Members Attending: Randy Heimstra-Alliance, Roy Ingram-Banner County, Jim Calder-Bridgeport, Dale Eberhart-Chadron, Don Wagner & Merrell Nelsen-Crawford, Eldon Hubbard-Gering, Dan Schartz-Hay Springs, Ed Hollinger-Hemingford, Allen Gross-Minatare, Chuck Squier & Glen Mitchell-Rushville, B.J. Peters-WNDLC

AGENDA

Call to Order & Roll Call - Notice of this meeting was on the WNDLC website.

New Connections Update - Plans are still underway to connect Alliance, Bayard, and Lodgepole High Schools this summer. Progress has been made with the phone companies to make this smoother than this past year. Even though Potter-Dix, Leyton, and Chappell are connected, Peters indicated that there continues to be billing problems that are being worked through. He has reached verbal agreement with Qwest to have Sprint install the JPEG equipment at ESU #14 in Sidney. We are waiting for this agreement in writing before Sprint will proceed. This past week, Supt. John Hakonson of Sidney indicated that it was doubtful that his board would approve of installing a distance learning connection at Sidney High School. The Sidney board had voted no in January. Qwest has now said they would prefer even if Sidney wants to connect in 2005 to sign the contract now. Hakonson will visit with his board at their June 17th board meeting.

E-Rate Update - Peters said that all our member schools currently connected have received e-rate discount approval for Year 6 starting July 1. Qwest has indicated that are planning on issuing monthly credits to accounts this next year instead of us filing for reimbursements every six months. We are still awaiting e-rate approval for our 3 newest sites (Alliance, Bayard, Lodgepole).

Spanish Teacher Update Fall 2003 DL Schedule - A new teacher has been located to teach Spanish I & II to Minatare, Banner County, Crawford, & Hay Springs. Our current teacher, Carmen Cobo, has taken a position at Gering High School. Another teacher is being contracted through the NDE teacher exchange program, Natalia Margalejo-Concheiro from A Coruna, Spain. Peters said that ESU #13 is in the process of finding her an apartment and a car. Miss Concheiro will be finishing up her orientation in Lincoln on August 1, there is a need for someone from one of the four schools to go to Lincoln and pick Natalia up and bring her back to Scottsbluff. There was also quite a bit discussion on the fall DL schedule. There is a big need for High School Physics for Crawford & Hemingford. At this time Gering and Scottsbluff are checking to see if they could offer over the system. Any other offers would be appreciated, let BJ know. Crawford also said that they could use some Family and Consumer Science classes..again let BJ know if you can help. Peters said that he was pleased to see that Chadron State has stepped up their course offerings over our system. They are offering 4 courses this summer and another 4 courses this fall.

WNDLC Bell Schedule - Should members be required to adhere to the distance learning bell schedule when sending or receiving classes over the DL system? The intent originally with setting a distance learning bell schedule was to allow easier flow from class to class and from school to school. Peters indicated that most of the original schools had made a lot of effort to come close to the DL bell schedule. This was discussed by the group a year ago but B.J. wanted to re-fresh the topic for the newest members of the consortium. The group consensus was that the topic did not need direct action by the board and would leave the WNDLC bell schedule as something that is suggested for schools to adapt to.

WNDLC Officers 2003-2004

Current: President Jim Calder-Bridgeport, Vice Pres. John Cruzeiro-Sioux County, Members at-large Wayne Ferguson-Morrill & Paul Calvert-Chappell, ESU Rep. Terry Miller-ESU #13

Change in by-law language is needed to accommodate new members in ESU #14. Following is current language: The officers of the Governing Board shall be the president and vice-president. These officers will be elected at the spring meeting of the Governing Board and serve a one-year term. The WNDLC Governing Board will appoint the secretary/treasurer. The President and Vice President will be elected, one from the Southern schools (Phase I) and one from the Northern schools (Phase II) and they are to be rotated annually between each region.

It was moved by Chadron and seconded by Hay Springs to amend the WNDLC by-laws language to add another at-large member to the WNDLC executive board to have one member each from the North, Central, and South regions, as well as President and Vice-President. The motion also called for removing the language that officers rotate annually between regions. The motion carried unanimously.

It was moved by Chadron, seconded by Crawford to re-elect the current WNDLC executive board for the 2003-2004 school year and add Ed Hollinger of Hemingford as the Northern representative. The motion carried unanimously.

Internet Update - Jim Copley updated the group on the plans to aggregate all the Internet traffic in the Panhandle at ESU #13 in Scottsbluff. Currently the schools' Internet traffic is routed to three different places. The aggregation will allow us to more easily manage the web traffic and filtration. Copley said that we have not yet been approved for e-rate discounts for this new circuit and we won't sign a contract with Sprint until those discounts are assured. The bottom-line is that we cannot afford the new circuits without e-rate discounts and the plan will be to maintain the status quo until erate approval comes through. Chances are the cut over to the new system will occur after school starts.

WNDLC Budget 2003-2004 - Peters presented to the group the proposed WNDLC budget for the next year. The total budget represents a 3.7 percent increase from last year. Salary and benefits are increased approximately 5 percent. The per district assessment will go down this coming year because of new members joining the consortium. It was moved by Chadron, seconded by Banner County to approve the budget as presented. The motion was approved unanimously.

From the Group - N/A

Adjourn - Meeting was adjourned at 11:15 a.m.