Monday, November 7, 2011; 9:00 AM
CT
NET Board Room, 1800 N. 33rd St., Lincoln
Remote: NATS Conference Room, Wayne State College, Wayne
Remote: Alliance High School, 100 W. 14th, Alliance
Remote: UNMC Sorrell Center Room 3029, 42nd
& Emile Streets, Omaha
Remote: ESU 10, 76 Plaza Blvd., Kearney
VOTING MEMBERS/ALTERNATES PRESENT:
Mr. Ken
Clipperton, Midland University
Mr. Ron
Cone, Educational Service Unit 10, Kearney
Ms. Lois Dietsch, Seward Middle School; Alternate for Mr. Jeff
Johnson
Dr. Terry Haack, Bennington Public
Schools
Mr. Stephen Hamersky, Daniel J. Gross
Catholic High School
Mr. Leonard Hartman, Alliance Public
Schools
Mr. Ed Hoffman, Nebraska State
College System
Mr. Thomas (Tip) O’Neill,
Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Nebraska; alt. for
Mr. Clark Chandler
Dr. Bob Uhing, Educational Service Unit
1, Wakefield
LIAISONS/ALTERNATE MEMBERS PRESENT: Mr. Stephen Stortz, Alternate for
Stephen Hamersky; Ms. SuAnn Witt, Nebraska Department of Education;
MEMBERS/LIAISONS ABSENT: Mr. Clark Chandler,
Nebraska Wesleyan University; Mr. John Dunning, Wayne State College; Ms. Yvette
Holly, UNMC; Mr. Randy Schmailzl, Metropolitan Community College; Dr. Mike
Lucas, York Public Schools; Mr. Jeff Stanley, Conestoga Public Schools; Dr.
Marshall Hill, CCPE; Ms. Brenda Decker, State Office of the CIO; Mr. Gary
Targoff, NET.
CALL
TO ORDER, ELECTRONIC POSTING, LOCATION OF OPEN MEETING LAW DOCUMENTS, ROLL CALL,
INTRODUCTIONS
Co-Chair, Dr. Terry Haack, called the meeting to order at 9:01 am. There were 8 members present at the time of
roll call. A quorum existed to conduct
official business. The meeting notice was posted to the Nebraska Public Meeting
Calendar on October 31, 2011. The agenda was posted to the NITC website on October
31, 2011. A copy of the Nebraska Open Meetings Laws was on the southeast wall
of the NET Board Room and at each of the remote locations.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA FOR
THE NOVEMBER 7, 2011 MEETING
Mr.
O’Neill moved to approve the November 7, 2011 agenda as presented. Mr. Hoffman
seconded. Roll call vote: O’Neill-Yes,
Clipperton-Yes, Haack-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Hartman-Yes,
Hoffman-Yes, Dietsch-Yes, and Uhing-Yes. Results:
Yes-8, No-0, Abstained-0. Motion
carried.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
FROM THE MAY 10, 2011 MEETING
Mr.
Clipperton moved to approve the May 10, 2011 minutes
as presented. Mr. Hamersky seconded. Roll
call vote: O’Neill-Yes,
Clipperton-Yes, Haack-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Hartman-Yes,
Hoffman-Yes, Dietsch-Yes, and Uhing-Yes. Results:
Yes-8, No-0, Abstained-0. Motion
carried.
PUBLIC
COMMENT
Co-Chair Haack
called for introductions. Dave Hahn,
Nebraska Information Network, introduced himself to the Council as Roger Hahn’s replacement.
There was no public comment.
MEMBERSHIP, 2011-2013
Dr.
Haack stated that members have the biographies of two individuals that will be
voted on today. Mr. Tom Rolfes, Office of the CIO/NITC, introduced Mr. Lyle Neal
from Southeast Community College. He will be replacing Mike Chipps on the
Council. Mr. Neal is administrator at Milford Campus and VP for
Technology. Not present today is Ms. Mary P. Niemiec,
from the University of Nebraska. She replaces
Arnold Bateman who retired from that position with the University of Nebraska
Online World Wide and also the University’s 2nd representative to the
Council.
Mr. O’Neill moved to accept the nominations of Lyle Neal and Mary Niemiec to the Education Council and forward to the NITC. Ms. Dietsch seconded. Roll call vote: O’Neill-Yes, Clipperton-Yes, Haack-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Hartman-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, Dietsch-Yes, and Uhing-Yes. Results: Yes-8, No-0, Abstained-0. Motion carried.
ELECTION OF A HIGHER EDUCATION CO-CHAIR
Dr.
Haack stated that the higher education members expressed through e-mail
discussion that it might be best to conduct the election at the next meeting due
to insufficient higher education representation at this meeting. Dr. Haack asked for discussion. Mr. O’Neill asked who the
current higher ed
representatives were. Mr. Rolfes read the list as follows: Mr. Clark Chandler,
representing Independent Universities, with Mr. Thomas O’Neill, alternate; Mr.
Ken Clipperton, representing Independent Universities, with Mr. Chuck Lenosky, alternate; Mr. John Dunning, representing State
Colleges, with no alternate announced; Mr. Ed Hoffman, representing State
Colleges, with Mr. Stan Carpenter, alternate; Ms. Yvette Holly representing
Public Universities, with Dr. Dan Moser, alternate. Mr. Lyle Neal, representing
Community Colleges, with Dr. Jack Huck, alternate; Ms. Mary Niemiec,
representing Public Universities, with Mr. Gary Aerts,
alternate; Mr. Randy Schmailzl, representing Community Colleges, with Mr.
Dennis Baack, alternate. It would be the first eight members of the voting
members that would be eligible to be co-chair.
The
Council agreed to defer the election of the higher education co-chair until the
next meeting.
Mr. Ron
Cone joined the meeting via the Kearney remote site.
CONSIDER AMENDING THE EDUCATION COUNCIL
CHARTER
Dr.
Haack explained that the proposed changes to the Charter included mostly grammatical
changes, URLs and updated statutes with the exception of item 6.6, Conflict of
Interest. Mr. Rolfes explained that this item has been brought to the Education
Council, just like it has all the advisory groups of the NITC. The GIS Council
recently reviewed an issue with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure
Commission and the Commission recommended that each NITC advisory group insert
this paragraph into the charter. There is a possibility of a personal conflict
of interest because of an investment or side-line business. Dr. Haack pointed
out that in Section 4 and 7.7 there are some website changes. Number 4.2.11 actually
pertains to the Council’s responsibility of helping administer Network Nebraska
and assisting the Office of the CIO. Mr. Rolfes stated this charter goes back over
10 years, so these changes present an opportunity to review the Charter
language. As some Council members questioned the date of November 15 in Section
4.2.8, Mr. Rolfes explained that there is a whole budget sequence that occurs
during every biennial budget. By September 15 all agency technology plans are
due as well as all IT project requests as part of the budget plan. Council members
and the Technical Panel are asked to review these projects and the NITC
actually reviews and prioritizes projects before being forwarded to the
Governor and the Legislature. There was no further discussion.
Mr. Clipperton moved to approve the Education
Council Charter as amended. Dr. Uhing seconded. Roll call vote: O’Neill-Yes,
Clipperton-Yes, Haack-Yes, Hamersky-Yes, Hartman-Yes,
Hoffman-Yes, Dietsch-Yes, Ron Cone-Yes, and Uhing-Yes.
Results: Yes-9, No-0,
Abstained-0. Motion carried.
MEMBERSHIP IN NETWORK NEBRASKA UPDATE AND MEMBERSHIP
BY SECTOR
Mr.
Tom Rolfes reporting.
Item A.
Mr. Rolfes introduced a new document called “Member Contributions by Sector”.
It is a summary sheet explaining the 2011 – 2012 revenue from all education
subsectors. Under Interregional Transport Fee for K-12 it shows only $86,703, but
there’s another $191,000 revenue as reimbursement from
the Federal E-rate program. So the actual K-12 revenue under interregional
transport of the backbone is approximately $277,000. The question was asked
when we can expect the federal funding to come in for 2010-11. Mr. Rolfes said
we are still waiting on E-rate funding for the 2010-2011 year after having
undergone 10 Program Integrity Assurance reviews. Reimbursement usually arrives in November but
this year it will be closer to December. The E-rate application for 2011-2012 was
submitted back in March 2011 and it is under initial review. The 2012-2013
application will be filed in March and is just beginning to take shape with
procurement. Mr. Rolfes also explained
that the Grand Island Public Library is connected to Network Nebraska. They are
paying for their connectivity into College Park but by recommendations from the
advisory group they are not paying fees for a two-year time period in exchange
for content sharing via videoconferencing. The question was asked if there is
any carryover money or reserve. Mr. Rolfes said that there is no reserve, but
there is sometimes a carryover from one year to the next. The project is very
transparent in that any member at any time can get financial statements, and
the Office of the CIO is required to produce and share an annual financial
report with the Legislature and every participating entity.
Item B.
The new Network Nebraska map as of October, 2011. It
shows the 246 entities and their approximate geographic locations. The label year
when most groups of entities came onto the Network was retained on the map, but
the colored triangles were all converted to purple. The 2011-12 backbone is
limited to those three segments that interconnect Grand Island, Lincoln and
Omaha, but in the current RFP that loop extends out to Scottsbluff, Chadron,
back to Wayne and then to Omaha. That is part of the proposed backbone upgrade.
Item D
is Procurement Overview. Timeline for the RFP: November 4 was a vendor
pre-proposal conference held at Varner Hall and by conference call. November 7
is the last day for bidders to submit questions. By next Monday, November 14,
all answers will be posted to the State Purchasing website and then bids are
opened on December 9. It is a very
aggressive timeline in order to meet the E-rate filing deadline which is early
to mid-March.
Item C. MCU (Multipoint Control
Unit) Bridging Services. The Network Nebraska Advisory Group recommended
buying 10 simultaneous port connections on the OCIO bridge
to be used by any of the 246 entities of Network Nebraska.
Mr.
O’Neill left the meeting.
TASK GROUP REPORTS
Dr.
Haack said that each Council member should be assigned to at least one of the
task groups.
Emerging
Technologies Task Group—Mr. Steve Hamersky. The group has had a couple virtual
meetings by e-mail that included the sharing of documents. They examined the New
Horizons Report for 2011. There were a
number of emerging technologies identified in that report that they want to consider.
The group picked out a few areas that they may want to focus on: Cloud
computing and its use throughout the state, virtual school and how through the
virtual school they may need to consider statewide content repository and also
statewide learning management. Open content is wrapped into that. Some movement in mobile devices is being seen.
Other areas are critical thinking and teacher/student usage of mobile devices. The
group plans to prioritize some of the ideas and consider generating new action
items. The Digital Education initiative seems to be the most likely home for
these emerging areas so they will be looking at that in the future. The group
has not gone as far as identifying specific action items in writing. That will probably be their goal for the next
meeting.
Services
Task Group—Mr. Ron Cone. Mr. Cone stated
that the Services Task Group has not met.
He asked to draw attention to Action Item N3a, aggregating internet
access service. That is being done in section 3 of the RFP that is on the
street right now. Mr. Ken Clipperton added that as a services group, even
though they are not listed in item D3, they really do have an interest there. Items
N4a and N1b deal with community aggregation of bandwidth and he is personally
fostering that conversation in Fremont. It will probably be a future agenda
item for discussion.
Governance
Task Group—Dr. Uhing and Dr. Haack. The group has not
met in the past 6-8 months. At the last meeting they set priorities for further
work. Mike Chipps had taken the lead for the group and since he has left they
have not met, or elected a chair. Mr. Rolfes stated that Randy Schmailzl had
agreed to sign on when Mike Chipps left. The Network Nebraska Advisory group
will meet in late November or early December. Their agenda will be available on
line.
Marketing
Task Group—Ms. SuAnn Witt. The group has not met recently. They are
going to continue the Network Nebraska Marketing Survey and change the survey
questions to be more service-oriented. The other part of the task group is to
have a business plan and a marketing plan. The surveys are useful and have
resulted in some action and improvements to Network Nebraska.
NITC ACTION ITEMS
A.
Task
Group Membership
Dr.
Haack asked if there is anyone that would like to change groups. There were
none. Mr. Lyle Neal volunteered for the Network Nebraska Service Task Group.
B. Review action item progress –
Dr.
Haack presented the 2010-2011 document
and the new 2012-2014 document that will go to the NITC. The new document keeps
some of the action items, adds some new action items, discontinues some, and a
few action items are marked as completed. Action Items can be added throughout the year,
so they are somewhat fluid. These have to be posted tomorrow on the NITC
agenda. There was discussion about which items fit with which task groups.
Mr.
Clipperton asked questions regarding aggregation of the community to the state
network. Dr. Haack suggested, within N1b, to add Brenda Decker, CIO to the
participating entities. Mr. Clipperton
made the request to change the wording in N2a from “that will mitigate data
transport and synchronous video problems” to “that insure data transport and
synchronous video reliability.”
Mr. Rolfes explained
that the Network Nebraska Advisory Group wanted to introduce N4e as an action
item.
Ms.
Witt verified that the Market Group got added to being monitor of the Nebraska.gov
Education portal. Mr. Rolfes answered that action item appears under the eGovernment Initiative. Mr. Rolfes pointed out that action
item D3 gets to the matter of the Virtual Desktop.
Ms.
Witt asked if IPv6 deployment was a current action item. Mr. Rolfes answered that
it was not. It would need its own action item if it were inserted. It would become
N4f.
Mr.
Ron Cone requested that differentiation be made between items D1b and D1c,
content management systems by K-12 schools and a statewide digital content
repository. Mr. Rolfes answered that D1b is more on the policy front, standards
that are needed and D1c is the actual operational effort. Ms. Witt suggested
that a glossary be added for clarification purposes.
Dr.
Haack stated that he would entertain a motion for
approval of the action items with the inclusion of modifications discussed and
agreed to by the Council.
Mr. Hoffman moved to forward the Network
Nebraska, Digital Education and eGovernment action
items to the NITC with the modifications. Mr. Clipperton seconded. Roll call vote:
Clipperton-Yes, Haack-Yes,
Hamersky-Yes, Hartman-Yes, Hoffman-Yes, Dietsch-Yes,
Lyle Neal-Yes, Cone-Yes, and Uhing-Yes, Results: Yes-9, No-0, Abstained-0. Motion carried.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dr.
Haack welcomed the new members to the Council.
Discussion
of possible recurring monthly or bi-monthly meetings. Mr. Rolfes said that
in the past that the Education Council had met on the third Friday of every, or
every other, month. More recently, the Council had agreed to meet bimonthly and
schedule the meetings around the community college CEO meetings in Lincoln. Members
have asked him if the Council could return to a recurring date. The question
was put before the membership whether Thursday or Friday works better and
morning or afternoon. Dr. Haack suggested that in January the Council will meet
via videoconferencing and have multiple sites, due to winter weather. The
January meeting was set for Thursday, January 19th at 1:00 pm CT.
Mr.
Rolfes will draw up a draft calendar of meetings for the members to consider at
that meeting.
AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE NEXT MEETING
Dr. Haack asked that Task Group reports, Task Group membership,
Network Nebraska Marketing Report draft, RFP update, and possible Legislative updates
be part of the January agenda. Mr. Cone offered to present on objectives for
the next year that his ESU 10 have been working on. Ron’s presentation will be
put on the agenda.
The
next meeting host location will probably be at NET or the Executive Building and
as many remote sites as are requested.
Mr. Neal moved to adjourn. Ms. Dietsch seconded. All were in favor. Motion carried by
voice vote.
Minutes
were recorded by Ms. Jeanine Yost and reviewed by Tom Rolfes, Education I.T.
Manager, Nebraska Information Technology Commission.