California Continuation Education Association

Council of District Representatives Minutes

Meeting Location: San Diego

Meeting Date: April 24, 1998

Approval Date: October 23, 1998

California Continuation Education Association

Call to Order: The spring meeting of the CDR was called to order on April 24, 1998, at 9:16 AM by President Bob Werner.

Seating of Representatives: The members were seated. The following changes/additions were made: District II - Jim Selchelski is the President Elect; District V - Jim Caswell, Past President was seated instead of Pat Twiford; District X - Lee Newman replaced Bob Phelps; District XII - Bernie Vigallon was seated in place of Dick Holmes. Nancy Robinson who now works in Peter Birdsall’s office was also introduced at this time.

At this time Bob Werner made some corrections to the day’s agenda: There will be no Constitution Committee Report, and no Advisory Committee Report. The Audit Committee Report will be presented by Jim Ingram. Dick Kuester will be handing over the chairmanship of the Awards Committee to Lee Newman. Membership Chair is Bob Meier. Item 12 - Audit Committee Report - Jim Ingram.

Minutes: The minutes from the fall CDR Meeting, October 24, 1997, were presented. Jim Selchelski moved, seconded by Bob Meier, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried.

President’s Report: At the present time there are no new bills with the Governor on the continuation education funding issue. However, AB 2274 (Leach - Walnut Creek) is carrying the evaluation bill which the legislature wants in place before we again work on the funding. Joe will give us more information in his report. Legislature wants this in place before they commit to funding which is approximately $60,000,000!

The Executive Board will spend a day and a half in Sacramento in May in order to meet some new people who might help us with our desire to get the necessary funding we desire and to ensure that the evaluation bill is "user friendly" for continuation schools.

The Officer Training - Job Alike which was quite successful last year will be repeated this year. The date for this year’s training is December 2, 1998 at the Embassy Suites Hotel North at LAX. Bob encouraged all officers to mark their calendars and plan to attend. We have adopted a new election schedule so that new District officers are elected in the fall and we provide training in December as they prepare to take office in January. CCEA will pay for transportation and meals.

Bob indicated that he had attended Fall/Spring Conferences in Districts II, III and IV combined, VIII and XI. He told the group that all the energy and talent that he encountered was very inspiring and that we are doing many good things for continuation education.

Bob mentioned the new brochure that Past President Joe Stits is putting together on Continuation Education. Joe will talk about it later in the agenda.

The newsletter revision has been upgraded in format, content and schedule.

The E-mail directory is being put together by Secretary Janet Knoeppel. She needs updates and verifications.

The new Exemplary Programs/Projects recognition is purely an effort of CCEA. Pam Feix from District VII headed the efforts in the inaugural year and did an outstanding job. She will report more later. Certificates will be presented Sunday morning. Bob thanked Janet Knoeppel for publishing the directory which will serve as an ongoing resource for schools. It is a tool to recognize people for doing a good job. Pam thanked Janet for the directory, stating that it was incredible.

Bob also reminded us that the Model School Program is an award presented by the California Department of Education and that the CCEA role is strictly advisory. We are a part of the process, but have no control.

Bob indicated that one of his goals is to boost membership. The larger our membership, the more influence we have in Sacramento. The new membership structure has increased our numbers from 800 - 900 to approximately 1,500! Vice President Vic Whitaker is in charge of this important area.

A survey of CCEA members will be conducted in the fall of 1998 to gather information and better serve our membership.

We continue to build our relationship with ACSA who co-sponsored AB792, the Continuation Equalization Funding Bill, which was vetoed by Governor Wilson in October, 1997. Both Muzetta Thrower and Janet Knoeppel are members of the ACSA Ed Options Committee which is the liaison to Continuation Education and other alternative programs.

Gerry Catanzarite, who is our Webmaster, will make a presentation this afternoon.

Bob told the membership that all of the officers try to return calls as quickly as possible in order to be responsive to their needs and concerns.

Vice President’s Report: Vic, as one of the co-chairs for our Annual Conference, welcomed us all to San Diego. He alluded to the "fire drill" of the previous evening, when several floors were rudely awakened due to several fires that had apparently been set by an arsonist. At one time there were 300 people standing outside the hotel at 3 AM. Vic said that as educators we always needed to be mindful of safety. He also said that they had temporarily suspended El Nino for our visit!

Vic has been working closely on membership with our Treasurer, Marion St. Amant. He indicated that they would be adding a spot on the membership application for E-mail addresses and fax numbers for automatic messages. The more information we have the better able we are to reach our members. He also asked that everyone fill out the membership applications completely! He is currently working on a computer database and with a software system from 1989. Therefore, he is planning to rewrite the program in order to update our information and output. He indicated that this was the reason for the glitch in Professional Membership Cards this year. That is why our Professional Members did not receive 1997 - 1998 cards. He apologized for this problem and expects that it will be solved by next year.

The Model Schools application and process were quite successful, despite a significant delay in the mailing from the California Department of Education. He reminded us that we are a support and resource for this program and that it is the CDE award. The application is currently on our CCEA Website and can be accessed at www.cceanet.org in advance of the mailing. Many outstanding schools applied and will be recognized Sunday morning at our breakfast.

Joe Stits, our Past President, commented on the web page as a fast link to information. He asked everyone to contact Gerry Catanzarite, our Webmaster, and have their school websites linked.

Bob Werner congratulated Vic on an excellent year. He also commented that the VP job at the State level carries over to the local level, i.e., membership is a responsibility of the local VP.

Treasurer’s Report: Marion said that the checks distributed to districts included membership through April 22, 1998. She has also included a total of the membership by District. She asked the CDR representatives to remind their districts that the membership forms need to be filled out completely! It is often difficult to send out the newsletters or anything else of importance when we have incomplete information.

The CCEA treasury is on the plus side! Marion gave a comparison report between the ‘96-’97 year and the ‘97-’98 year. Although income and expense for this year were both higher than the previous year, the balance is also greater. The third page of her report showed the balance in our accounts.

She handed out a green sheet with the proposed budget for 1998 - 1999. Jeanne Yttreness moved that we accept this proposal. Seconded by Pam Feix. The motion carried.

Marion gave us some information on our reimbursements. The rooms will be reimbursed at $119.34, lunch at $10.00 (on your own) and mileage at $.31/mile. She will check into parking reimbursement. (Parking is $12.00 per day for regular parking and $18.00 for valet parking.) They will take care of this as it is a transportation expense. She also asked that those who flew to the conference turn in their airline ticket receipt.

Bob Werner reminded the members that Marion needs their individual district treasurer’s reports because of IRS guidelines and our exempt status. He asked that each district who did not bring a report make arrangements to send to Marion as soon as possible.

Secretary’s Report: Janet commented on the E-mail list that had been handed out and asked the members to update, change and/or add to the list and return to her by the end of the meeting.

Janet asked for newsletter information to be sent to her at any time by E-mail, fax or slow mail. She also asked that members correct and keep their addresses, names and locations current so that they will receive their newsletters.

She spoke briefly about the Exemplary Program Directory which everyone attending the conference received at registration.

Janet is the Chair for the 1999 conference and mentioned that it will be in Sacramento at the Doubletree on Arden Way. The dates are April 30, May 1, 2, 1999. She indicated that a legislative round table is planned in lieu of a school visitation. She also asked for any suggestions of workshops and activities the members would like to see and indicated that District II would welcome help from anyone who was interested.

Past President’s Report: Joe stated that the newsletter is a way to refocus on celebrating ourselves. If we are recipients of such things as the Golden Bell Award, FFA or other types of state recognition, the information should be forwarded to Janet for inclusion in the newsletter.

Joe passed out a draft of the new CCEA brochure. The old one was more a chronology of CCEA history. The new one focuses on welcoming new members, telling them who and what we are and what we do and inviting their participation. He indicated he is open to comments and asked that members get them to him by the close of the conference on Sunday.

Joe discussed the evaluation process which is being looked at this year since the Governor’s veto of AB 792 last year. Part of the veto message asked for an evaluation method of continuation schools. The staff support for a key assembly person on the education committee is an individual who has long had an interest in our proving ourselves through more evaluation. Why a shorter day, smaller classes, are we really doing the job we say we are, and are we participating in dropout prevention? That person is out of the legislative analyst’s office. Her comments became embedded in the Governor’s veto message. She is also the analyst for our new bill. We will be meeting with her. Essentially we are being asked to prove that the special funding mechanisms are justified and worthwhile. For that purpose this bill will set up a process for getting money to fund such an evaluation. Therefore there has been no need for your State Board to meet during that period of time. Nancy will have more to say during her report on this bill. Our Committee will meet with how we deal with that information and any other things we can bring to the table. It is time for us to do another survey of our members. We will be doing this in the fall. In the bill there is an Advisory Committee and we will be present in some form or manner. In regard to the content of the bill we are being asked to look at a variety of things. One is dropout prevention and the part we play. Another is the fiscal discrepancies between pre and post ‘78 schools - the necessary small schools. Test scores will be a part of this, also. The part that Work Experience plays into our students’ school day is another issue. One of our handicaps for several years is not having a statewide report. That is a money issue for the CDE. We will look at what we can do here. Evaluation Committee will be meeting during our committee portion.

Janet thanked Joe and Darla Stits for their assistance with the newsletter. They do all of the formatting.

Bob noted a change in committee meetings. Bill Spencer, the Chair of the Advisory Committee, was asked to work with the Membership Ad Hoc Meeting. The Audit Committee will meet with the Treasurer during this time. Pam Feix asked that the Exemplary Programs Committee meet for a few minutes. Patsy Hood was asked to convene the Constitution and By-Laws Committee in the absence of Rich Stevens.

The meeting was recessed for Committee Meetings at 10:15 AM with plans to reconvene at 11:00 AM.

The meeting was reconvened at 11:16 AM.

Constitution and By-Laws: Bob Werner

This committee had no task to accomplish since the last CDR. It appears that there is a standing committee which no longer has any viable function. That is the Advisory/Liaison. The function was to have members of the CDR meet with the consultants from CDE that attend our meetings. We no longer have that structure. It is intention of the committee to recommend that at the October CDR a motion be brought forward to terminate the Advisory/Liaison Committee.

Legislative Committee: Nancy Robinson

Couple of items passed out: A legislative memorandum and a current list of bills that have just received legislative review.

Legislative priorities for 1998: The main one is AB 2274. Part of this memorandum shows some amendments adopted by Assembly Education Committee. It has passed the Education Committee unanimously and will move on to the Appropriations Committee next. Nancy asked the CDR members to look at the amendment. Part of this amendments were suggested by the consultant to the Committee Chairwoman. In order to get this out of Committee, we agreed to them, knowing that it is still possible to refine them and make additional amendments. The CDR Legislative Committee gave her several suggestions on things to include. She indicated that she is open to additional suggestions and recommendations, depending on what we would like to see and how it would affect our schools. She stated there was a great deal of concern with the STAR Test, whether it should be criterion based, normal based test, how you look at the comparison, or what. One of suggestions was to include 12th graders. Other suggestions were to look at the save rate vs. the dropout rate; to show success rates at specific schools, especially to the consultant to the Committee; to have students testify before the committee; to ask ACSA who is a co-sponsor of this bill ask to have all test scores relate to the traditional high schools if student has been in a continuation high school for less than one year. She indicated that she would let Peter know of our desires and that these are broad amendments. Bob asked if the CDR members were reasonably satisfied with the recommendations from our Legislative Committee. Discussion followed. It was suggested that we invite parents to testify. A discussion of the multiple measures which are so crucial to continuation education evaluation ensued. The issues of what is a Sophomore, a Junior or a Senior were also discussed. It was concluded there is a great deal of consistency in our discussions. It was concluded that the CDR is reasonably comfortable with the suggestions and would pursue the suggestions from there with the Board.

Another bill being co-sponsored with ACSA is the pregnant minor/teen parent bill which would eliminate from the 10% apportion the students which could be sent to Independent Study. Passed the Education Committee unanimously and was set for the Appropriations Committee the following week. They don’t foresee any problems with this bill at all.

The 1998 - 1999 budget indicates a surplus of between two and three billion dollar surplus. The economy in the state is in great shape. The Governor will issue his May revise in the middle of the month. That is when he tells the legislators what he wants to do with the surplus money. We won’t know what the COLA will be, but it will probably change. The instructional material funding will probably rise from the current $18 to somewhere over $30. There are three bills on Staff Development Days that are moving forward. Won’t know what will happen until the Budget Committee meets. There will be a Staff Development bill of some kind. Another provision is the funding for the second round of technology grants which will reach up to about 50% of the high schools. The CDR Legislative Committee also met on several other bills on the list we were given. Basically they have adopted the positions we (Peter Birdsall’s office) have recommended. A discussion ensued regarding Block Grants and how the money is allocated. The CDR indicated that their position is to have Block Grants awarded based on CDS numbers, not the location of the site.

Bob thanked Nancy for the wealth of information she provided to the CDR.

State Conference Committee: Fuchsia Ward/Karlene Dockery

Bob informed the CDR that Fuchsia has volunteered to take over the negotiations for the hotels and the contracts for our coming Conferences since Wayne Crow has retired.

Karlene welcomed everyone to San Diego. She gave a brief rundown of information on the happenings at the Conference, including the fires from the previous evening which included the gift certificates for shopping included in our registration materials, the "Rockola" band for Friday night’s dancing. She enumerated several of the door prizes that would be given away. The vendors will be in the foyer area on Saturday. She announced the Presidential reception from 6 -7 PM in the open area Friday evening with a no-host bar. There were some questions about various activities which Karlene answered. Karlene received a round of applause for all of her hard work.

Fuchsia reminded us that the next Conference will be in Sacramento, April 30, May 1 - 2, 1999. It will be at the Doubletree Hotel on Arden Way. There is complimentary shuttle service from the airport to the hotel, plus there is ample parking at the hotel. She recommended that we make our reservations early so we can cover our block. This can begin in October.

The following year’s Conferences will be:

2000 - Red Lion Inn in Glendale

2001 - Northern California (looking at the Doubletree or the Hyatt in San Jose)

2002 - Southern California (negotiating with the Doubletree in Costa Mesa - will also take a look at Palm Springs)

2003 - Northern California

2004 - Southern California

Audit Committee: Jim Ingram

All questions the Committee asked were answered satisfactorily:

1 - Is there only one credit card being used for Board Member’s Expenses? Yes

2 - Are expenses paid each month for the Board Members? Yes

Jim indicated that there is an expense account budgeted for the Board, but that the never reached the limit. He also noted that we have an interest bearing account which more than covers the small service charges noted on the bank statements. He commended Marion St. Amant for an outstanding job as Treasurer!

Meeting Adjourned for lunch at 12:50. We were asked to return by 1:15.

1 - Awards Committee: Dick Kuester

Dick went through the list of awards that we give and passed around samples of the Model School Flag, the Jerry Dean Award, the Life Member Awards and the Proclamation Award.

2 - Website Presentation: Gerry Catanzarite

Gerry is our Webmaster and is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the CCEA Website. He gave an outstanding presentation on the CCEA Website, taking us to the many links that are available to us and even showing some of our member school’s sites which are linked. He asked that everyone send him information on their schools and if they have a website to give him the information so that he can link it to the CCEA page. Gerry reported that since he is now the organization’s historian, he is adding information that Dick Kuester recently gave him. He also indicated that Mary Lou Hill has a lot of historical data she is going to get to him. The website address is www.cceanet.org. The group was very appreciative of the comprehensive report and thanked Gerry.

3 - Membership Committee: Bob Meier

Bob addressed the concerns of the new membership cards not coming this year and the time frame of receiving the new membership plaques. Bill Lincoln will look into the turnaround time on the plaques. Bob indicated that the Committee would like to see 100% of the schools in the state have some kind of membership in CCEA. He recommended that a personal letter be sent from the State President to every school with a welcome back theme and an invitation to join. A discussion ensued on helping us to become more efficient. Many suggestions were made and some of these will be tried next year.

4 - ACSA Liaison: Janet Knoeppel

Janet reported that the Ed Options Committee had met the previous week in San Francisco. They came to agreement on the Mission/Committee Purpose, which she read to the CDR membership. She indicated that it has the blessings of ACSA and the CDE. She indicated the focus of the meeting was not on Continuation Education, but on Independent Study. They are planning to train mentors who will come from the ranks of administrators and some top teachers who will certify all the teachers. If they are not certified they will be required to go through some staff development and or training before they can become certified. The message to districts will be that they can no longer slide their "throw away" teachers into these positions until they retire. They will be getting together throughout the summer to develop this certification.

5 - Exemplary Programs: Pam Feix

Pam commented that the first year presented some problems, but that thanks to her committee, they did it. The committee included Arturo Santoya, Dennis King and Janet Knoeppel. She indicated that they didn’t have names of every school and /or addresses. She hopes it will improve next year. Some suggestions for the future were that there should be two separate applications: one for schools and one for commercial programs. It has been recommended that they be on two different colors of paper. There will be some time line changes: The applications will be mailed in October, due to the committee chair in December and the visits will occur in January. It is planned to develop quality indicators, much as for the Model School Program, for next year. In response to the question of how long a program is listed in the book once identified, there was no answer at the present time. Janet commented that those schools that sent in documentation (videos, scrapbooks, etc.) were the ones that it was very obvious were doing something above and beyond the normal day-to-day teaching. She stated that while others were doing a good job, it was more difficult to tell and were the ones that were visited in order to validate.

Bob Werner indicated that the responsibility for this program will move to the State Vice President next year. He thanked Pam and her committee for an outstanding job.

6 - Nominations and Elections: Bill Lincoln

Bill reported that there were only five submissions and moved that the current officers be re-elected. Pam Feix seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. There was a brief discussion of the duties/time frame so that the district officers would have a feel for their responsibilities/duties.

7 - Accountability/Evaluation Committee: Joe Stits

Joe indicated that the Committee’s focus would be to put together a survey document and return the results to us for the fall CDR meeting. Some of the items which will be surveyed include cumulative enrollment of schools; what happens to them once they leave us; the school size, the number of hours students attend school, the number of students participating in Work Experience Education; what their percentage of ADA averages, etc. He plans that it will be a comprehensive survey that will give us data for future state collections of data.

Other:

Patsy Hood initiated a discussion on the quality indicators on the Model School Program, specifically the requirement that in order to be validated a school must require the same number of credits for graduation as all other schools in the district. She indicated that District II has had great concern that many schools have no control over their graduation requirements, that it is dictated at the whim of the Superintendent and/or the Board, without any consideration as to the ramifications.

District I: Jeanne Yttreness reported that El Nino had been a major impact on this district due to the huge geographical area. They are working on a Fall Conference before the rains return next year. She stated they had visited some model schools for validation.

District II: Patsy Hood said the district had a very successful mini conference in February despite the heavy rains that day. The two previous Teachers of the Year from District II, Jim Sechelski and Cheri Gibson, were presenters along with Bob Werner and Janet Knoeppel. The annual essay contest brought 140 entries and the quality continues to improve every year. The art contest was given a slightly new format this year, as Patsy this over. Here, too, the entries were outstanding. They are looking forward to the State Spelling Bee in May.

District III: Leo Petty reported that their goal and energy has been to increase their membership by 20% this year. They are planning to set up a social just for networking. They will host the District III - District IV Joint Conference this year. Their executive committee is meeting more often and they believe it has been very beneficial.

District IV: Jim Ingram mentioned the success of the Fall conference with District III. They are trying to provide more district wide activities for their members and the students. They are also recognizing exemplary people within each school - teachers, classified, volunteers, community people. They are planning a social in May to recognize these people.

District V: Janis Lehman stated that most of their energy went into the Fall Conference with District VI. It was very successful. She invited everyone to their social in Room 1519 on Saturday evening. She recognized some people in District V - Pershing High School who received an FFA award. He supplied the flowers on the front table. She suggested that CCEA start doing some things with CCIS (California Consortium for Independent Study) as a means of supporting one another as we move forward.

District VI: Bill Spencer stated that their district was given a boost by being included in the District V Fall Conference. He said that several members have visited Model Schools for validation. He said there was a ropes course for 5 schools in their district at Cuesta Community College the previous month. Seventy students participated. Cuesta provided lunch and a campus tour. Next month they will have their Olympic Competition in Lompoc and expect 5 schools to participate.

District VII: Dennis King stated that the district held their Star Quiz again this year. Each school is able to have 3 team members and they compete in various competitions. Marion St. Amant served as the time keeper and everyone had a great time. Following the morning rounds, lunch was provided prior to returning for the Star Wars round, where every team participated. Redondo Shores won the event this year. On May 21 they will have their Spring Awards Banquet where a students will be honored and their parents acknowledged. In planning for their Fall Conference, the district is waiting to see what the State does with SIP days. They joined with ACSA in January at Santana High School for a great lecture on assessment given by Dr. Dennis Foix.

District VIII: Tom Jameson reported on the District Conference held in Palm Spring. This was the biggest conference that anyone could remember, with 165 people in attendance. Presenters included Joe Stits, Bob Werner and Nancy Armentrout. They had an art show at a nursery which was also a huge success. He said that they had found the title for ext year’s conference "What’s hot in Continuation?" in honor of the previous night’s fires! They are planning to have it in Hesperia at Arlene’s school. They are going to have a reception to honor Teacher of the Year, Executive Board Member and others before the end of the year.

District IX: There was no report.

District X: Paul Mills stated that the school membership option has proved to be very successful for them. They have focused on increasing attendance and lobbying Superintendents on behalf of Continuation Education. They sponsored a their 6th Annual Student - Administrator - Community Issues Day last fall. Next fall the focus will be Continuation High Schools - the Real Issues. This gives the teachers the opportunity to hear the kids perspective as they are participants as well. The specific question they expect to address is why do continuation schools get such a bad rap and how can we deal with this. Also how can we best assess our success. The Fall Conference was held at El Camino Real High School where Joe Stits was the keynote. They had 133 attend, representing 13 of the high schools in their district, despite heavy rains that day. This year they held the 4th Annual Junior Senior Prom co-sponsored by 4 high schools. They held a For Kids Sake community service project. Raised more money than anyone other organization except for private concerns. They are about to expand their community partnerships. Price-Costco supports, finances and sponsors their graduation dinner at no cost and they open it up to the community. Their curricular emphasis was on reading improvement. They had an in service at their Fall Conference . They are pursuing district Superintendents to release continuation teachers to come together to talk and collaborate on this issue and others of concern. Gilbert East High School operates a Mock Trial Program and beat the traditional schools regularly. The district is very proud of the fact that there was a National Merit qualifier who is a continuation student.

District XI: Janet Bannister said that they have had a very active year. Their Fall Conference featured Bob Werner. They had student vendors from their chefs class who fed everyone. They hold a Colloquium in February where Marion came and spoke. They also featured classified workshops. They presented a membership to UTLA President. The Classified President then asked how she could join. She invited everyone to their hospitality suite on Saturday evening. Presented a Jerry Dean Medallion at the Options Meeting. They have 700 students graduating from continuation education. They all graduate together and it is very impressive.

District XII: Bernie Vigallon stated that Dick Holmes has left their ranks to become a Superintendent in a neighboring district. He said that they have recruited some new folks to their membership. Jeff Marcus is their new President for next year. This district sponsors two $250 scholarships. Pete Mathis matched these scholarships this year. The district is planning for their annual At Risk Conference at the Cal-Neva Lodge in November. Mike Carroll a school psychologist was named Peace Maker of the Year in Chico. Chico State is now finalizing Alternative Education credential. Seventh Masters Thesis from Debra Reed of Fairview High School on what continuation students have been doing after school. She has set up to track the kids after they leave high school.

Announcements: Bob asked for copies of each district’s report. He thanked the members for their contributions. Janet asked for copies of District’s I, IV, IX and XII reports.

The tentative date for the CDR is October 16, in Los Angeles.

Adjournment: Jeanne Ytterness moved seconded by Bill MacDougall that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 3:35 PM.