• Departments
• Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
• General Services/Legislation
• Technology/REMC
• Workforce Development
• Board
• Publications
• Michigan Works! Service Centers
• EAG
• No Worker Left Behind
• Grievance
• Request for Proposals
• Special Education
• Superintendent
• Great Start Collaborative

Education Advisory Group

February 18, 2010

8:30 a.m. — 10:30 a.m.

Calhoun ISD

Meeting Minutes

Members and Alternates Present:  Mike Hoffner, EAG Chair/ISD Representative; Jeff Jennette,

Guests/Presenters:  Lisa Larson, WIA Youth, Calhoun ISD

Welcome and Introductions: Mike introduced new EAG member Michelle Milnes, owner of the

North Woods Coffee Co. in Coldwater. He then welcomed members and asked that introductions

be made.

Minutes:  The December 17, 2009 EAG meeting minutes were approved as printed.

• Lisa Larson gave background information on WIA Youth for new members and presented

the updated WIA figures.

• Additional information in her packet now includes the goal numbers in addition to actual

numbers of students in the program, as per request from our last EAG meeting.

o Middleville is low because it is a more affluent community and the need is not thereso much.

o Jeff: Is it likely some of these youth that are out of school do not have a diploma?Lisa will follow-up to see if she can find out how many follow up to get their GED.

o Branch is still low, but they are growing steadily.

o For Calhoun, all the communities are together for the goal and then split out again for actual numbers. They are over-enrolled.

o Some students are intermingled from Branch and Calhoun because of where they reside.

o Additional information: In addition to types of training, it was asked at our last meeting where the trainings are. Lisa has added the list of training institutions.

Some members found it interesting how many expensive colleges are listed and that some were outside of the state or unknown to the group. Lisa will check into this to get more information.

• Tony gave information on the Trish Hatch Conference sponsored by Calhoun ISD January

19 & 20 at CACC. Dr. Hatch is a nationally known authority on counseling and a noted

author and presenter. Her book is titled “Evidence-Based School Counseling” and her

presentation focused on counseling programs and how they can be aligned with ASCA

standards.

• The conference was a huge success, attracting 64 participants from around the state,

including 31 from our Barry, Branch and Calhoun region. Tony is still fielding phone calls

from Lansing, Flint and other areas that now want to follow-up and work with Trish, as they

plan to re-structure their counseling departments.

o It was mentioned by Mike Hoffner (who attended) and Tony that it was a shame that more district administrators were not present from our region to see the counseling connection. There were administrators present from outside our area. It is important for administrators to hear and understand how their districts and students can be affected through the changes in these counseling strategies.

It was asked if members could get a list of the participants that attended.  Brita will e-mail the list with the minutes.

o Kris mentioned that Tony will be working on some follow-up. We don’t want to just bring a big speaker in; we are working on sustaining this work. You can get an idea of what this entails by accessing the module Kris and Tony presented at the last Data4SS workshop. A portion of their presentation is based on some of Dr. Hatch’s work. You can find it on the CISD web site under Data4SS.

Areas of Program Development - Kris:

• The Aviation Program is almost ready to start in the fall of 2010 at CACC. They have

posted and interviewed twice for aviation instructors, but will probably post a third time.

They have had great people apply, but the teaching link has not been there in the people

interviewed so far. They will not rush into hiring until the perfect instructors have been

found.

• CACC did hold 10th grade visits and WMU sent over an aviation student representative and

Duncan Aviation sent upper management representatives to talk to the 10th graders and

gave them great handouts. There seems to be a lot of student interest. There will be 25

slots open for students per session and there will be two sessions, for a total of 50.

• Project Lead the Way: They are still working on this program and CACC still has the space

available. Kris will give more information later as things take shape.

• Early Childhood: The state is looking at a lot of programs and are deciding that they are not

deemed high skill, high wage, high demand, which will affect their funding as CTE

programs. The state and CTE directors are not seeing eye-to-eye on these programs. Kris

feels the state is trying to move to all STEM classes as they see them as high skill, high

wage, and high demand. They are not taking into consideration that it may depend on the

region as to what is defined as a high skill, high demand and high wage job – location

matters (The Cosmetology program may also be affected). The state is taking standards

and trying to merge those standards from 2 programs (Early Childhood and Education

Academy) into one. This becomes a problem with the CIP codes. Also some CTE directors

have many students signing up and requesting these programs. In Branch, they have 65

kids enrolled in the Early Childhood program, though CACC’s program is not as full. Right

now the state is still funding these programs, but they can pull that funding at any time.

This poses a problem as CACC has new renovations planned with a large amount of

money invested in the Early Childhood area. If they renovate and keep the program and

the state pulls funding then other financial avenues must be found, or – should they merge

the Early Childhood into the Education Academy?

o Some EAG members then asked if we have any lobbyists that could help?

Kris and Mike responded that we have 53 CEPD directors – they are our voice, but the state is not listening. Mike mentioned that we may need to have this group (the EAG) make a recommendation to take to the state so our voice is heard.

Superintendents need to have the conversation as to what programs should be kept at the centers.

Dennis: not everyone has the capacity to become an engineer or scientist and the state needs to recognize that the needs for programs such as Early Childhood need to be available for students interested in the Early Childhood/Cosmetology areas.

o Kris asked the committee for some action items to pursue:

Al: talk to lobbyists.

Dennis: Continue to fund the programs at CACC & BACC even if you have to use other funding (from millage).

Kris: Will WDB support this? The committee felt they would, so Kris and Mike will take this to their next meeting.

CISD has a huge Early Childhood movement; it would not be good if CACC’s program were pulled.

Can you get support from the tribe? Money has been paid from the casino to the city and townships.

Talking added cost dollars.

Mike reiterated that the Workforce Development Board might be a good voice to support us at the state level. 

National Career Readiness Certificate:

• Branch Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting a luncheon at BACC February 23 from

12:15 to 1:45 pm to give a presentation on the National Career Readiness Certificate to key

area employers. The National Career Readiness Certificate It is part of MI Merit Exam that

students have to take. They are trying to get employers to use this certificate in their

screening and hiring process. Currently, some employers in Fort Wayne, Indiana and the

Indiana Chamber of Commerce are utilizing the Career Readiness Certificate and are

having success in hiring the right workers. Some of these employers will be coming to the

luncheon to present.

• Mike: Though only key employers in Branch have been sent the invitation, anyone on the

committee who knows someone that should come can get in touch with Mike, LeeAnne

Nagle (517-279-5723) or Leigh Hicks (517-279-5724).

• Leigh: They have 57 confirmed responses to the invitation and are getting a nice blend of

employers, but would like more from the industrial sector.

• Mike: Lansing is looking at us to see how we do with this project. We are the only ones

that will have done this.

• Jeff mentioned they should contact Bradford White.

CACC Renovation Project Update:

• CACC has gone though the bidding process for the upcoming renovations. Bids came in

lower than expected and in all instances except one, they went with the low bidders. There

are some politics involved as they don’t have a local preference policy. They are expecting

some backlash from locals and it is a possibility that local companies/unions may picket. Al

mentioned that even if they use non-local companies, those companies will have to hire

some locals. Kris said they are all Michigan companies.

• They are starting to move people out of their rooms at CACC.

• April 2 is the start date for renovations to begin.

Updates:

• Mike spoke on the new Algebra II requirement legislation that will have an effect on CTE

programs. The legislation states that students can get Algebra II credit in state approved

CTE courses that have the required embedded curriculum.

o Students would have to take 1 Semester of Alg. II.

o Parents will have opportunity to waive Algebra II.

o Waive the Algebra II requirement standard in CTE programs?

o The Michigan Dept. of Education interprets the rules differently.

o Bill: It should depend on the career path of the student to see if it is applicable to

what they need and not force them into something they don’t need. Maybe if they don’t pass to get an Alg. II credit, they can at least get a math credit.

o Mike: This will probably be coming up at the next Workforce Development Board meeting; they wanted to get the information out to EAG members so they will be aware of what is going on and will support our region in what is appropriate for our students.

o Legislators have heard from educators but not from the WDB, so we will need their support.

• Branch will be doing summer classes and will be using Plato for all of the courses.

o It was asked if CACC will do the same thing. Kris responded that CACC has tried to offer it for 3 years, but since the local districts offer it, they can’t get enough kids to sign up. It becomes a transportation issue. CACC has 15 site licenses for NovaNet and have offered them to districts for a transfer license fee ($500), but districts seem to be doing fine on their own.

• The Michigan Career Education Conference took place January 31 – February 2, 2010 in

Grand Rapids. Mike mentioned that our region was probably the largest contingent to have

session presentations at the conference. We had a total of about 43 participants with some

doing sessions. Eighteen participants from Barry, Branch and Calhoun were paid for

through Tech Prep funding and the rest of the BACC and CACC participants were funded

through their Perkins grants.

Tech Prep and Perkins Summaries - Kris:

These plans are being submitted to the state. The funding amounts remain tentative until

approved. For detailed reports, please see the plans in your packets.

• Tech Prep: Kris presented the Tech Prep plan summary for 2010-2011. There are no major

changes and will remain very similar to last year.

o Tony will be attending a joint Articulation meeting at KCC March 5.

o Tony is taking the lead to get all districts on the same page with EDPs and smooth transitions between grade levels.

• Perkins: Kris also presented the Perkins plan and again reviewed the funding formula for

new members. This plan should see a slight funding increase.

• Discussion took place on the retirement bill that may go through the legislature, though it is

not going through very fast at this time. More information will follow.

NEXT MEETING: Thursday, April 15, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30a.m. at CISD