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Western Nebraska Distance Learning Consortium

Governing Board Meeting

Monday, June 11, 2007

10 a.m.

Members Present: Banner County, Bayard (by proxy), Bridgeport, Chadron, Crawford, Garden County, Gordon/Rushville, Hay Springs (by proxy), Minatare, Morrill (by proxy), Potter-Dix, ESU #13

Members Absent: Alliance, Creek Valley, Gering, Hemingford, Kimball, Leyton, Mitchell, Scottsbluff, Sioux County

AGENDA/MINUTES:

1. WNDLC Fall 2007 Schedule - BJ presented the Fall 2007 DL schedule and indicated that usage continues to increase. He noted that 13 out of our 20 high schools are using their DL rooms at least 4 periods a day next year.

2. WNDLC Budget – BJ presented the WNDLC 07-08 budget for approval. It has a 4% increase from last year. The budget now covers coordination of the new ESU #13 online learning initiative but does not add any costs just expanded job responsibilities for BJ. The budget total is $127,204 and represents a coordination annual assessment of $4032 per district with a $1500 equipment upgrade assessment per classroom and a $100 maintenance assessment per classroom. BJ indicated that the reserve fund should reach close to $200,000 by next summer in time for the scheduled IP upgrade of the WNDLC system. It was moved by Crawford and seconded by Gordon/Rushville to approve the WNDLC 2007-2008 budget as presented. Roll call vote: Banner County-yes, Bayard-yes, Bridgeport-yes, Chadron-yes, Crawford-yes, Garden County-yes, Gordon/Rushville-yes, Hay Springs-yes, Minatare-yes, Morrill-yes, Potter-Dix-yes, ESU #13-yes. Motion passed 12-0.

3. WNDLC Interlocal Agreement – BJ said that he has received approved WNDLC interlocal agreements back from 12 districts. Still missing are Alliance, Gering, Gordon/Rushville, Hay Springs, Hemingford, Leyton, Scottsbluff, Sidney, and Sioux County. When approved one signed copy needs to be sent back to ESU #13.

4. Online Course Update – WNDLC is conducting a pilot project this summer with two Colorado Online courses being taught by the two VALTS teachers (American Government & Algebra). Most of the students are attending the summer session at VALTS with two students taking the government class from Garden County. Paula Sissel said that her Garden County students are completely engaged and although it has only been one week, it seems to be going very well. This fall WNDLC schools will be able to sign up students for any classes offered by Colorado Online. Those courses will be taught by COL instructors so each districts will have to have an Instructor of Record at their local site to sign off on the transcripts. The cost will be $350 per student per course per semester plus textbooks.

Craig Hicks also informed the group of a couple of other online learning opportunities that have recently come to light. Class.com, a Nebraska-based online learning company, announced that it intends to provide free Internet-based high school courseware to educators throughout Nebraska through the Nebraska Class.com Learning Community, a non-profit volunteer organization. Through NCLC, Class.com will provide 55 high school online courses to educators in brick and mortar public schools, private schools, parochial schools or educational service units in Nebraska. It may be used for any student enrolled in the school or for outreach to home schooling families at the discretion of the school. The free courseware will be available for use only by Nebraska certificated secondary teachers who have been trained and certified to use Class.com courseware. NCLC is Class.com's project to give back to Nebraska educators. Class.com indicated that they will be releasing an RFP sometime in the next couple of weeks asking for schools or ESU's to apply to participate. Respondents must have access to a Moodle server, which ESU #13 currently has one up and running. We don't know how long this "free" offer will last, probably a couple of years and then some kind of price structure would then be employed. ESU #13 does intend to apply to be one of the pilot project participants. Class.com did a demonstration of their course products last week for ESU #13 and their courses do look impressive and would save our consortium a lot of time in course development. We are still not sure of the time frame of when any decisions would be made. It probably would be January at the earliest before teachers could be identified and trained.

Craig said the other development is through the National Repository of Online Courses. This organization is currently being utilized by Omaha Public Schools. OPS signed an agreement last summer with NROC and is using their online courses to help develop the OPS credit recovery program. OPS has had to modify the NROC offerings to make them match up with local and state standards. The State of Nebraska is looking into a statewide agreement that would allow any district or consortium access to the NROC course offerings. OPS has agreed to run a pilot project this coming school year to see how this operation would work. ESU #13 has already been working with OPS and is hopeful we could be a part of this pilot project. Hicks said the Class.com offerings are more core oriented while NROC offerings have a lot more advanced placement type courses, while Colorado Online has a little of both plus niche classes like Chinese so ESU #13 would like to continue efforts with all parties to provide our schools and students with a broad range of curriculum offerings. Hicks said much more work needs to be done this fall on how to recruit teachers, come up with a teacher compensation plan, establish a fee structure, and work on policies.

5. WNDLC Site Coordinator Training – Craig Hicks said that 9 school districts sent representatives to the training in May. He made it clear that if any school intends to enroll students in any Colorado Online course this fall, they must have someone trained by this fall. Craig said he is more than happy to come out to schools to do the training or maybe set something up in early August via DL. The fall registration for Colorado Online will start in early August with classes starting August 27th. Please contact Craig at the ESU to get training arranged.

6. WNDLC Online Rule 10 questions – Craig Hicks and BJ Peters clarified one of the points that is in Rule 10 in regards to local course approval. Below is the exact Rule 10 language...

Up to 30 of the allowable 200 distance learning multi-site instructional units may be met through courses delivered by other methods of distance technology provided that each course is reviewed in advance and recommended for school use by a committee of at least one local teacher and one local school administrator and is approved by the local governing body, and the written review and statement of approval are on file in the school system; and provided (a) each course is shown on the high school class schedule; (b) at least one high school student is enrolled and participating in each course; (c) each course is made available to all students at the school’s expense; (d) a teacher holding a valid Nebraska Teaching Certificate is present during the assigned period (one teacher may supervise more than one course) to monitor and assist with instruction; and (e) each student enrolled in such a course is assigned to a local teacher holding a Nebraska Teaching Certificate who monitors student progress and general appropriateness of the course.

Craig and BJ hope to solve the course approval piece by using a consortium committee of local teachers and administrators this fall to review course content once we know what courses are being used. Colorado Online has already started on aligning their courses to Nebraska standards which should make the process a little easier.

7. WNDLC Online Policies – Jim Copley shared some information he had found from the state of Minnesota. They have recently passed an online learning bill and developed possible local policies based on the legislation. BJ suggested a subcommittee be formed this fall to start developing online policies for WNDLC using the Minnesota document as guidance. It was also suggested that BJ and Jim gather policies from other online organizations to help in furthering the process.

8. WNDLC 2008 Upgrade – Budgeting suggestions – Jim Copley and BJ Peters told the group that the upgrade that is facing ESU #13 member schools the summer of 2008 to convert our DL system to IP video is going to be one of the biggest network changes our system has ever seen and we need to start planning now in order to be ready. A big piece is in the funding of the needed changes. LB1208 which was passed last year by the Nebraska legislature has authorized payment of $20,000 to each district to help pay these changes, but it is a reimbursement payment meaning that school districts will have to expend the funds first before they can apply for reimbursement. Both BJ and Jim suggest that school districts budget for $30,000 worth of distance learning and technology upgrades in this upcoming school year (07-08) because some of the bills might be coming in early ahead of the summer 2008 timeframe. As mentioned earlier, BJ said that the WNDLC reserve fund should be sufficient to cover most of the changes above the state reimbursement amount, but may not be readily available to get bills paid in a timely fashion. Jim has also suggested to the state to look at including the cost of a new router for the network upgrade to be included in the monthly network charges so it can be erate eligible. The state will be going out for bids on the network system later this fall.

9. Erate & Technology Plan considerations – Jim Copley and BJ Peters said that this upcoming upgrade will also affect how we file for erate discounts and how each school district writes its technology plan. As is always the case, every service you ask for erate discounts on must be included in your technology plan. With the upgrade next year to IP video, we now will be accessing statewide resources. Jim said that he and BJ will send out sample language that schools can insert into their plan to help comply with the new network system. Jim said that even though a notice was sent out in the past couple of weeks saying schools could recertify their tech plans for the 07-08 school year, it is perfectly fine to wait until this fall to get it done. BJ also noted that funding letters are a lot slower coming out this year on erate but don't be alarmed, they should get to everyone.

10. Meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m.