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Education Advisory GroupFebruary 18, 20108:30 a.m. — 10:30 a.m.Calhoun ISD
Meeting Minutes
Members and Alternates Present: Mike Hoffner, EAG Chair/ISD Representative; Jeff Jennette, Barry ISD Local District Representative; LeeAnne Nagel, Branch Area Career Center/Academic Representative; Bill Milnes, Coldwater/Branch Local District Alternate Representative; Fred Clarke, Albion/Calhoun ISD Local District Representative; Kris Jenkins, Calhoun ISD; Al Miller, Calhoun Education Representative; Dennis Bona, KCC/Post Secondary Representative; Anita Henderson, WDB Member; Michelle Milnes, Non-WDB Employer; Dan Luciani, Calhoun Parent Advisor Guests/Presenters: Lisa Larson, WIA Youth, Calhoun ISD
The meeting was called to order by EAG Chair Mike Hoffner
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.
Workforce Development Board Information:
• 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.
Trish Hatch : • 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.
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?
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.
• Branch will be doing summer classes and will be using Plato for all of the courses.
• 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.
• 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
Minutes were compiled by Brita Blue |