November 15, 2017 at 8:30 AM - Regular Meeting

Call to order at 8:30 AM

Staff:  David M Ludwig, Deb Hericks, Priscilla Quintana, Beth Kabes, Craig Peterson, Scott Isaacson

Guests:  Keith Rohwer (I Love Public Schools),  Karen Haase (Legal), Russ Masco (NDE), Mike Dulaney and Dan Ernst (NCSA)

Motion to approve the minutes and NDE notes as presented

ESU 8 has started the demolition of their buildings, to begin construction on their new buildings.  They plan to be in new building in April 2019.  

ESU 13 and ESU 3 have finished their audit.  They did an excellent job.  

ESU 15/16 had a Legislative Round Table on October 31, 2017. 

Dr Keith Rohwer was present to share I Love Public Schools.  He shared one of their documentaries on Nebraska schools.  Their documentaries are available from their website, free of charge.  They received a grant from the Sherwood Foundation to help continue to advocate for Nebraska's Public Schools.  We can help publicize the great work they do.  

Mike Dulaney and Dan Ernst from NCSA were present to provide an update on legislation.  Retirement issues will continue to be an issue.  Property tax and income tax will both be on the docket.  Administrator pay will be a discussion.  They have requested all salary information for administrators.  They are looking at all in the educational field (NCSA, ESUCC, ESU, Universities, etc.)  Suggestion that you figure out your hourly wage per the actual hours.  NCSA, ESUCC, NSEA, STANCE, GNSA, NASB, NCRSA formed a education coalition to meet and discuss needs.  Budget deficit will continue to be discussed on how to cut to meet the deficit.  Invite Senators out to schools and ESUs to see the work that we do and great work that is happening.  Provide information to Senators information on ESUs, short and sweet.  Discussion regarding Senator Erdman bill.  

Russ Masco, NDE was present to discuss the talking points for November.  Discussion regarding the collaborative process that was used to come up with the three focus areas.  Student, Schools, and Leadership is how the State Board Strategic Plan is organized.  At the ESUCC/NDE Collaborative meeting, they came up with three buckets.  1) Capacity Building and support for needs improvements schools; 2) Creating capacity, information, and knowledge through data use; 3) Educator effectiveness and leadership.  We are aligning what we are doing to the Strategic Plan.  We will align districts needs to our work as we move forward.  What are our next steps to move process forward.  CCSI group decided to create three working groups.  From those groups, a plan will be developed to help needs improvement schools go through the school improvement process.  

NDE has not heard back from US DoE regarding the ESSA Plan.  Some other groups have begun to review and share comments.  

Annual conference is coming up the end of November in San Antonio.

AESA has several affinity groups available to attend.  

Executive Director shared the NDE/ESUCC Structure of Support that we have been working on.  He reviewed the document and the contents.  

Executive Director reviewed where we have been and where we are now.  Similar to process that we currently use.  He reviewed the budget over the past several years and how we are moving forward with monthly meetings, procedures, etc.  He reviewed past audit where we have moved from "out to get you" to "help you."  Better conversations are being held with state auditors.  We continue to work on multi-state efforts through the single sign on, portal, K-12 Federation, etc.  The K-12 Federation is working on an RFI to gather information prior to the grant proposal due out in January.  The focus will be disadvantage sub groups (ie:  special populations).  This could be an opportunity to expand on what we currently do with SRS.  Legislatively we continue to work on our governmental relations support.  Continue to communicate and provide awareness of the work we do with our schools.  Behavior Health Committee has expanded to statewide communications.  Coop continues to grow with a better product and services provided.  SRS has been converted to Zend 1 and will continue on conversion to Zend 3.  They are certified to begin work with ADVISER. 

District are wanting updates on what the dashboard status is and when it will be ready statewide.  The goals of the ADVISER team having every district have access by February 2018.  At that time (second semester) we expect the shift will be schools to  get to the dashboard and start making it work to fit their needs.   

Technology is working on data privacy and security policies.  Working to create a sustainable and efficient environment.  Data Ecosystem alignment with ADVISER.  Future Ready Council is working to develop a NE statewide digital learning plan.  This group includes NDE, ESUCC, ESUs, School District and Higher Education all part of this council.  ESUCC is working to align the priorities of from ESUCC/NDE Collaboration Day and PDO priorities to best support our schools.  Executive Director is suggesting that the ESUCC Board go through the redesign process wth Susan Leddick.  

Committee Chair reviewed discussions in committee.  Discussion regarding the redesign process.  There was discussion regarding KSB seminars that we have been hosting the past couple of years, NCSA will be taking the lead on these presentations.  NCSA wants to know of any statewide trainings that are offered.  Executive team met with the AEA Exec's of Iowa to discuss a Multi-State Leadership Conference in April 2019.  UNO may be interested in working with us to have this conference at UNO.  The Farm to School Grant is available for farm to school opportunities.    

This process will help us to be more proactive versus reactive.  ESUCC Redesign proposed dates are Feb 7-8, 2018 and April 3-5, 2018 with April 4, 2018 being the NDE/ESUCC Collaboration Day.  Executive Director shared the process that AESA went through.  

There was no public comment.  

Committee Chair reviewed committee discussions.  Do we want to look at the possibility of having Business Partnerships for the ESUCC for long term needs.  

Committee Chair reviewed budget reports with committee.  

Committee Chair reviewed October expenses to be paid in November.  

Committee Chair reviewed that we need to give approval to the Executive Director to pay December claims prior to the holiday.  These claims will be reviewed at the January Meeting.

Committee Chair reviewed discussions in committee.  BlendEd co-hort applications are due by January 15.  EdReady now has an English EdReady to be released in January.  The Innovation Grant evaluation report is attached.  

Committee Chair reviewed the OER Commons Hub with the Board.  TLT members have been in support of this purchase.  

Committee Chair reviewed discussions in committee.  The staff are setting the training schedule for the annual buy via Zoom.  

Discussion to have the Board waive the bidding requirement pursuant to Board Policy 3012, and to give authority to the executive director to renew the existing contract with the revisions submitted by EqualLevel?

Discussion to have the Board waive the bidding requirement pursuant to Board Policy 3012, and to give authority to the executive director to renew the existing contract with the revisions submitted by Ion Wave.

Discussion to accept option 2, 3 year contract with 2 extensions.

Committee Chair discussed the contract with Squirrels LLC.

Committee Chair discussed the contract with GoGuardian.

Committee Chair discussed the inter-local with Saunders County.  

State Board Legislative Committee invited Larianne Polk to present SIMPL process.  Good conversations and questions.  It can not be mandated, needs to grow through the needs of the ESUs.  A second co-hort of the SIMPL process will begin after the first of the year, if interested let Larianne Polk know.  This is not an accountability tool, it is an account of the work we do.  This is a professional development tool.  The is a service implementation service model.  The SIMPL advisory committee will be creating a best practices for the process.  

Committee Chair shared discussion in committee.  Brightbytes will extend the due date on the proposal so that we can further discuss.  NDE/ESUCC will provide a letter for more information to be shared out.  Future Ready has a Gear that will be looking at data from Brightbytes.  

Committee Chair discussion in committee.  The survey results are from schools districts.  Dan Schnoes shared individual results on the mental health survey.  There will be another Behavioral Health Summit this summer.   Circle of Friends is looking for a fiscal agent for the grant.  There was an RFP sent out, after much conversation we did not submit a proposal due to lack of resources.SRS updates were given.  Senator Walz is working on a bill that will help with resources for mental health.  One possibility would be to have one social worker in each ESU and one statewide coordinator.  

Committee Chair reviewed discussions in committee.  They discussed the Mental Health bill with Senator Walz.  They will share the draft once ready.  Discussions regarding the ESU 15/16 Legislative Round Table which Senator Groene attended.  We will have the Legislative Day on February 23 from 12:00-2:00PM.  

Discussion on negotiations, do you negotiate agreements?  Consensus is that yes they do for certified staff.  KSB Webinars discussion whether or not ESUs invoice that back to the schools. Consensus is that the ESUs pay for their schools.  Service credit dollars are not offered.  State auditor/statute say you need to provide service to the schools.  Are SPED contracts interlocal agreement?  Consensus is that no they do not do interlocal.  Discussion regarding policy of holding employees accountable after the April 15 that you would let them out of their contract before finding a replacement.  Most employees are at-will employees so this doesn't pertain to them.  

Adjourn meeting at 1:18PM.