March 29, 2006 ACE Board Meeting
9:00 A. M. @ Billings Hotel and Convention Center
- President Bob Barnes called the meeting to order at 9:05 A.M. ACE board members present were Andy Begger, Tim Dolphay, Les Cabot, Dave Huether, Al Cabot, and Bob Barnes. Guest present were Anna Arthur, Fritzie Walker, Woody Jensen and Josh Middleton. ACE director Jerry School was also present.
- Andy Begger moved to approve the February 22, 2006 minutes. Dave Huether seconded the motion which carried 6 – 0.
- Jerry presented the finance report as of this date. Tim Dolphay moved to accepted the report and Al Sipes seconded the motion, which carried 6 – 0.
- Woody Jensen from the Billings Schools was present to visit with the board about NovaNET. He reported that it was costing Billings about $2,600 per ANB for distance learning for their students. Woody felt that distance learning would involve around 1,000 families in Billings including possible home school students. He looked at various programs, including Waterford, a K – 3 program introducing reading and math and at Plato, a skills tutor with SAT / GED components with good science and math as well as a 4 – 8 program called Success Maker. Woody felt that the prices were high for these programs as well as the MTSBA/MREA programswhich required someone to supervise and administrate. Woody felt MCEL coursed offered would not sustain membership plus cost about $250 per course peer student. He also looked at WWIDEA that was started in Alaska by Carl Knudson. After presenting various options to a number of Billings groups, in January the Billings system bought 110 portals from NovaNET (about 45 for adult education and the rest for the district) at about $1,400 per portal. Portals can be used 24 hours per day and are based on mastery learning modules. There is a large number of course offerings ranging from remedial to advanced. Teachers can have the ability to modify the coursed to fit their needs or the needs of a student. The program was easy to administrate and NovaNET provided good training and service. During the discussion Woody felt that 65 portals could take care of all the ACE member schools if they wished. There would also be a possibility of joining Billings to use NovaNET. He said various money sources were used to buy the service including at risk money and adult education money. Woody said there was no limits on the number of mills a district could run for adult education and we could visit with Tom Harper, the Billings business manger if we wished. He would also give us names of teachers who are using the system if we wish. Al Sipes visited about his contacts with NovaNET and said he wanted Columbus to start with 5 to 10 portals in June. He was not concerned if other ACE members did not want to start this early and was willing to let Columbus be the test site for ACE. Josh Middleton reported on what Laurel was presently doing and said they might be interested in NovaNET as well. No board action was taken at this time.
- Anna Arthur from Bytespeed visited with the group about their computer purchasing and service programs. Andy Begger has used Bytespeed and said the equipment was reasonably priced, the service was good, and the company backed its product. Anna said their products have a 5 year parts and labor warranty and the company guarantees to be there when needed. She said 2 – 4 rings on their toll free number and you will be speaking to someone that speaks English and is prepared to help immediately. The company builds its own equipment in Fargo, North Dakota. After a number of North Dakota comments, Anna passed out information folders as well as a number of company product samples. No board action was taken at this time.
- Jerry passed out the final report on the March 6 PIR day. The total cost of the training was $12,032.73. He said part of the problem with costs was that schools did not bring as many participants as they had registered. He had committed for 525 breakfast and lunches and 366 participants signed in. Only one sign in sheet was used and it was not passed out until the afternoon session. Evaluations and comments were rated 87 to 90% in the 4 and 5 range with 5 being the highest rating one could give. Jerry e-mailed all of the ACE member schools a copy of the attendance and the evaluation summaries. He also read a thank you letter from the presenter, Jerry Mills, stating that it was his commitment to share his message with audiences everywhere. The board felt it was a good PIR day and thanked Laurel for hosting it.
- Jerry reported on the final plans for the ACSD conference in Chicago April 1 – 3, 2006. Thirteen people will be attending.
- Tom Thayer sent ACE materials from his new publication. Tom did a Montana History book a few years back and now has new material to supplement history, social studies and other subject areas.
- The next steering committee meeting will be on April 20 at 12:30 at DJ’s in Laurel. Jerry will remind schools to send representatives. Jerry also reported that ACE purchased the Crow and Cheyenne CD’s from the Western Heritage Center and Elysian School has them checked out at this time.
- Fritzie Walker said the new science standards are now on line and appeared to be a shift to problem solving. She reminded those present to look at the proposed standards and comment to OPI on them.
- The next ACE board meeting will be at the TEST Technology Grant showcase at 9:00 in the Wood Room at the Sheraton Inn on April 26th. Bob adjourned the meeting at 10:50 AM.