EDUCATION COUNCIL
Nebraska Information Technology Commission
September 21, 2001, 9 a.m.
State Office Building, Conference Room 6Z, 301 Centennial Mall South
Lincoln, Nebraska
MINUTES
Members present:
Dennis Baack, (alt. for Joe Preusser, CCC)
Keith Bartels, Boards of Education
Linda Engel, Nebraska City Public Schools
Kent Hendrickson, (alt. for Harvey Perlman, UNL)
Yvette Holly, (alt. for Bill Berndt, UNMC)
Jack Huck, Southeast Community College
Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools
Joe LeDuc, Lincoln Diocese Catholic Schools
Thomas O'Neill, (alt. for Roger Koehler, NE Methodist College)
Ed Rastovski, Wahoo Public Schools
Al Schneider, ESU 5
Robin Smith, (alt. for Tom Krepel, Chadron State College)
Alan Wibbels, ESU 10
Liaisons Present:
Dean Bergman, NE Dept of Ed
Sid McCartney, (alt. for Brenda Decker)
Bob Huber, (alt. for Michael Beach)
Members and Liaisons not represented:
Rob Ziegler, Madison Public Schools
Sheila Stearns, Wayne State College
Con Dietz, Creighton University
David Powers, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education
Others present:
Myrta Hansen, FUTUREKIDS Nebraska
Jean Jones, Nebraska Catalyst Grant
Wayne Fisher, NE Dept of Ed Tech Center
Roger Bartlett, Qwest Communications
Judi Carter, Falls City Public Schools
CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, ROLL CALL INTRODUCTIONS
The Co-chair, Dr. Jack, called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m. Roll call was taken. There were ten voting members present at the time of roll call. A quorum existed to conduct official business. The meeting notice was posted to the NITC Webpage on August 20, 2001 and Nebraska Public Meeting calendar on September 17, 2001. The meeting agenda was posted to the NITC Website on September 17, 2001.
APPROVAL OF SEPTEMBER 21, 2001 AGENDA
Mr. Bartels moved to approve the agenda as presented. Mr. Baack seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Bartels-Yes, Holly-Yes, Engel-Yes, Huck-Yes, Carter-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Smith-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Baack-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, and Wibbels-Yes. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.
APPROVAL OF JULY 20, 2001 MEETING MINUTES
Mr. O’Neill moved to approve the July minutes as presented. Ms. Engel seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Wibbels-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, Baack-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, Smith-Yes, O’Neill-Yes, Carter-Yes, Huck-Yes, Engel-Yes, Holly-Yes, and Bartels-Yes. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.
APPROVAL OF AUGUST 17, 2001 MEETING MINUTES
Mr. Hendrickson moved to approve the August minutes as presented. Ms. Holly seconded the motion. Roll call vote: O’Neill-Yes, Smith-Yes, LeDuc-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Baack-Yes, Rastovski-Yes, Wibbels-Yes Bartels-Yes, Holly-Yes, Engel-Yes, Huck-Yes,and Carter-Yes. The motion was carried by unanimous vote.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Myrta Hansen, FUTUREKIDS Nebraska, stated that she attended the Wayne State College Technology Fair on Monday, September 17th. It was informative and very well attended.
COMMITTEE REPORT – OPERATIONS WORK GROUP
Mr. Rolfes reported that the Work Group anticipates meeting in late September or early October. The Work Group’s vacancies are on agenda to be discussed later.
COMMITTEE REPORT – POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND PLANNING
Dr. Huck reported that the group had not met. Options and ideas on committee meetings and work progress will be discussed later on in the agenda.
COMMITTEE REPORT – TRAINING ADVISORY WORK GROUP
Ms. Klosterman was not available to report due to a training commitment. Mr. Rolfes will contact her regarding the tribal representative on the Advisory Group.
COMMITTEE REPORT – NET DISTANCE LEARNING REPORT
Mr. Huber provided a written summary of Network 2 and 3 and NVCN usage numbers. Questions and comments from the Council members were entertained.
Dr. Bergman arrived at 9:19 a.m.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Schneider arrived at 9:26 a.m.
MEMBER VACANCIES ON OPERATIONS WORK GROUP
Mr. Rolfes provided a brief history regarding the Council’s sub-committees for the new council members. Dr. Robin Smith will facilitate the recommendation of a Higher Education representative and Mr. Al Schneider will facilitate the recommendation of the K-12 representative. Nominations will be presented at the October meeting.
LB833 UPDATE
Wayne Fisher, Nebraska Department of Education, reported that staff have been developing the application for the Distance Education Network Completion Grant. The deadline for applications will be in mid December. The letters of intent have been sent to schools without distance education classrooms. These are due back by October 5th. There is a potential of 65 high school buildings representing 47 districts that would be eligible. Thirty-five (35) responses have been received – of those 30 have said yes, they wish to participate.
Rule 89 has been more formalized. The rule will go to hearing on October 12th. If not contested it will go the State School Board for approval. Bartels agreed to address this with school boards, as well, so they are informed.
TINA/WIDEN/NETCOM UPDATE
Sid McCartney reported that five bids were received - Alltel, Qwest, ATT, Sprint and WorldCom. Vendor presentations began on September 10th and will continue next week. After presentations, bidders will be evaluated. At that time, next steps will be discussed and determined.
EDUCATION COUNCIL ACTION ITEMS UPDATE, DISCUSSION AND COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Mr. Rolfes distributed revised version of the Council’s action items and reviewed each of the priorities.
After discussion of council and task groups meeting options, it was by group consensus that the Council assign a portion of the monthly meetings for the task groups to meet and then have a regular meeting. Task Work Groups will meet for the first part of the meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. The Education Council will conduct their regular business meeting beginning at 10:30 a.m.
Council members agreed that Council Priorities 1 & 2 (deals with infrastructure) be combined into one priority and that priorities 3, 4, and 5 stand alone for task groups.
The Council took several minutes to assign/volunteer members and alternates to task groups to carry out the Education Council action items. It was agreed that at least one voting member or alternate from each pair be represented at least once and then additional alternates would be invited to join the task groups. Task group membership would be decided by interest and background, not on the basis of subsector representation.
Task Group membership was decided as follows:
Infrastructure: Alan Wibbels, Al Schneider, Con Dietz, Joe Preusser, Kent Hendrickson, Dennis Linster, Wayne Fisher, Judi Carter
Funding: Dean Bergman, Keith Bartels, Jack Huck, Bill Berndt
Policies for Certification: Linda Engel, Roger Koehler, Tip O’Neill
Leading Edge Applications: Joe LeDuc, Ed Rastovski, Jeff Johnson, Robin Smith
OTHER
There was no other business.
NEXT MEETING DATE, TIME AND LOCATION AND MEETING ADJOURNMENT
The next meeting of the Education Council will be held on October 19th at ESU 5 in Beatrice. It was recommended to have one meeting for November/December on November 30th to be held in Lincoln possibly at the Southeast Community College downtown location.
Dr. Huck adjourned the meeting adjourned at 11:37 a.m.
Minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales and reviewed by Tom Rolfes of the Office of the CIO/NITC.
Meeting Minutes