October 2, 2024 at 10:30 AM - Educational Resources Committee Meeting

Discussion:  Meeting called to order at 10:30 AM.  

Staff:  Larianne Polk, Deb Hericks, Scott Isaacson, Andrew Easton

Discussion:  The CEO gave updates from her report on several areas.  

Discussion:  Amy Rhone, NDE was present to share SPED updates.  NDE Notes 

• On behalf of the NDE OSE and NeMTSS Teams we want to say, thank you to all of those  participating in the 2024 Nebraska MTSS Summit! We truly appreciate your time and engagement last week — and we hope the content was both meaningful and inspiring. A huge thank you to Andrew Easton for bringing the "Good Life" to us and sharing out all the great work that is happening in Nebraska!

• Levels of Determination - Needs Assistance, Year 2 Action Plans were due September 30th.  OSE is available to provide support as district’s work through their plan.  

• Fiscal closeouts for those special projects such as PEaK, ASD, Transition, MTSS and Deaf/Hard of Hearing, just to name a few, is upon us.  Many of the grants for last year’s activities have expired and reimbursements should have been submitted or submitted soon.  Please check the Grant Award Notifications for the expiration dates of the grant to make sure that the filing for reimbursements is timely.  Failure to submit a timely reimbursement may result in a district losing out of the Federal funding available for the projects.  Please make sure your fiscal staff are aware of the budgets that were submitted so that reimbursements align to the actual exp

Discussion:  The technology Directed shared a software update to SRS will be released in December, 2024 during the winter break. This will include necessary updates to the operating environment of the system and enhancements to the IEP form designed and finalized by the SRS advisory team at its September meeting. We will facilitate thorough internal (ESUCC team) and external (ESU and school partners) testing before the release. 213 districts are using SRS for their ADVISER special education data reporting. As of October 1st, 209 districts have published at least some data.

Discussion: 

Project Para is moving to using Canvas Catalog for its registration process. The course content in Canvas will be the same, and the para course will be split into 3 courses to simplify the para navigating the path to completion for Title I, Special Education and Early Childhood specialties. The new registration process was opened with a "soft" launch October 1st, meaning that it was not announced publicly, but made available to a few users for testing. Once we are confident the new system is working well, we will close registrations in the previous system and direct all new registrations to the new system.

The NDE has a contract with Central Community College to update some of the course content, and our Canvas team will be involved to incorporate those updates and other modernizations into the courses. These updates will be released at a strategic time when they are ready, perhaps summer 2025.

Here is the About Project Para link: https://para.myesu.org/about

Registration for the new courses:

• Early Childhood
• Special Education
• Title I

Discussion:  Amy Schultz, SDA Chair gave updates on SDA on their needs assessment.  They have completed two rounds of gathering data for their needs assessment.  They have a training on November 6 & 7-Presenting and Facilitation Skills with Jane Ellison from Thinking Collaborative. Their April topics are yet to be determined.

Discussion:  Dr Polk shared that they had a planning meeting scheduled but it was canceled.  The PDO Planning Committee will be meeting in two weeks.  

Discussion:  Amy Rhonde, NDe shared updates for NDE.

• State Board Meeting Schedule

  • October: Grand Island

    • October 3 and 4, 2024, in Grand Island, NE at the Raising Nebraska Building, Pivot Room, 501 East Fonner Park Road, Suite 100, Grand Island, NE 68801.

  • November: no meeting

  • December: Lincoln 

    • December 5 and 6, 2024, NDE Office Building, Board Room, 500 S. 84th Street, Lincoln, NE 68510.

• 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools - The USDE recognizes 356 schools who excel in academic performance or make strides in closing achievement gaps. These four schools received recognition: 

  • Elkhorn Grandview Middle School, Elkhorn Public Schools.

  • Wilma Upchurch Elementary School, Millard Public Schools.

  • Southern Valley Elementary School, Southern Valley Public Schools.

  • West Point Elementary School, West Point-Beemer Public Schools. 

• NDE Literacy Project

 

Discussion:  The Digital Learning Director gave some updates on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and writing.  They will be creating some short videos to help with some resources for AI.   

Discussion:  Some updates on behavioral intervention training and reporting. (BITS/BIRTS).

Discussion:  Information on the textbook loan program was shared.   

Discussion:  Meeting Adjourned at 11:02 AM.