3-4-10+notes

NEISSC March 2010 Meeting Four County Area Vocational Cooperative

Present: Diane Woodworth, Miriam Hopkins, Jan Lehman, Adela Dickey, Phil German, Jen Nusbaum, Kay Reinoehl, Rebecca Shambarger, Judy Plunkett and Kyle Smith

1. **//Rebecca Shambarger, Bremen//**- Faced budget cuts of 20% last year, cuts of 40% this year. Hoping to retain funding for software licensure and replacement parts for existing machines. No funding to replace anything this year. Found some good document cameras for $62 per unit. Point2View is the model, Ipeveo is the manufacturer. Website is [|www.ipeveo.com]. Did pilot the unit in one classroom to test quality compared to the ELMO units. Picture is much better. This unit can also be a webcam. This unit has replaced old ELMO units. It uses USB connectivity. Units purchased through special education stimulus funding. Have found that teachers are excited about the quality of the image these units provide. Have also implemented the Intelli Slate which is a Numonics product, purchased through Kevin Burkett with Tech Ed Skills in Indianapolis area. Contacted 10 school districts to determine potential partners for grant opportunities. No eligible partners available. 2. **//Judy Plunkett, North Adams//**- Have made a lot of cuts, planning to cut another $850,000 out of budget in the next year. Getting rid of online subscriptions in media centers. This will present some challenges to advanced placement courses that need these resources. Lost a few part time technology staff members. Potentially closing one of three elementary schools. 5th graders will be going to middle school, with two elementary buildings remaining open. Lots of moving costs in the transition. Doing more with less. Administrative team asked to research more grant opportunities. Having trouble qualifying for various grants. Grants are not a stable or recurring source of funding. Committee put together to determine what areas should be cut to reach $850,000 cut. Enrollment has dropped. Lost 50 students since the beginning of this school year. Struggling with purchasing bulbs for projectors. Building material budgets aren’t able to provide funding due to cuts. Blending the staff and student acceptable usage policies together for the 2010-2011 school year. 3. **//Adela Dickey, Northwest Allen//**- Specifics of budget cuts have not been decided, although it appears it will cut staff. Potential savings could come with shutting down one elementary. Technology staff salaries are in capital projects funding. Business manager supportive of leaving technology budget and salaries alone at this time. Old media retrieval systems need to be replaced in some buildings. Technology staff has seen one cut. Staff now includes 1 elementary technician, 4 staff members at the central office, 1 middle school technician and 1 high school technician. Potentially may have to cut technology staff hours or even another position. Currently has a 5 year machine rotation in the district. One elementary is slated for complete machine replacement in summer 2010. Hiring of summer technology staff may be scaled back or limited compared to previous years. Survey on district website asking for community feedback on what kind of cuts to make to the budget. Looking for a superintendent, the school board has three candidates. Selection should be happening soon. Currently have an interim superintendent. High school wireless project is very close to completion, still working out some minor issues. Media Cast installed at the high school, working well. Deploying Media Cast to other buildings in district. No connection from Media Cast to existing televisions. Looking for a solution to Media Cast broadcast to both end user computers and classroom televisions. Comcast has asked to install digital television, replacing analog inputs. 4. **//Phil Germann, Region 8 ESC - State has cut budget for educational resource centers by $300,000. Region 8 administrative membership cost to districts is second lowest in the state. Staff cuts may be possible. The service center is not seeing as much revenue due to poor attendance at workshops. Feeling the ripple effect from budget cuts in districts. Newsletter going out through email rather than snail mail. Trying to offer professional development based on specific needs. Possibility of moving service center. Whitley County Consolidated Schools are potentially installing a New Tech program in their existing office space. //** 5. **//Jen Nusbaum, Westview//**- Technology budget comes from capital projects fund. Minor cuts so far. Projector installation projects in all buildings. Tech Systems lab in high school. Similar to Project Lead the Way. Using PITSCO for setup of the lab. Visited Greenwood Middle School and liked the program there. Bids for projectors being let for each building. Vendors include United Digital Integrators and Communications Company of South Bend. Upcoming summer projects include switch upgrades/ (regular maintenance) upgrading to gigabit speeds. Fiber upgrades between data closets. 6. **//Diane Woodworth, Goshen//**- Part of technology staff paid out of capital projects fund, part paid out of general funds. Can we use CPF to pay salaries of all technology staff? Five year rotation on computer replacements. Purchase a lot of technology through common school loans, paid back through debt service. These loans have a ceiling of $500,000. This may be better than leasing equipment. Some teachers beginning to use The Learning Connection. 7. **//Jan Lehman, West Noble - Budget cuts. New superintendent has completed first full year after being an assistant superintendent for a number of years. No assistant superintendent has been hired. Tough transitions in some areas. Superintendent has given presentations on school finance to staff and community. District will be cutting $911,000 from the budget. Supply lines by 20%, travel by 15%. The specifics of the plan have not been released. The superintendent and school board are still in negotations with local education association. Finishing projector installation projects in the middle and high schools. Potential restructuring of two elementary buildings. K-2 in one facility and 3-5 in the other. EFFT grant partner with Wawasee. Addressing math skills, need to have data to inform instruction. Saving the job of a math data coach. Algebra skills are a concentration. Creating a data room in each building for professional development. Funding also installs one wireless access point in each building. Working on a complete wireless installation at the high school. In March a committee will be reviewing all technology policies (AUP) and determining revisions. Technology Revision Month! Will be using The Learning Connection for this project. Plan to change the thinking on wireless technology to allow more student usage. Looking at remolding some of the policies to support what our future looks like, while staying in compliance with CIPA, E-Rate, laws. Wiki will be used to communicate and post changes/feedback. Presenting changes to the school board in April for adoption. //** 8. **//Kay Reinoehl, East Noble - Budget cuts. Made major cuts a year ago, so not as painful this year. Consolidated 3 middle schools, closed 1 elementary last year. Changes have worked out well. Reduction in instructional assistants last year. Will lose two administrators at the end of this school year. Incentive plan offered to teachers close to retirement. The offer pays insurance for four years or until they are 65. Need 13 people, up to 8 confirmed. Looking into energy cost savings. Still have close to $600,000 to cut. Superintendent transition this summer. Lost a technology position in budget cuts. Some teachers are utilizing The Learning Connection. //** 9. **//Kyle Smith, Four County Vocational Cooperative//**- Waiting on member school district superintendents to determine budget cuts for Cooperative. No budget cuts have been made yet. Looks for more district use of the Cooperative as a shared resource as local budgets shrink. Received 1 grant for advanced machining and another grant for Project Lead the Way levels 3 and 4. Area high schools only offering levels 1 and 2. This would be an extension to that curriculum. Implemented a technology committee including administrators, teachers, instructional assistants, students and a few parents this year. Feedback from the group has been extremely positive. Finished with most of the fiber projects. One installation to go.

1. Using CIM, Esco for projector installation projects. 2. Printers- toner and recurring costs piling up. Printers are being pulled from classrooms. Jobs redirected to centralized laser printers or copy machines. 3. Discussion on various buy-out packages offered to teachers close to retirement. Hoping teachers eligible accept packages to save jobs and salaries of other teachers not eligible. 4. Discussion on reviewing ancient technology policies and acceptable usage policies. Most are completing this process through a technology committee. 5. Discussion on the Learning Connection. Gradebook feature not easily hidden. IStart may be integrated with TLC. Evaluation plans and some grant submissions are being completed through TLC as well. 6. Further discussion on slow development of the Learning Connection. Lack of screening credibility of shared lesson plans and other curriculum resources. -kms 3/4/2010
 * __GENERAL DISCUSSION:__**