publicity is one of the keys. Dennis Fisher commented that he spoke with a reporter the previous night about the Model Schools’ program. He urges anyone who inquires to visit the Model Schools. Janet stated that she has had several calls from reporters relating to continuation education.

The Continuation School Manuals, Finding the Facts, have paid for themselves. This project has turned out to be a very positive thing. She has had numerous requests for copies of the manual, often in large numbers.

Regarding the Conference, Janet stated that Mark Wolfe from AVID will be presenting today at 2:00, so CDR will be concluded prior to that time and everyone was urged to attend this presentation. She said that Marilyn George from WASC was presenting all day on accreditation and that Greg Quigly will do a presentation on Middle College High School at 11:30 today. She also informed the members that all conference workshops fit into one of six strands in order to qualify for NCLB professional development money.

Janet reminded everyone that the resolution proclaiming Continuation and Alternative Education Week was in our bags, along with a blue ribbon. She urged the members to wear their ribbons with pride.

Webmaster’s Report: Gerry Catanzarite stated that the website has bee up for six years and that he is now trying to consolidate information. He stated there are over 2,275 files and hyperlinks have increased by 740 files this year, alone. He asked that if anyone had historical documents that they send them to him for the website. He said he plans to have all newsletters from the beginning of CCEA and he is working on a better design for the discussion page. He requested that everyone send their district information to him so he can put it up on the website.

Dennis Fisher stated that the CDE loves our website. It is a great resource and very much appreciated.

Jim Caswell commended Gerry for an outstanding job in keeping up with the website.

A brief discussion followed regarding sending data to Gerry and being able to fill out the various forms online. The members were also reminded about the Year-End Report which will be shortened next year and hopefully online. The members were reminded that it is the 2002-2003 data we will be looking for on the report that is due November 15, 2003.

Jim introduced Jack Meng for a presentation from the US Navy. Jack works on the evaluation of transcripts of students wishing to join the Navy. He stated that there are some concerns coming from the Department of Defense (DOD) regarding the continuation school transcripts and that we need to be very careful that a student is not earning too many credits in a single semester. Jack is requesting that we support a letter-writing campaign to the DOD helping them to understand that our diploma is the same as those given at the traditional high schools.

Tri-District Representatives’ Report: Marion St. Amant reported that she was working with Janet to put together workshops, but that we need to do even more. She stated she sent lots of letters and made lots of phone calls and visits, but she believes we need to do more.

Mark Cusator said he, too, communicated a great deal. He plans to work toward setting up a district conference which could actually be several mini conferences, as opposed to one big mini conference.

Mark Telles said he is getting his membership list updated.

Myrtle Foster stated that she is working with county level and district superintendents in order to raise their level of awareness and understanding relating to continuation schools.

A short discussion followed. Bill Chapman suggested that we need to have a short orientation type pamphlet to help us bring our districts and officers up to speed in a more timely manner. Jim Caswell said a district officer handbook would be a good idea. He also reminded us that we need to consider our new Tri-District Representatives.

• Standards-Many districts are pushing their school to develop power standards. Richard Savarese said it is so easy to go from skills to competency; that continuation schools can move from content to skills better than traditional schools.

• Distribution of the Handbook-We originally allocated $5,000 and have recouped all of that expenditure. In fact, we have made between $4,000 and $5,000.

• What now?-CCEA needs to do some serious belt tightening and become a little more conservative. We need to rebuild our reserve. Jim suggested that CCEA pay for hotel and food for CDR and other meetings and that the individual districts pay for the transportation costs. He was reminded that it is in our bylaws that we will pay for transportation costs. It was suggested that this be the first reading toward a constitutional amendment. We will continue this discussion at the next CDR. He stated that CCEA is becoming very aggressive with the hotels in negotiating rates and perks. The discussion focused on increasing our membership. Arlene Gluck said that she has her teachers check CCEA membership off as one of their professional growth objectives. Another idea is to identify the 3 (or whatever) people who are the ones entitled to the perks. The purpose of school membership was originally to include those people who worked only part time. Bob Meier brought up the credentialing issue and a short discussion ensued.

Constitution and By-Laws: Bob Meier, Gerry Catanzarite

The District Charter gives the qualifications for holding office in the district. We need to bring the CDR and the districts into alignment. It was recommended that we use the district phrasing on CDR by-laws as to who is qualified to be an officer. It was also recommended that we add some language to extend the chairs for another year if need be. It was also recommended that the Tri District Reps be selected from not only current CDR members, but also past CDR members. There is some confusion over how we implement a by-law or constitutional change. We must present it for discussion at one meeting, bring it back to the next meeting and then vote at the 2^nd "hearing." The constitutional language needs to be changed to reflect what happens meeting-by-meeting. As to the budget: This meeting is considered to be the first "hearing" regarding the elimination of payment of transportation costs by the State.

Legislative Committee: Dennis King

Dennis stated that Theresa Inslee from Birdsall Wasco and Associates would share anything that had been discussed by the Legislative Committee during her report.

Advisory Committee: Kay Eatmon

Dennis Fisher said the Alternative Education Coordinating Council is a great idea. The purpose is to advocate benefits. He emphasized that this group represents a million students and that number has clout! He also stated that the CDE sends memos to the county and district superintendents and sometimes the information never reaches the continuation schools. He suggested that we send any information we have relating to continuation on a Listserv and that each of us forwards to our own group.

State Conference 2003: Janet Knoeppel

There will be a breakfast cart available Saturday morning-this is something new to see if it will help on the rush to the restaurants before the workshops. Janet also asked everyone to be sure to fill out the evaluation forms as this was the only way we could improve our conferences. If you have any suggestions or ideas for next year, see either Janet or Vic Whitaker.

Awards Committee: Dan Plough

Dan stated that those award winners who had not paid their membership dues are not on the list of attendees for Friday night’s banquet.

Membership Committee: Bob Meier, Marion St. Amant

The committee reported that the advent of the School Membership was originally a very good thing for us, but over the last couple of years it has been the cause of lost revenue. There were a number of suggestions put forth on how to increase Professional Membership in the future. It was suggested that if a school has all of its certificated members become Professional Members that CCEA will make them a School Member. Following the discussion, it was decided to keep things as they are and work on possible changes to be brought to the Fall CDR meeting. Richard Savarese moved, seconded by Dennis King that we remove the School Membership as an option.

Recognizing that there is nothing that could be done on this motion, it was tabled for further discussion at the Fall CDR meeting.

Nominations/Elections Committee: Karlene Dockery

Karlene passed out ballots listing the following individuals:

Since there were no further nominations from the floor, Jim entertained a vote by acclamation to elect this slate of officers. The vote passed

California Department of Education Report: Dennis Fisher

Dennis reported on the Model Schools for 2003. He stated that 20 of the 24 applicants had been selected. He said the process was more difficult this year, but the quality of the schools gets better each year. We now have 92 of our schools that are designated Model Continuation High Schools. He shared a list of suggested revisions to the process and asked for input from the members. He also said that the dates will be earlier this year. He indicated that a representative from the new model schools will be asked to serve on next year’s review and validation committee. Dennis showed the members the plaques that were made for this year’s winners. They had been made by the members of one of his other program responsibilities-the corrections program. He also suggested that there had been discussion of waiving the 15:1 student/teacher ratio for the present, given the current budgetary constraints. However, the school would have to make a case for this waiver and everything else would need to be exemplary.

Dennis commented on the NCLB requirement that each district and county office develop a schoolwide plan. He handed out a one page letter explaining this, stating that it has to be submitted to the state by June 1^st and to the Feds by July 1^st. Dennis thanked Janet and Jim for breaking ground for coordinating the plan for the alternative education council.

Legislative Report: Theresa Inslee

Theresa reviewed the figures for the state budget: 46 million dollars is education’s share of the budget cut at present. She warned it might get worse! She stated that if we don’t get our message out to the legislature that our programs could be wiped out entirely. There was a discussion of the importance of making contact with our local legislators so that they are aware of our programs, concerns and needs. She clarified the legislative information and stated that it would be fast and furious in Sacramento until May 15^th when the May Revise comes out.

Audit Committee Report: Joyce Bowcock

Joyce reported that the books are in good shape and everything is in order. Bob Meier moved, seconded by Mark Cusator that the Audit Committee Report be accepted. The motion carried.

Future State Conferences Committee: Vic Whitaker

Vic, Marion St. Amant, Karlene Dockery and Angela DeaMude are heading up the 2004 State Conference. The conference theme will be "The Grand Slam of Education." It will be held in San Diego. The Call for Presenters forms are now out. At this point they have already generated some capital and will not ask for any seed money. They handed out 2004 T-Shirts to all CDR members. Vic asked for suggestions for dates in 2011. He also asked for someone to chair the 2005 and 2007 conferences.

Announcements:

• The next CDR meeting will be held October 17^th at the Double Tree in Sacramento.

• Jim reminded all districts to turn in their newsletters and financial reports.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 2:05 PM.