EDUCATION COUNCIL
Nebraska Information Technology Commission
Friday, January 20, 2006, 9:00 a.m.
Nebraska Video Conferencing Network
Host site: Executive Building #103, 521 S. 14th Street, Lincoln
Remote Site #1: Kearney Public Library, 2020 First Avenue, Kearney
Remote Site #2: State Office Building #207, 1313 Farnam, Omaha
Remote Site #3: ESU 16, 1221 W. 17th, North Platte
MINUTES
VOTING MEMBERS/ALTERNATES PRESENT:
Mr. Arnold Bateman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Clark Chandler, Nebraska Wesleyan University (Lincoln Site)
Dr. Michael Chipps, Mid Plains Community College (North Platte Site)
Mr. Ron Cone, Educational Service Unit 10 (Kearney Site)
Mr. Kent Gydesen, Alt. for Linda Richards (Kearney Site)
Dr. Terry Haack, Bennington Public Schools (Omaha Site)
Dr. Jack Huck, Southeast Community College (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools (Lincoln Site)
Ms. Becky Kohrs, State College Board (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Joe LeDuc, Catholic Diocese of Lincoln (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Dennis Linster, Wayne State College (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Dan Moser, Alt. for Yvette Holly (Omaha Site)
Mr. Tip O’Neill, Alt. for Chuck Lenosky (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Ed Rastovski, Wahoo Public School (Omaha Site)
Mr. Al Schneider, Educational Service Unit 5 (Lincoln Site)
LIAISON/ALTERNATES MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mr. Terry Dugas, Alt. for Mike Winkle, NET (Lincoln Site)
Mr. John Dunning, Alt. for Dennis Linster (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Mike Kozak, Department of Education (Lincoln Site)
Mr. Wayne Fisher, Department of Education (Lincoln Site)
MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT: Brenda Decker, Chief Information Officer; Dr. Marshall Hill, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education; and Rich Molettiere, Omaha North High School
Others Present: William Scheideler, Gene Hand, Kristi Jergensen, Roger Hahn, Deb Swanson, and Steve Henderson
CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, ROLL CALL, INTRODUCTIONS
Dr. Huck called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum of eleven voting members was present to conduct official business. It was stated that the meeting notice was posted to the NITC Web site on November 21, 2005, and that the meeting agenda was posted to the NITC Web site on January 17, 2006.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR THE JANUARY 20, 2005 MEETING
Mr. Linster moved to approve the January 20, 2006 meeting agenda as presented. Mr. O’Neill seconded. Roll call vote: Kohrs-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Chipps-Yes, Moeser-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Linster-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, and Cone-Yes. Results: Yes-11, No-0. Motion carried.
APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER 18, 2005 MINUTES
Mr. Rolfes stated that Kent Hendrickson was present as the alternate for Arnold Bateman.
Mr. Chandler moved to approve the November 18, 2005 meeting minutes as corrected. Mr. O’Neill seconded. Roll call vote: Cone-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, Linster-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Moeser-Yes, Chipps-Yes, Chandler-Yes, and Kohrs-Yes. Results: Yes-11, No-0. Motion carried.
PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment.
Dr. Haack arrived to the meeting at the Lincoln site at 9:08am.
MEMBERSHIP: CONSIDER NOMINATION OF ESU REPRESENTATIVE TO FILL REMAINDER OF THE 2004-06 TERM
With the resignation of Alan Wibbels, the council has an Educational Service Unit representative vacancy. Ron Cone has served as Mr. Wibbels alternate. If the council approves his nomination today, he will remain an alternate until approved at the January 27th NITC meeting.
Mr. Linster moved to approve the nomination of Ron Cone to serve on the Education Council representing Educational Service Units. Mr. LeDuc seconded. Roll call vote: Kohrs-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Chipps-Yes, Haack-Yes, Moser-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Linster-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, and Cone-Abstain. Results: Yes-11, No-0, Abstain-1. Motion carried by majority vote.
Mr. Schneider (Lincoln site 9:15am) and Mr. Gydesen (Kearney Site 9:16am) arrived to the meeting.
EDUCATION COUNCIL CHARTER LANGUAGE
Mr. Rolfes reviewed some of the revisions made to the charter: references to state statutes were corrected; 6.2.1 professional associations were designated to nominate sector members for K12 and higher education; 6.3 a sentence was added regarding required regular meeting attendance; 7.1.2 service of co-chairs was changed to two-year elected terms; and 7.4 the meeting frequency was changed from monthly to bi-monthly. It was recommended that for private school membership nominations to list the Board Chair of NCAPE (Nebraska Council of America Private Education)
Mr. O’Neill moved to approve the revised Education Council CHARTER LANGUAGE. Dr. Haack seconded. Roll call vote: Johnson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Moser-Yes, Haack-Yes, Chipps-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Kohrs-Yes, Cone-Yes, Schneider-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, Gydesen-Yes, Linster-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, and LeDuc-Yes. Results: Yes-14, No-0. Motion carried.
ELECTION OF A CO-CHAIR TO REPRESENT K-12 EDUCATION
With the approved revisions to the council’s charter, all K12 members are now eligible to be nominated to serve as co-chair to complete Alan Wibbels’ term.
Dr. Rastovski moved to nominate Dr. Terry Haack to serve as co-chair through June 30, 2006. Mr. LeDuc seconded. Roll call vote: Johnson-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Linster-Yes, Gydesen-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, Schneider-Yes, Cone-Yes, Kohrs-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Chipps-Yes, Haack-Yes, Moser-Yes, and Huck-Yes. Results: Yes-14, No-0. Motion carried.
DISTANCE EDUCATION ENHANCEMENT TASK FORCE FINAL REPORT (20.2MB) AND RECOMMENDATIONS EXCERPT (750KB)
The final report was 116 pages in length. The Recommendations document is a shorter version which includes the fiscal note.
Mr. Rolfes developed a document indicating the NITC involvement per the task force’s recommendations. Since the bill has been introduced, he will include the bill’s page numbers and references that pertain to each recommendation. Per the recommendations, the NITC will be responsible for setting standards for equipment/software purchases, scheduling software, and the learning management system. These standards have yet to be developed.
The Statewide Video Synchronous Network Work Group will be meeting on February 3rd to address the standards and bid specifications for the scheduling software. The Educational Service Unit NOC meeting is scheduled to be held in Lincoln on February 28th. Kirk Langer, Technical Panel member, will be approaching the group about the development of the standards for switches and routers.
Discussion ensured regarding standardization of equipment; reimbursement of equipment for participation in Network Nebraska; LB 1208’s effects on higher education institutions and state funding; nonpublic institutions’ eligibility for funding; and subsidies for competitive advantage. Members were asked to address these questions and comments during the LB 1208 hearing.
Mr. Bateman arrived to the meeting at 9:50am.
LEGISLATIVE REPORT: LB 1208
Members were asked to thoroughly review the bill. Legislative hearings will occur and members will be notified when these are scheduled. The bill included changes for the Technology Center within the Nebraska Department of Education.
Discussion followed as to whether the Education Council as a group should take any action. Mr. Henderson suggested that the Council can request clarification and intent of the bill per today’s discussion. In addition, the Council members could follow-up with the Education Committee as representatives of their respective subsectors.
The council agreed to take action through their sectors and to inform key stakeholders about the bill. Mr. Linster stated that every senator needs to be informed about the bill, not just rural senators.
DISCUSSION AND APPROVAL OF THE STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN NITC INITIATIVES & EDUCATION COUNCIL ACTION ITEMS
The NITC charge to the Technical Panel and advisory councils was to form action items that would accomplish the eight NITC strategic initiatives. Staff have listed completed, discontinued, continued and future action items. The five joint council action items from the August joint meeting will be included (not in today’s document).
Network Nebraska. It was suggested to include the toll free number for Network Nebraska in Action Item C2 and also the URL for the website. The Community Council noted that public libraries were not mentioned in the action item. Discussion followed regarding the provision of services to public and private entities.
Mr. LeDuc moved to strike the word “public” from P2. Mr. O’Neill seconded. Discussion followed. A friendly amendment was offered. Rather than omit the word “public” change the wording for “public postsecondary education institutions” to read “all eligible network participants”. Mr. LeDuc accepted the friendly amendment. Mr. O’Neill also accepted. Roll call vote: Linster-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Moser-Yes, Haack-Yes, Chipps-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Kohrs-Yes, Bateman-Yes, Cone-Yes, Schneider-Yes, and Gydesen-Yes. Results: Yes-14, No-0. Motion carried. Dr. Rastovski was out of the room at the time roll call vote was taken.
Statewide Synchronous Video Network. It was suggested to also change the wording of “public” to “all eligible network participant” as in the Network Nebraska action items. For F1, it was suggested to change the wording “public high schools and districts and public postsecondary institutions to “network users”.
Digital Education. A question was raised regarding the future of Blackboard and Angel software systems. Per the LB 1208, the NITC Technical Panel will be establishing standards for learning management systems.
Mr. Linster moved to approve and to forward to the for final approval the Network Nebraska, Statewide Synchronous Video Network, and the Digital Education action items with the recommended change for the word “public” to “all eligible network participants”. Mr. Johnson seconded. Roll call vote: Bateman-Yes, Kohrs-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Chipps-Yes, Haack-Yes, Moeser-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Linster-Yes, Gydesen-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, Schneider-Yes, and Cone-Yes. Results: Yes-15, No-0. Motion carried.
ADJOURNMENT AND NEXT MEETING DATES
For the March 17th Education Council meeting, members requested an update on LB 1208. The March meeting will be held at Nebraska Wesleyan in Lincoln. Dr. Chipps will host the May 19th meeting at Mid Plains Community College in North Platte.
With no further business, Dr. Huck adjourned the meeting at 11:16 a.m.
Meeting minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by Tom Rolfes of the Office of the CIO/NITC.