August 31 , 2005 ACE Board Meeting
9:00 A. M. @ Billings Hotel and Convention Center

1. President Bob Barnes called the meeting to order at 9:05 A.M. Board members present were: Bob Barnes, Andy Begger, Al Sipes, Mark Brajcich, David Huether, Tim Dolphay, Les Cabot, and director Jerry Scott. There were no guests present.

2. Dave Huether moved to approve the June 3, 2005 minutes. Andy Begger seconded the motion, which passed 7-0.

3. The finance report was presented to the board. Tim Dolphay moved to accept the report with Al Sipes making the second. The motion passed 7 – 0. Les Cabot expressed some concerns with the balance and felt ACE should continue to utilize its money to pay for training bringing in high profile people as well as look at the amount of dues ACE charges. Jerry suggested ACE consider sending some of its members to national training. He will bring some suggestions to the September board meeting. Mark Brajcich stated he did not have any concerns with the balance. Jerry said the dues have remained the same for the past 4 years.

4. A list of the schools paying their 2005 – 2006 dues was presented. The three schools who have not yet paid will be sent another notice.

5. Jerry reported that on August 23 Gail Richardson did a CRT training at Absaorkee. David Huether said the training was very good as well received by his staff. David will schedule Jerry to do the iAnalyze portion of the training at a later date. Andy Begger said Gail did a vocabulary training at his school which tied into the CRT. He asked about fees for the training and Jerry said he and Gail were contracted by OPI to continue with CRT training for area schools this year. Jerry will continue to track the money as he did for last years contract.

6. Jerry, Bob and Tim reported on the Technology grant (PSATT) / Intel master teacher class / training opportunities. Sixteen teachers and administrators (including Tim and Jerry) took the 40-hour Intel course at Shepherd on August 1 – 5. Both Tim and Jerry said it was one of the best technology training they have ever received. The resource book they received is excellent. ACE qualifying schools received a laptop computer and case, a classroom performance system, a projector, and a smartboard. All ACE schools were invited to send one teacher to the training. Tim added that there was a drawing for a second smartboard and Jerry’s name was picked. Because Jerry would already receive a smartboard for Boyd school, he asked that they draw again and Tim’s name was selected. The master trainer group is now required to train 10 more teachers during this school year. The group reported that some classes have already started in their schools. Al said Columbus is requiring all of its staff members to take the training, which has already started. Jerry said he would send ACE members information about the Intel training possibilities.

7. Jerry reported that the September 12 ACE PIR day with Barbara Coloroso is set to go. He asked the board for direction on coffee and rolls and lunch for that day stating that Luther Elementary had approached him about doing the coffee and rolls for $3 to $4 per person. After discussion the board approved Luther doing the coffee and rolls at $2.50 per person. Jerry said he would have to make sure that MSU-B would allow Luther to do this. The board also said lunch could be on their own. Jerry will change the schedule to allow one and a half hours for the lunch break. The board went over a proposed final notice to ACE members. Jerry will make corrections and send out the notice at the end of the week. There are now about 400 people signed up to come to the workshop. Petro theater can hold 500 so Jerry will open up the workshop to non-ACE schools on a limited bases at $50 per person. Dave Piel, Shepherd’s transportation director, will coordinate the bus driver training on that day. Dave has already sent a letter to all ACE members with the time and schedule for the training. Coffee and rolls and lunch will be provided for those taking the bus training. Jerry informed Dave that ACE would pay for any expenses for the training. Some board members asked if it would be possible to set up a training session for the cooks and kitchen help during the March 6, 2006 PIR day. It was also the consensus of the board to have one or two national speakers present at the March 6 PIR day, one for elementary and one for secondary. The board asked Jerry to bring in speaker suggestions from the steering committee for the September board meeting.

8. Jerry reported that 64 people signed in for the ACE technology courses held in Red Lodge on June 22 – 24. Many of these repeated morning and afternoon classes and were the same names for multiple days. 15 took the integrating technology into your classroom with no money or time course on the morning of the 22nd. 16 took the afternoon class of Internet searching. 9 took the Microsoft PowerPoint class the morning of the 23rd and 10 took the viruses and spyware class that afternoon. 7 took the digital camera class the morning of the 24th and 7 took the afternoon class of digital movies. ACE paid out $1,564.24 in expenses and fees for the three day workshop and took in a little over $200 in registration fees at $10 per participant.

9. A list of the training offered and the expenses occurred during the October 21 and 22, 2004 MEA days was presented to the board. The board felt ACE should go forward with offering its members alternative training opportunities during the October 20 and 21st MEA days. Jerry will contact member schools requesting training that their staff would like to offer. He will then set up a schedule and send out registration for those offerings.

10. The 2005 – 2006 curriculum review schedule includes K – 12 Math this fall, K – 12 Science this winter and K – 12 Social Studies this spring. Specific dates, times and locations will be sent to ACE members requesting help with the review. Gail Richardson will coordinate the review and revise the curriculum books as needed.

11. Jerry reported that there were 16 members from 6 schools who took the new member training on August 11th. Gail Richardson and David Culbertson helped present the training. The next new member training will be on September 29.

12. Jerry reported that the august 8th superintendent and principal workshop held at DJ’s in Laurel was well attended and received. Dr. George White from MSU-B reviewed NCLB, highly qualified and para-professional requirements and responded to questions from the group. Tami Elser did training on the CRT requiring all those present to take a part of the exam, doing a PowerPoint presentation, introducing iAnalyze and responding to the groups questions. Bob Barnes stated that he felt this was one of the best administrator’s workshops that ACE has done.

13. Jerry said that he and Gail did Laurel’s new member ACE training on August 29th Laurel wanted the workshop to cover ACE history, materials, training, and curriculum review. They did not want to cover the Guidebook for Developing Performance Assessments booklet. Jerry did deliver that booklet to the superintendent’s office this summer. After the lunch break, Laurel required all teachers to use the ACE curriculum from their web site to cut and paste into a shell that was e mailed to them. The shell included the objective from the curriculum guide, the competency, date taught, date assessed and the assessment tool used. The Laurel principals will collect these quarterly. During the afternoon Jerry and Gail visited classroom to help with this project. A copy of the shell was attached to the board packet.
    
    There was some discussion from the board on allowing Laurel to put the ACE material on its web site. The board concluded that the site would not be used by the general public that much. The board felt that putting the ACE material on the site would prove to be very useful for Laurel. Tim and Jerry said they used Laurel’s site for some of their Intel training projects.

14. Bob Barnes asked for input on the Vo-AG curriculum. There was some discussion as to how the board member’s handled their Vo-Ag curriculum. The topic might be brought up again at the next board meeting.

15. Next meeting was set for September 28, at 9:00 AM at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. The meeting was adjourned at 10:30.