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EDUCATION COUNCIL

NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION
Thursday, July 15, 1999, 9:00 a.m.
Teleconference Sites: Kearney, Omaha, Lincoln, Norfolk

APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT
LINCOLN SITE: Mr. Keith Bartels, Lincoln Public Schools; Dr. Dean Bergman, Department of Education; Dr. Kent Hendrickson, (Dr. James Moeser Alternate); Dr. Jack Huck, Southeast Community College; Mr. Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public School; Dr. Woody Ziegler, York Elementary School, Dr. David Myers, Lincoln Public Schools
KEARNEY SITE: Mr. Alan Wibbels, ESU 10
OMAHA SITE: Dr. Christine Beischel, (alternate for Dr. John Muller); Dr. William Berndt, UN Medical Center (Reba Benschoter-first part of meeting); Dr. Richard Gilliland, Metro Community College;Mr. Larry Bock, Blair Public Schools; Dr. Uma Gupta, Creighton University
NORFOLK SITE: Mr. Art Tanderup, Tekamah-Herman Public Schools

MEMBERS ABSENT
Dr. Ken Halsey, Dr. Tom Krepel, Dr. David Powers

CALL TO ORDER: The meeting of the Education Council of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission was called to order at approximately 9:00 a.m. by co-chair Dr. Huck. Roll call was taken - eight of sixteen members were present at time of roll call. A quorum was present in order to conduct official business.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA: There were no additions or corrections to the agenda. The agenda was approved by consensus.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Mr. Bartels moved and it was seconded by Dr. Myers to approve the May 24th minutes as presented. Vote: Bartels-Yes, Benschoter-Yes, Bock-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Myers-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Wibbels-Yes, and Ziegler-Yes. Motion carried.

Dr. Gilliland arrived at the meeting at the Omaha Location.

MEMBERSHIP: Dr. Kristine Wolzen had resigned as a member of the Education Council. Dr. Wolzen and the Nebraska Council of School Administrators recommended that Mr. Larry Bock, her alternate, be considered by the Council as her replacement. Dr. Myers moved and it was seconded by Mr. Johnson to approve Larry Bock as an official member of the Education Council. Vote: Bartels-Yes, Benschoter-Yes, Bock-Abstained, Gilliland-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Myers-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Wibbels-Yes, and Ziegler-Yes. Motion carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT: There was no public comment.

Drs. Gupta, Beischel and Hendrickson arrived at the meeting at their respective locations.

NETC: DISTANCE LEARNING TRAINING GRANTS AND SUBMISSION PROCEDURES - Gwen Nugent:

A copy of the letter and report submitted to the NITC at the June 29th meeting was distributed to council members. The report listed the project name and description, the grantee, and amount of award for the seventh round of mini-grants. There is more K-12 involvement, including the pods, than there has been in the past. Ms. Nugent entertained questions from the council members.

NITC REPORT - Michael Winkle, NITC Executive Director:

Mr. Winkle reported that the following actions were taken at the June 29th meeting of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission:

  • Approval of the "Policies and Procedures for Preparing the Statewide Technology Plan"
  • Adopted and approved the NITC goals
  • With some minor changes, adopted and approved each Council's Sector Priorities
  • With some minor changes, adopted and approved each of the Council's Charters
  • Approved the reappointment of the Executive Director for FY99-00

The Policies and Procedures are no longer a draft document. The draft of the Statewide Technology Plan will soon be posted to the web. The outline for the plan was included as part of the policies and procedures on the last page of the document. Part I will include a vision statement, the NITC goals, council sector priorities with documentation as appendices. All the councils will be actively involved in developing Parts 2 and 5 of the plan. Mr. Winkle encouraged the members to visit the website for on-going changes to the document.

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR PREPARING A STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN - Tom Rolfes, Education I.T. Manager

Sector Priorities/Barriers: Mr. Rolfes reported that the NITC wanted to thank the members for their work and additional comments included under each Sector Priority and recommended that only the bold, underlined statements be included in the plan. Mr. Rolfes distributed the list of barriers discussed in the facilitated group process. The Council's next step is to develop an action plan to address the barriers. This needs to be done within 60 days. After discussion, it was by group consensus to form a sub-committee to develop a plan which would be brought to the council for discussion, refinement and approval. Volunteers for the subcommittee were Dr. Gupta, Mr. Wibbels, Dr. Hendrickson, Mr. Bartels and Dr. Gilliland. It was decided that the meeting would be held at the Metro Community College-Fort Dodge Campus. Mr. Rolfes will coordinate the meeting for the first or second week of August.

Council Charter: LB880 intent language designated a representative each from the Department of Education, Coordinating Commission for PostSecondary Education, Department of Administrative Services, and NETC to serve on the Education Council as non-voting members. This was also approved by the NITC at the June 29th meeting. Mr. Rolfes reported that letters have been sent to these agencies and the office is waiting for their response. It was by group consensus to recommend that each of these agencies designate one main representative for continuity purposes.

Mr. Rolfes pointed out that Section 7.7.1. Advance Notice of Meetings is being addressed through electronic means and by posting notices to the website. The NITC will be monitoring the subcommittee operations and charter language over the next several months to make sure that no needless bureaucracy is established.

OVERVIEW & REMAINING WORK: The Committee will work on this and bring recommendations back to the group.

Dr. Berndt arrived at the meeting.

EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEES - Dr. Jack Huck:

On June 1, 1999 a joint Coordinating Council Executive Committee/Education Council Chairs meeting was held to discuss the issue of NEB*SAT committees. In attendance were Dr. Hendrickson, Dr. Bergman, Mr. Wibbels, Dr. Huck, Mr. Rolfes, Mr. Winkle, Dr. Baack, Dr. Brown, Mr. Bates, and Dr. O'Neill. A document indicating committee structure and duties was distributed to the council members for discussion.

The following concerns were raised:

  • Representation of K-12 and higher education on the committees. A recommendation was made to include a liaison from the Department of Education on the Policies, Procedures, & Planning Committee. Another recommendation was the change to the Training Advisory Committee to reflect one liaison from NET and one liaison from NETCHE.
  • Ed Council Priorities - will they change with the addition of these new committees? Dr. Huck explained that it was not intended to throw out the previous priorities but need to realize that the priorities may change as the needs change. Continue with what is in place and build on these.
  • Duties of the committees. It was recommended that one of the Operations Committee's duties should be to Develop and Revise the Operations Manual.
  • Committee's communication with the Education Council. Mr. Rolfes explained that it states in the council charter that committees under the umbrella of the Education Council are to provide a monthly report.

Dr. Hendrickson moved and it was seconded by Dr. Ziegler to approve the committee structure for the Education Council with the understanding that the duties are dynamic in nature and subject to change. The motion also included the recommendations:

  • Include one liaison from Department of Education on the Policies, Procedures & Planning Committee; one liaison from NET and one liaison from NETCHE on the Training Advisory Committee
  • Add the duty, "Develop and Revise an Operations Manual" to the Operations Committee

Vote: Bartels-Yes, Berndt-Yes, Beischel-Yes, Bock-Yes, Gilliland-Yes, Gupta-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Huck-Yes, Johnson-Yes, Myers-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Wibbels-Yes, and Ziegler-Yes. Motion carried.

Members were asked to submit nominations (self or others) to Mr. Rolfes to serve on the telecommunications committees prior to the August meeting. Mr. Rolfes will send members the present membership of the Training Advisory Committees.

COUNCIL IMPLEMENTATION PLANS/NEXT STEPS - Michael Winkle:

Mr. Winkle reported that the expectation is that there will not be any requests for new technology projects - only deficit spending projects for the Education Council's approval. It was recommended to use the previous process. The Council will need to decide how to rank and prioritize projects as requested by the NITC, the Legislature and the Fiscal Office.

OTHER: Dr. Huck announced that as part of the proper public notification, he wanted to have the minutes reflect that the Education Council agenda for the meeting was first posted to the NITC website on July 1, 1999.

NEXT MEETING DATE/TIME AND ADJOURNMENT:

The next meeting of the Education Council will be August 19th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Staff will check on a location in Omaha. The meeting was adjourned at 11:05 a.m.

Minutes taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales, Administrative Assistant, and Tom Rolfes, Education Information Technology Manager, Office of the CIO/NITC.

Meeting Minutes

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