1. Call to Order (Roll Call) - Meeting was called to order by B.J. Peters at 11:30 a.m. Peters noted that the agenda had been posted on the WNDLC website since April 30, 2002. Members present: Wayne Ferguson-Morrill, Jim Copley-ESU #14, Roy Ingram-Banner County, Allen Gross-Minatare, Lew Gellett-Garden County, Jeff West-Chappell, Bill Pile-Leyton/Potter-Dix, Jerry Williams-Kimball, John Cruzeiro-Sioux County, Gary Fisher-Crawford, Dale Eberhart-Chadron, Chuck Squier-Rushville, Glen Mitchell-Rushville, Steve Osborn-Hemingford. Members absent: Bridgeport, Gering, Gordon, Hay Springs, Mitchell, Scottsbluff, ESU #13.

2. Summer Construction Update - (Chappell, Potter-Dix, Leyton, ESU #14) Peters said that statements for the $2,500 WNDLC membership fee will be sent out to the four new sites during the month of July to allow the schools the flexibility of choosing what fiscal year to take the funds out of. Sprint has informed Peters that they would be starting fiber placement at Chappell and Potter during the month of May. Qwest has made a site visit to ESU #14 in Sidney. Peters has been in conversation with the phone people in Dalton and should have a site visit arranged soon.

3. Distance Learning Training - August 12 & 13 (8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day) Peters indicated that he usually holds his DL training sessions in June but is holding off this summer in hopes of the new schools being connected in time to limit travel for their teachers. The training is planned for August 12 & 13 (Monday & Tuesday) and Peters said he plans to have one location in the North, one in the Central Panhandle and a couple in the South. The class has qualified in the past for one-hour of graduate credit from Chadron State. Grant funds are available to pay participants a $100 stipend (up to 30 participants). A flier will be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

4. Adult Education Report - Peters said that the number of successful adult education classes from WNCC has increased tremendously this semester. He attributes a lot of that success to the fact that community coordinators are now in place in most all of the towns involved.

5. Field Trip Policies - Peters noted that the Principal's Council had recently approved an updated Distance Learning Field Trip Policy as requested by the Governing Board. The new policy strengthens the lines of communication between the distance learning instructors and the schools they are teaching to. DL teachers are now requested to include any field trips in their course syllabus and to visit with the building principals about their course activities before school starts in the fall. Also the new policy makes it clear that students that are not able to attend a field trip will not be penalized. They will be given the opportunity to do extra work to make up for missing the activity.

6. E-Rate Update - Peters indicated that the first wave of funding commitments for Year 5 which starts July 1 included a number of our consortium members. Jim Copley outlined the process schools need to follow when they need to follow when they receive their regular application decisions. The main course of action is to file a Form 486 which notifies Schools and Libraries that you still want your discounts. B.J. will take care of filing the 486 on the distance learning applications. Copley also reminded the group that to qualify for Year 5 discounts that they needed to be in compliance with the Child Internet Protection Act. All the schools are currently filtering their Internet traffic but they also need to hold a public hearing (probably at a school board meeting) and pass an Acceptable Internet Use Policy. This needs to be done before July 1. Most schools indicated that this had been completed.

7. WNDLC 2002-2003 Budget - Peters presented the group with a proposed budget for the 2002-2003 school year. He indicated that he calculated a 6% increase in salary and benefits but had left all the other budget categories at the same level since he was well below budget in all categories at the present time. Gary Fisher of Crawford noted that since the consortium was now going to include the entire Panhandle that it would be wise to increase the travel budget from $2500 to $4000. The group agreed. That put the total budget at $73,200, which would mean an annual assessment of all consortium members of close to $3500. It was moved by Ferguson of Morrill and seconded by Fisher of Crawford to approve the proposed budget. Members voting yes: Banner County, Chadron, Chappell, Crawford, Garden County, Hemingford, Kimball, Leyton, Minatare, Morrill, Potter-Dix, Rushville, Sioux County, ESU #14. Members voting no: none. Motion passed. Peters also noted that the equipment maintenance fund is at $9,100. The dollars in this fund came from membership fees from the four new school districts that joined last year. This fund will gain another $10,000 this year with the membership of Chappell, Leyton, Potter-Dix, and ESU #14.

8. 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. Peters didn't think that it was imperative that the schedule was matched exactly but if a school wants to be a player in the consortium in sending and receiving courses, it is a lot easier to schedule when the bell schedules are similar. Most of the discussion focused on the fact that the DL bell schedule should be more a suggested route instead of a requirement. Chadron indicated that more and more schools are moving to a block schedule which would make it impossible to adhere to the DL schedule but that if a school really wanted a class they would have to be flexible in adjusting their schedule to make it fit. The group consensus was that action was not taken and would leave the WNDLC bell schedule as something that is suggested for schools to adapt to.

9. WNDLC Compensation Policy - Chappell said that they hired a foreign language instructor that would have approximately 8 to 12 students in a class. Chappell could put her on the distance learning system but doesn't feel like it is fair to ask that teacher to double her workload without increasing her compensation. They feel that every DL teacher should get extra money beyond their regular salary. Both Chappell and Morrill said that without extra compensation there will be little incentive for faculty to offer courses over the DL system. Morrill believes that this will soon be a negotiation item. Morrill believes that there is a need for a per pupil tuition rate. Chadron said that because of the differences in pay scales and contract days that there is a need to come up with a standard per pupil rate across the consortium. Rushville indicated that no one should expect to receive a class without some type of compensation. Crawford indicated that they offer Anatomy and Physiology and don't expect any money back. They believe that the system was set up for everyone to share in classes where it evens itself out. Sioux County noted that teachers do have a choice of whether to teach on the system or not.

(Due to the fact that the DL system turned off before discussion ended, this Governing Board meeting will be continued at a meeting on June 3rd.)

Members attending June 3rd meeting: Gary Fisher & J.D. Simmons-Crawford; Ed Hollinger-Hemingford; Jeff West-Chappell; Wayne Ferguson-Morrill; Allen Gross-Minatare; Kent Halley-Mitchell; Dale Eberhart-Chadron; Jim Copley-ESU#14; B.J. Peters-WNDLC; Roy Ingram-Banner County; John Cruzeiro-Sioux County; Jim Calder-Bridgeport; Terry Miller-ESU#13

Discussion continued on the Distance Learning Compensation issue. B.J. Peters shared with the group comments from other superintendents that were unable to attend the meeting. He also had comments from a couple of the state's Distance Learning Coordinators on how compensating distance learning teachers is being handled in other consortiums. They said they are hesitant to move towards any per-pupil basis because of some of the court cases that have been tried recently about special compensation to just one teacher. There are very few consortium wide agreements since most feel these arrangements are the business of the districts that choose to do it.

Jeff West of Chappell said that he feels that some kind of extra-duty pay to teach by distance learning is going to addressed in his district's negotiations. He is in favor of this but wants to know if the consortium will prevent him from charging schools receiving any DL class from Chappell to help share in the stipend cost. Dale Eberhart agreed that DL compensation will soon be negotiating item at many schools and is something that should be addressed and that there should be some consortium guidelines but not force schools to agree to a certain amount. Wayne Ferguson of Morrill agreed that some sort of stipend for DL teachers should be created.

Ed Hollinger of Hemingford and Gary Fisher of Crawford said that this was not the intent when the Western DL consortium was created four years ago. The intent was that we all would be sharing our best teachers without any charges. Hollinger said that everyone should be offering and receiving classes. He said that the sharing arrangement has been working well for Hemingford and that he will not pay to take a general consortium distance learning offering. He will try to keep it off of the negotiating table.

Wayne Ferguson of Morrill and Dale Eberhart of Chadron said that in the long run incentives will be needed to get teachers to offer classes over the distance learning system. John Cruzeiro of Sioux County said that it may become part of a negotiated agreement but receiving schools shouldn't be forced to help pay for it.

Jeff West of Chappell said it should be an individual district decision. He doesn't want the DL consortium to stop him of being able to pay a stipend to a teacher willing to teach a distance learning class and be able to recover some of that cost from the receiving schools.

Dale Eberhart of Chadron said that we may need to define what a coop-type distance learning class versus a general consortium-type elective distance learning class. He said that if a school needs a certain class (i.e.-foreign language) to meet Rule 10 guidelines, then they should be required to help pay for part of the salary or extra-duty pay.

There was a definite split between members of the group on the general principle of charging for classes. The group said that no action was needed at this time and that right now it will be an individual district decision.

10. Elect WNDLC Executive Board - It was moved by Dale Eberhart of Chadron, seconded by Jim Calder of Bridgeport to re-elect the current WNDLC Executive Board for the 2002-2003 school year and add Bill Pile of Leyton/Potter-Dix as a South Panhandle Representative.

President - Gary Fisher

Vice-President - Jim Calder

North Representative - John Cruzeiro

Central Representative - Wayne Ferguson

ESU Representative - Terry Miller

11. From the Group - N/A

12. Adjournment - Meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m.