EDUCATION COUNCIL

Nebraska Information Technology Commission
Friday, December 17, 1999, 9:00 a.m.
Clifford Hardin Center for Continuing Education
33rd & Holdrege, Lincoln, Nebraska

APPROVED MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT
Keith Bartels, Public School Boards	Dr. David Myers, Lincoln Public Schools
Larry Bock, Blair Public Schools	Dennis Linster, Wayne State College
Con Dietz, Creighton University	Art Tanderup, Tekamah-Herman Public Schools
Dr. Kent Hendrickson, UNL	Alan Wibbels, ESU 10
Tom Korta, Pius X High School	Dr. Mary Wise, Metro Community College
Don King, Chadron State College	Dr. Robert Ziegler, Madison Schools
LIAISONS PRESENT
Brenda Decker, Division of Communications; Wayne Fisher, NDE; Dr. David Powers, Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education
MEMBERS ABSENT
Dr. William Berndt, UNMC; Dr. Jack Huck, Southeast Community College; Jeff Johnson, Centennial Public Schools; Dr. John Muller, Bellevue University

CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL AND ELECTRONIC POSTING:

The meeting was called to order by co-chair, Alan Wibbels. Roll call was taken. There were ten voting and two non-voting members present at the time of roll. The chair stated that notice of the meeting was posted to the NITC website on November 24th and the agenda was posted on December 16th.

APPROVAL OF THE DECEMBER 17TH AGENDA:

Co-chair Alan Wibbels asked if there were any additions or changes to the agenda. Mr. Bock moved to approve the December 17th agenda. Mr. Tanderup seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Bartels-Yes, Bock-Yes, Wise-Yes, Dietz-Yes, Korta-Yes, King-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Linster-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Wibbels-Yes. Motion carried.

APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER 17TH MINUTES:

Co-chair Alan Wibbels asked if there were any additions and/or corrections to the November minutes. Mr. Dietz moved to approve the minutes as written. Dr. Hendrickson seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Wibbels-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Linster-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, King-Yes, Korta-Yes, Dietz-Yes, Wise-Yes, Bock-Yes, Bartels-Yes. Motion carried.

Dr. Myers arrived at 9:07 a.m.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

There was no public comment.

PRESENTATION, PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION:

Gene Hand, Director, Public Service Commission, and Lowell Johnson, Chair, presented information to the members. The objectives and goals of access charges in Nebraska include the following:

• Remove implicit subsidies for intrastate access, toll and local service charges
• Adopt interstate access charge structure, generally
• Encourage rate re-balancing
• Initiate Nebraska Universal Service Fund (NUSF) to provide sufficient, predictable and explicit support for high cost areas
• Fund the NUSF on a competitively neutral basis through contributions from all telecommunications providers

Dr. Ziegler arrived at 9:18 a.m.

Nebraska did not receive additional support from the Federal Universal Service Fund. East coast states received a majority of the available funds. This was a major concern of several members. Mr. Hand recommended that any entity struggling with prices should negotiate rates with their provider. The Public Service Commission, along with the assistance of the University, are forecasting costs and developing cost models.

Mr. Hand informed the members that the representative from the FCC will be in Nebraska in January. The Governor and Senator Bromm are writing to the FCC about the Nebraska and Federal Universal Service Fund. Mr. Winkle informed the Council that the Lieutenant Governor is also concerned and will have this as an agenda item for the NITC meeting.

Mr. Linster moved that the Council organize efforts for a statewide infrastructure and that the Division of Communications to take a leadership role with this activity. Mr. Dietz seconded the motion. Discussion followed as to postalized rates, different needs of state government and educational institutions, last mile costs, options and strategies. It was recommended by Mr. Winkle to review the results of the TINA study (due April) before taking any action. Mr. Linster rescinded his motion. The K-12 representatives will work with the Division of Communications.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Operations Working Group – Duties and Responsibilities:

The Dec 13th meeting was postponed until January 10th. The committee is working on two projects: 1) the collection of distance learning data (50% complete), and 2) update of the policies manual dealing with scheduling (meeting to be held in early January).

At the November meeting the Council agreed to review the duties for action to be taken at the December meeting. There were no changes and/or additions recommended by the members. Mr. Tanderup moved to approve the duties as presented. Mr. Bock seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Wise-Yes, Dietz-Yes, Korta-Yes, King-Yes, Hendrickson-Yes, Myers-Yes, Linster-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Wibbels-Yes, Ziegler-Yes, Bartels-Yes, Bock-Yes. Motion carried.

Policy, Procedures, and Planning:

The committee has not needed to meet.

Training: No report.

Dr. Powers arrived at 10:43 a.m.

STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN, EDUCATION COUNCIL ACTION PLANS:

Mr. Rolfes reviewed on the voting results of priorities voted on at the November meeting. Detailed action plans have been developed and were distributed to the member for review.

The NITC will be reviewing these at their working meeting on January 19th. Mr. Rolfes indicated that all the action items may not be included in the statewide plan. Adoption of the Statewide Technology Plan is an action item for January 25th meeting. Mr. Winkle recommended the following wording for Action Item 1-1 "Facilitate, in collaboration with the other councils, a common delivery of voice,...". Discussion followed.

Mr. Bock moved to approve the Education Council's Action Plans with the recommended rewording 1-1. Dr. Myers seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Hendrickson-Yes, King-Yes, Korta-Yes, Dietz-Yes, Wise-Yes, Bock-Yes, Bartels-Yes, Ziegler-Yes, Wibbels-Yes, Tanderup-Yes, Linster-Yes, Myers-Yes. Motion carried.

ESU DATA & ISP REQUEST FOR PROPSALS:

Mr. Wibbels report that there were three RFP's requested: US West, Alltel, US Fiber. All were declined due to the cost being too high. The ESU's will be meeting with Rick Golden of the University of Nebraska Computing Services to discuss a possible interim solution.

OTHER:

There was no other business.

NEXT MEETING:

The January meeting is cancelled due to members' requested presence (if available) at the NITC meeting January 25th. The February 18th meeting location will be at Creighton University.

ADJOURNMENT:

Dr. Hendrickson moved to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Korta seconded the motion. All were in favor. The meeting adjourned at 11:46 a.m.

Meeting Minutes