EDUCATION COUNCIL

NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION
January 19, 2001, 9:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m., CT
Peter Kiewit Conference Center, Room 121
1313 Farnam Street, Omaha, Nebraska

APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT
Keith Bartels, Boards of Education	Dr. Roger Koehler, Independent Universities
Larry Bock, Blair Public Schools	Joe LeDuc, K-12 Private-Parochial Education
Con Dietz, Independent Universities	Dennis Linster, Wayne State College
Dr. Kent Hendrickson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln	Dr. Don King, Chadron State College (Via phone)
Dr. Jack Huck, Southeast Community College	Dennis Baack, Nebr. Community College System
Don Ferneding, ESU 5 (Alt. for Schneider, Non-voting)	Art Tanderup, Tekamah-Herman Public Schools
Chuck Friesen, ESU 18 (Alt. for Wibbels)	Dr. Robert Ziegler, Madison Public Schools
Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools	Yvette Holly, UNMC (Alt. for Berndt)
LIAISON NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT
Michael Beach, NETC	Dr. Dave Wagaman, Budget (Alt. for Decker)
Members Absent: Dr. Dean Bergman, Department of Education; Dr. David Powers, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education
Others Present: Max Thacker, UNMC; Dr. John Fiene, UNO; Dr. Sarah Cunningham, Central Community College; Tom Carlstrom, Humphrey Public Schools; Linda Engel, Nebraska City Public Schools; Myrta Hansen, FutureKids Nebraska; Michael Winkle, Lori Lopez Urdiales and Tom Rolfes, CIO/NITC

CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, ROLL CALL, INTRODUCTIONS

Co-chair, Dr. Jack Huck, called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m. Roll call was taken. There were 14 members present at the time of roll call. A quorum existed to conduct official business. Dr. Huck stated that the meeting notice was posted to the NITC Web site on December 15, 2000 and on the Nebraska Public Meeting Calendar Web site on January 17, 2001. The agenda was posted to the NITC Web site on January 17, 2001.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR THE JANUARY 19, 2001 MEETING

Dr. Koehler moved to approve the agenda as presented. Mr. Bartels seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Bartels-Yes, Holly-Yes, Bock-Yes, Dietz-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Koehler-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, King-Yes, Baack-Yes, Linster-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Friesen-Yes, and Ziegler-Yes. Motion was carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM THE DECEMBER 15, 2000 MEETING

Mr. Linster moved to approve the minutes as presented. Mr. Bock seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Friesen-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Linster-Yes, Baack-Yes, King-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, Koehler-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Dietz-Yes, Bock-Yes, Holly-Yes, and Bartels-Yes. Motion was carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT

There was no public comment.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Operations Work Group. Report will be done later in the meeting.

Policies, Procedures, Planning Subcommittee. The subcommittee has not met. There was no report.

Training Advisory Work Group. Mr. Rolfes reported that the RFP approved by the Council at the last meeting has been finalized and will be released February 1st. There will be no paper applications sent to institutions. The electronic application will be hosted on the NITC Web site. Council members were asked to assist in communicating this information to their constituents. LB543 legislated a new maximum of $25,000 for the next funding cycle. The new maximum is in the intent language for NETC, Agency 47.

NET Report. Co-Chair Huck asked to move the NET Report to later in the meeting.

UPDATE ON "BRIDGING THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS GAP" PROPOSAL (LB 336)

Sarah Cunningham, of Central Community College, and Tom Carlstrom, Superintendent of Humphrey Public Schools, were in attendance to answer questions from the Council about the Bridging the Telecommunications Gap proposal. An electronic version of the document was sent to members. The proposal is in the process of receiving a technical review which should be done by January 22. Senator Bromm has introduced LB336 on behalf of the remaining 38 schools, appropriating general funds. Senator Kremer will introduce LB833 as a priority bill appropriating lottery funds to perform the same function.

Mr. Beach arrived at 9:23 a.m.

After discussion, the Council wanted time to review the results of the technical review and decided not to take any action until the February meeting.

Dr. R. Ziegler arrived at 9:35 a.m.

For future agenda items, some of the members requested the following:

• a discussion on the need for an entity or group to assure that all K-12 institutions have interactive capabilities.
• continued funding for existing state I.T. projects – not currently addressed in the process.
• life cycle funding – broaden to all IT education entities.

NET Distance Learning Report. Mr. Beach reported that Ithaca NET3 project is now complete and that the Network3 Accord switch is working properly. The Technical Panel approved the Video Standards Work Group membership and goals at the December meeting. The first meeting of the Work Group will be in February. Qwest, along with other co-sponsors, is putting on a series of video conferencing shows.

NITC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CLEARINGHOUSE

Mr. Winkle reported that staff will review changes to and future directions of the clearinghouse with the NITC commissioners at the next meeting. The purpose of clearinghouse is to meet the needs of the councils and their constituents. A majority of the work that has been done so far has been done by the staff. Staff are proposing that the clearinghouse become an action item for all the councils to be discussed at length in future meetings.

RECOMMENDATION OF NEB*SAT SCHEDULING PRIORITIES FOR CONSIDERATION BY NETC AND NITC

Dr. Huck provided a brief history of the document. At the December meeting, the document was discussed at length and recommendations were given to the Operations Work Group. At that time, it was decided that the committee should incorporate the recommendations and bring the document back for the January meeting. The document (Version 1) was received by staff on Tuesday. Staff reviewed the document to assure that the recommendations had been included and some were not. Staff worked on Version 2 which reflected the Council’s recommendations from the December meeting. Mr. Rolfes and Mr. Thacker provided explanations on the development of the documents. The Council engaged in an in-depth discussion as to how to proceed with the two documents.

Mr. Dietz moved that the Operations Work Group work with Mr. Rolfes in reviewing and combining both documents into one document for review by the council at the February meeting. Mr. Koehler seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Koehler-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Hendrickson-Not Available, Dietz-Yes, Bock-Yes, Holly-Yes, Bartels-Yes, Ziegler-Yes, Friesen-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Linster-Yes, Baack-Yes, King-Not Available, and LeDuc-Yes. Motion was carried.

Discussion followed regarding the body of the document excluding the fee schedule component.

Mr. Tanderup moved to include an initial version for a late fees structure in the document that will come back to the Education Council for further review at the February meeting. Mr. Dietz seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Baack-Yes, Linster-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Friesen-Yes, Ziegler-Yes, Bartels-Yes, Holly-Yes, Bock-Yes, Dietz-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Koehler-Yes, and LeDuc-Yes. Motion was carried.

Mr. Thacker reminded the Council that the late fees schedule should be reviewed by the Program Utilization Committee and be approved by the NETC. The Operations Work Group was directed to consider a fees structure but not to let this hinder progress for completion of the overall document. It was recommended to have the document completed and approved by the NETC by March 22 for practical implementation for the Spring, 2002 programming period but no later than June 30, 2001.

DISCUSSION: STATEWIDE EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS PLAN "ISSUES IDENTIFICATION"

Mr. Rolfes distributed copies of the list of topics discussed in past meetings. Council members were asked to review the list in preparation for updating and developing new detailed action items for the statewide plan. All councils will be addressing this in their meetings for the next couple of months.

Dr. Koehler left the meeting at 11:35 a.m.

The Council would like documentation of its accomplishments to date. Mr. Dietz would like the Council to consider developing a intranet vision statement. Mr. Winkle suggested that the Council receive an update and understanding of the TINA project, including the RFP process, prior to proceeding.

LEGISLATION UPDATE

A list of bills introduced as of January 18, 2001 was distributed to members.

OTHER

Mr. Dietz distributed information on Creighton's Microsoft Mentoring Program. Council members were invited to participate. The focus for the current program is for higher education teachers but will take K-12 educators, if there is room. The next program will be hosting one for K-12.

Dr. Wagaman announced that the $100,000 given to DOC for aggregation efforts in FY01 has some funding to continue to FY02 but will be short of the amount needed. He encouraged support the terrestrial aggregation consultant services.

NEXT MEETING, DATE, TIME AND LOCATION

The next meeting of the Education Council will be held on Friday, February 16, 2001, 9 a.m.-12.p.m. in Lincoln. The specific location will be announced at a later time.

ADJOURNMENT

Dr. Huck adjourned the meeting at 11:58 a.m.

Minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by Tom Rolfes of the Office of the CIO/NITC.

Meeting Minutes