EDUCATION COUNCIL

Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 1:30 p.m.
Host site: Metro Community College, Bldg 30, Suite 252, 2 blks N of 32nd & Sorensen Pkwy, Omaha, NE
Remote: Lincoln Executive Building, Room 103, 521 S. 14th, Lincoln
Remote: Wayne State College, Conn Library Room 031, 1111 Main St, Wayne
Remote: ESU 10, 76 Plaza Blvd., Kearney
Remote: ESU 13, 4215 Avenue I, Scottsbluff

MINUTES

 

VOTING MEMBERS/ALTERNATES PRESENT:

Dr. Terry Haack, Co-Chair, Bennington Public Schools (Omaha Site)

Mr. Ed Hoffman, Co-Chair, Nebraska State College System (Omaha Site)

Mr. Clark Chandler, Nebraska Wesleyan University (Lincoln Site)

Mr. Matt Chrisman, Mitchell Public Schools (Scottsbluff Site)

Mr. Stephen Hamersky, Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School (Omaha Site)

Ms. Lanyce Keel, Alt. for  Ms. Mary Niemiec, University of Nebraska (Omaha Site)

Mr. John Stritt, Alt. for Mr. Gary Needham, ESU 9 (Kearney Site)

Mr. Randy Schmailzl, Metropolitan Community College (Omaha Site)

Dr. Bob Uhing, Educational Service Unit 1 (Wayne Site)

 

LIAISONS/ALTERNATE MEMBERS PRESENT

Dr. Wayne Bell, Alt. for Dr. Bob Uhing (Kearney Site)

Mr. Gary Targoff, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (Lincoln Site)

Dr. Kathleen Fimple, Alt. for Dr. Marshall Hill, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education (Lincoln Site)

 

MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT: Mr. Mike Carpenter, Doane College; Mr. John Dunning, Wayne State College; Ms. Yvette Holly, UN-Medical Center; Mr. Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools; Dr. Mike Lucas, York Public Schools; Mr. Lyle Neal, Southeast Community College; Ms. Brenda Decker, Office of the CIO; and Mr. Brent Gaswick, Nebraska Department of Education.

 

CALL TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, LOCATION OF OPEN MEETING LAW DOCUMENTS, ROLL CALL, INTRODUCTIONS

 

The Co-chair, Dr. Haack, called the meeting to order at 1:31 p.m.  There were seven members present at the time of roll call.  A quorum was not present at the time of roll call.  After roll call was taken there were two late arrivals at which time a quorum existed to conduct official business. The meeting notice and agenda were posted to the Nebraska Public Meeting Calendar on October 11, 2013.

 

Bob Uhing joined the meeting from the Wayne site.

 

Ed Hoffman joined the meeting from the Omaha site.

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR THE OCTOBER 16, 2013 MEETING*

 

Mr. Chandler moved to approve the October 16, 2013 agenda as presented.  Mr. Hamersky seconded.  Roll call vote:  Haack-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Chrisman-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Keel-Yes, Stritt-Yes, Schmailzl-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0.  Motion carried.

 

CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM THE AUGUST 21, 2013 MEETING*

 

Mr. Schmaizl moved to approve the August 21, 2013 minutes as presented.  Mr. Chandler seconded. Roll call vote: Uhing-Yes, Schmailzl-Yes, Stritt-Yes, Keel-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Chrisman-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, and Haack-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0.  Motion carried.

 

NITC STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN - 2014-2016

Network Nebraska, Digital Education, E-Gov Action Items*

 

At the December meeting, the NITC will be updating and approving the action items for the Statewide Technology Plan.  Mr. Rolfes reviewed the recommended changes discussed at the last Education Council meeting:

 

NITC STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN - Network Nebraska Initiative Action Items - Recommendations for 2014-2016

 

Objective:  To develop a broadband, scalable telecommunications infrastructure that optimizes the quality of service to every public entity in the State of Nebraska.

 

1.     Identify Tier II communities that offer opportunities for aggregation for services onto the network.

 

The Council recommended discontinuation of action item:

N1a: The CAP will work with communities that express an interest in aggregating their public sector data transport.

 

 The Council recommended continuation of N1B with the following wording change:

N1b Action: Education entities will act as primary tenants to encourage the aggregation of data transport by community anchor institutions public libraries through leased circuits.

 

2.     The Chief Information Officer will continue the LB 1208 implementation by annually bidding infrastructure and connectivity for new regions of participants and developing the most cost-effective and efficient support structure possible for the statewide network.

 

The Council recommended that the following action item be designated as “Completed:

N2a Action: The Network Nebraska network design/support team will develop a service level agreement with local and regional education entities in order to develop a cooperative support system for the statewide education network that will insure data transport and synchronous video reliability.

 

The Council recommended that the following action item be continued with minor revisions:

N2b Action: The Chief Information Officer will annually update  encourage the use of  the State master purchase contracts for edge devices and monitor the local site purchases of such equipment in order to promote and encourage network equipment standardization.

 

3.     Offer Internet I services to eligible network participants.

 

The Council recommended that the following action item be continued as stated:

N3 Action: The Collaborative Aggregation Partnership (CAP) will accept new orders for Internet service and continue to aggregate purchasing demand to secure a more economical price for statewide Internet service.

 

4.     Prepare for the future of Network Nebraska as a statewide, multipurpose, high capacity, scalable telecommunications network that shall meet the demand of state agencies, local governments, and educational entities as defined in section 79-1201.01.

 

The Council recommended that the following action item be designated as “Completed”:

N4e Action: Develop and deploy an enterprise MCU bridging service for Network Nebraska participants.

 

The Council recommended continuation of the following actions.  Some with the following minor revisions as indicated below:

N4a Action: Develop appropriate participation criteria (e.g. type of entity, bandwidth expectations, differential fees) and a differential catalog of services and fees for Network Nebraska to serve all network participants (i.e. public/nonpublic K-12, public/nonpublic higher education, public libraries, others).

 

N4b Action: Charter a work group to research advanced network Develop a catalog of  services for Network Nebraska participants.

 

N4c Action: Bi-annually reissue the Network Nebraska Marketing Survey and subsequent Report to help steer the strategic direction of Network Nebraska—Education.

 

N4d Action: Annually update the Network Nebraska Marketing Plan.

 

N4f Action: Facilitate the implementation and training of IPv6 routing on a timely basis across all Network Nebraska entities.

 

The Council recommended inclusion of the following new action for Action Item 4:

N4g Action: Address the need for multiple Internet egress points and redundant transport pathways within the Network Nebraska backbone.

 

Mr. Rolfes informed the council that the RFP will be ready to release in 60 days and may bid for alternate circuits for the northern backbone (Action Item N4g).

 

Mr. Uhing moved to approve the Network Nebraska action items with the recommended additions and changes.  Mr. Hamersky seconded. Roll call vote:  Haack-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Chrisman-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Keel-Yes, Stritt-Yes, Schmailzl-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0.  Motion carried.

 

NITC STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN

Digital Education Initiative Action Items - Recommendations for 2014-2016:

 

Objective:  To promote the effective and efficient integration of technology into the instructional, learning, and administrative processes and to utilize technology to deliver enhanced digital educational opportunities to students at all levels throughout Nebraska on an equitable and affordable basis.

 

1.     Promote the availability, distribution, and use of digital media throughout the Nebraska educational community.

 

The Council recommended discontinuation of the following action item:

D2 Action. Set a deadline, and establish standard(s) related to the deployment, administration and maintenance of content management systems by K-12 schools.

 

The Council recommended continuation of the following action items.  Some with minor revisions as indicated below:

D1 Action: Promote the usage of the National Repository for Online Courses (NROC) content by Nebraska educators.

 

D3 Action:  Develop and Fully deploy a statewide digital content repository interface that allows the assignment of digital property rights and the uploading, cataloguing, metatagging, searching, and downloading of digital learning objects by Nebraska educators.

 

D4a Action: Develop and deploy a statewide learning management system for every K-12 teacher and learner, grades 6-12, and to also train teachers in effective instructional design to integrate synchronous and asynchronous technologies.

 

D4b Action:  Develop and deploy a statewide learning management system for every K-12 teacher and learner, grades 6-12, and to also Train teachers in effective instructional design to integrate synchronous and asynchronous technologies.

 

D5 Action:  Develop and deploy Coordinate and facilitate  a statewide directory services structure federation effort  that will enable students and teachers a single sign-on to associated learning management services and content management resources.

 

The Council recommended that the following new action items be added to the Digital Education strategic initiative:

D6 Action: Coordinate and facilitate a statewide data dashboard system that allows teachers and administrators the ability to merge local achievement data with statewide testing data to depict each students academic progress.

 

D7 Action: Research the potential feasibility of a software-based, individualized education plan for every Nebraska K-12 student that shows their progress on every state academic standard.

 

D8 Action: Provide guidelines for cooperation between K-12 and higher education institutions regarding K-12 students who are taking dual-credit courses using interactive videoconferencing technology.

 

D9 Action: Provide professional development in a "flipped learning" concept where the teaching is done on-line to provide professional developers a greater opportunity for coaching and mentoring activities during the in-person contact time.

 

Mr. Uhing moved to approve the Network Nebraska action items with the recommended additions and changes.  Mr. Schmailzl seconded. Roll call vote: Uhing-Yes, Schmailzl-Yes, Stritt-Yes, Keel-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Chrisman-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, and Haack-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0.  Motion carried.

 

NITC STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN

E-Government Initiative Action Items Recommendations for 2014-2016

 

Objective:  To further the use of e-government to improve services and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of agencies.

 

3.     Maintain the Education Portal on the State of Nebraska website.

 

The Council recommended continuation of the following action item with the following minor revisions:

E1 Action:  Maintain Annually review and update the content of the Education Portal on the State of Nebraska website.

 

Mr. Hamersky moved to approve the e-Government action item as presented.  Ms. Keel seconded. Roll call vote:  Haack-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, Chandler-Yes, Chrisman-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Keel-Yes, Stritt-Yes, Schmailzl-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.  Results:  Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0.  Motion carried.

 

TASK GROUP REPORTS

 

Mr. Hoffman presided over the rest of the meeting.

 

The task groups had not met since the last meeting.  There were no task group reports.

 

FCC E-RATE 2.0 NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING (OFFICE OF THE CIO COMMENTS)

 

Due to the government shut down, comments in response to the NPRM comments were not easily submitted. Prior to the shutdown, there were approximately 600 sets of comments submitted by schools, school districts, consortia, and vendors.  When the government shutdown is over, there will be a 24-hour period to submit closing comments.  There will likely be new changes to how E-rate funding will be allocated.  This could affect Network Nebraska and rural communities.  There has been no consensus communicated by the FCC and it is uncertain what future funding levels will be at this point.

 

SUBSECTOR UPDATES

 

State Colleges.  Mr. Hoffman reported that the state colleges are continuing with the shared services inventory project.  Web services and a content management project are also being reviewed.

 

Community Colleges.  Mr. Schmailzl reported that there is potential legislation that may affect dual enrollment at the community college.  He will inform the Council when he has more information.

 

OTHER

 

Mr. Rolfes informed the Council that the Network Nebraska received the NASCIO Cross Boundaries Collaboration and Partnerships Award.  NASCIO is the National Association of State CIO’s.  Mr. Rolfes will send the link to the video.  There has been quite a bit of interest in Network Nebraska from other states.

 

AGENDA ITEMS AND CONSIDER LOCATION FOR THE 12/18/2013 MEETING

 

Members were asked to send agenda items to Mr. Rolfes.  Videoconference sites will be determined for the December meeting.

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

Mr. Schmailzl moved to adjourn.  Mr. Chandler seconded.  All were in favor.  Motion carried by unanimous voice vote at 3:35pm.

 

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