October 9, 2014 at 8:30 AM - Regular Meeting

Discussion:  Call to Order at 8:30 Staff: David Ludwig, Deb Hericks

Discussion:  Paul Calvert attended the October meeting. Discussed the new appointments at the state. Unveiling of AQUESTT at NDE. Brian Halstead has been appointed as Deputy Commissioner and March Schultz appointment Assistant Commissioner.

Discussion:  Dr Bell and Dr West attended the Call to Action meeting in Washington DC.

Discussion:  Board President reviewed the Committee discussions.

Discussion:  Attached is the final APA forms that was filed with Auditors office.

Discussion:  No changes made to original document from first reading.

Discussion:  ESUCC Mission was created in statute. We need to continue to put our mission and the state-wide initiatives out in front of ESU Boards, superintendent.

Discussion:  January the PDO will finalize the vision of the PDO. Bring forth final vision to ESUCC in March.

Discussion:  Use Matt's prior evaluation to determine goals for Executive Director this year. Main goals for Executive Director will be Budget, Coop, and Statewide efforts. Final copy of evaluation to be filed with Attorney, ESU 17.

Discussion:  Review of time line. Adjustments made to include Executive Director evaluation to time line.

Discussion:  First hearing in Omaha went well.

Discussion:  David Ludwig, Rob Dixon, Craig Lofquist, Linda Dickeson were in attendance at the hearing in Omaha. Keith Rohwer helped to facilitate a plan to help guide BlendEd through the hearings.

Discussion:  Please attend this hearing in conjunction with NASB at the Capitol. There will be a list of talking points available for this hearing.

Discussion:  Report within other committee reports.

Discussion:  No public comment at this time.

Discussion:  Committee Chair Radford discuss the Finance, Audit, Budit Committee report.

Discussion:  Chair of Committee reviewed the August financial reports.

Discussion:  Committee chair reviewed the expenses for the month of September. Executive Director also reviewed the September reports that he reviewed with the Business Manager and Executive Secretary.

Discussion:  Budget Forms were submitted to APA on September 9, 2014.

Discussion:  Committee Chair reviewed the Member Equity report that has not been distributed. Retain this equity with project to help cover expenses in future. Do not do anything with this equity at this time.

Discussion:  Committee chair/Executive Director reviewed the budget goals. Need to prioritize goals as there may need to legislative action to complete the goals. Work with NDE to decide funding and support mechanism. Request to increase core allocations (overall and/or higher percent for ESUCC), Dec funding, BlendEd funding all possibilities. Executive Director will work on Medicaid allocation with Commissioner and others. Major themes are communication, staffing, funding. Create and define purposes of financial support within the ESUCC

Discussion:  The Auditors will be doing the ESUCC audit in conjunction with the ESU 17 audit.

Discussion:  Committee chair reviewed the committee discussions.

Discussion:  Scott Isaacson gave an update. There will be a committee meeting in Lincoln next month. There are about 10 committee members. A decision will be made about how many systems the ESUCC will support. All systems are either moving to the cloud or they are already there. So, in the future, ESUCC will not be “hosting.” Schools will get a catalog of options, and they will have support for those that are listed within the catalog. The standard for any supported system will be “LMS Global” which allows the movement from one system to another.

Discussion:  Brian Gegg shared information about PowerSchool. The information will be “cloud based.” ESU 5 currently has numerous schools and they are looking Pierson charges $4 dollars per student and $8K to migrate. ESU 5 has created a sliding scale regarding cost based on number of students. The current servers can not address certain requirements such as NeSA. Updates to the system keep coming. For example, Powerschool 9 will require all new servers. The possibility of running the service through “Coop” on a per seat basis was discussed. Specifically, it was hoped that this would save some money (strengths in numbers). At this time, Powerschool can support Blackboard and Schoology. Conversations with Canvas will be had in the near future.

Discussion:  An LMS Survey has been created and distributed. The results from area schools is beneficial.

Discussion:  All ESUs tackle numerous areas of “support.” The past NOC meeting addressed a more “efficient” way of addressing areas of need. A “team” concept was addressed. The NOC forwarded a motion to start to coordinate a better system. This should move forward in conjunction with the Federated Identity Management system. Bob Uhing shared that resources have been an issue that have precluded forward motion regarding this issue. A motion was created to move this issue from the committee to the full ESUCC. It reads: “Recommend the ESUCC authorize staff time and resources to develop and produce a IdM project with a budget and defined project deliverable and ongoing contributions.”

Discussion:  Scott shared a collective vision for the system. ID Management is the umbrella. Issues such as “new employees” and automatic account creation was discussed. During PDO meetings, a “search” for other professionals was addressed. This would allow the sharing of information and tools. Scott also shared information about the ability to integrate with the Data Dashboard system. The current Data Dashboard pilot schools will have access in the next few weeks. This is the beginning of getting other “groups” on the system. Authenticating users will be on a district by district basis. So, if a school is using Google, the system will be set up to “authenticate” through the Google system.

Discussion:  Currently, there are nine (9) school districts participating. They will be able to see “live data” in the near future. Other districts have expressed interest. Dean Folkers is addressing a system to add other “early adopters.” Further implementation will be addressed in the future.There have been discussions about how this works with NSSRS, possibly alleviating some of the required reporting. Safari: EdCast is working. Large EdCasts can only be done around a thousand at a time. There will be a meeting on October 13th with Safari Montage to talk about contracts. With the state contract, there are certain features available. Some ESUs have purchased additional options. Scott shared that we should invite the Illini Group so they can give us an update regarding their project.

Discussion:  There is interest in learning more about other Safari Montage features and to obtain statewide pricing for those features that ESUs are interested in adding.

Discussion:  Committee chair reviewed the committee discussions.

Discussion:  Kip Schneider resigned his position as of 103114.

Discussion:  Committee chair discussed the agreement between ESU 11 and ESUCC, to have Craig Peterson as Interim. Also possibility to use Randy Peck on an as needed basis for some extra help.

Discussion:  Committee chair reviewed the meeting that was held with ESU/School personnel on October 1, 2014. Discussed the Goals that evolved form that meeting. Important to have good PR out to the schools to get their confidence back.

Discussion:  Discussed meeting to be held between ESUCC and ESM on October 22, 8:30 AM at ESU 3 office.

Discussion:  Discussed those vendors who still owe money form FY'14.

Discussion:  Discussed the annual buy process. Paper will have separate buy for pallets of paper, if schools need less they will order on annual buy.

Discussion:  Contracts with Sysco are signed through the 2016-2017

Discussion:  A contract extension has been signed by Amsan/Nogg good through August 31, 2015.

Discussion:  Contract states 10 catalogs, so we need clarification on how many catalogs can be entered into the system.

Discussion:  Discussed the contracts available through the AEPA buys.

Discussion:  Add verbiage for substitutions for ESUCC to be able to approve substitutions that meet required specs. (Steve Williams to add this verbiage.)

Discussion:  Committee chair reviewed the committee discussions.

Discussion:  ESUCC Mission was created in statute. Need to promote on regular basis with other Boards.

Discussion:  Because of suggested revisions from September PDO, committee will work to update and take back to PDO in January. When do we teach our staff developers to be better teachers of teachers? Teachers have to be better because of evaluation tools but how to we train our people to be better at their jobs. Needs to be focused on current initiatives but we do need to offer good staff development. We need to have more "dynamic" in our staff development. How do we do this in a fiscally responsible way? Possible to have another committee to gather data to establish needs of professional developments.

Discussion:  Reviewed the actions plans that include each affiliates action plan focus.

Discussion:  Need to move up the timeline. Need to change wording on a few areas (indemnification, hold harmless, etc.) of agreement.

Discussion:  Discussion was held around the amount of hours required for grant (84) and what outside consultant reports. Executive Director to follow-up with consultant regarding hours.

Discussion:  The interview committee will take time to find the right person for this position. Need to figure out a back-up plan for this position.

Discussion:  Committee chair reviewed committee discussions.

Discussion:  BlendEd met for a planning session in Kearney. Keith Rohwer led the group through the process and came up with talking points for legislative hearings. Try to have people testify at all three hearings and lottery hearing. Can we try to tend BlendEd into the other critical areas (Early Childhood, Incarcerated Youth, etc.) Linda Dickeson, Craig Hicks, Bob Uhing, and David Ludwig met with Senator Sullivan last Friday in her office regarding BlendEd.

Discussion:  The Executive Director reviewed the memo from Harding & Shultz. Board president gave his overview on his presentation of their projects on JPA/Bonds. ESUs can join other ESUs, not depended on geographical area. ESUs need more than one way to build facilities. Change QCPUF to include ESUs? Change restrictive funds? Compile a master list (from ESUS) of needs (ADA, etc.) Three areas of need: capital improvement, growth, new facilities.

Discussion:  Executive Director reviewed the budget goals he has established. Theme of goals: communication, staffing, and funding. We need to support the Commissioner's lead on his funding prospects. Executive Director will continue to work with Commissioner and keep Committee apprised of changes/needs to help support goals.

Discussion:  Reviewed the upcoming legislative hearings. Need support from all (ESUs, Supts., schools, parents, etc.)

Discussion:  Need better clarification from legal counsel.

Discussion:  Legal counsel will start to work on policies for Coop from procedure manual.

Discussion:  Recess at 9:50 to move over to NDE Collaboration Planning meeting. Reconvene at 3:18.