November 29, 2006
9:00 A. M. @ Billings Hotel and Convention Center

Present were board members Al Sipes, Andy Begger, Tim Dolphay, Dave Huether, Les Cabot, Bob Barnes, director Jerry Scott and assistant Gail Richardson.

Guests present were Deani Kirkness, Fritzie Walker, Josh Middleton, Jennifer Hickok, Brenda Koch, Jim Staab, Chad Sealey, Bill Schlepp, and Joe Ingalis.

1. Al Sipes called the meeting to order at 9:10 A.M. All those present introduced themselves.
   


2. Andy Begger moved to approve the October 25, 2006 minutes. Dave Huether seconded the motion which passed 5- 0


3. Jerry reviewed the financial report with those present.


4. The final September 11, 2006 PIR Day cost was $19,511.38. The group commented on the high evaluation marks for the day and said it was one of the best professional development days ACE has provided.


5. Jerry asked if ACE would once again be a sponsor for June 11 – 14 Montana Summer Institute Conference at a cost of $500. He reviewed the goal of MASCD to make the conference one that will serve all educational entities. Nationally recognized speakers Bill Daggett and John Brown will be the main presenters. Other presentations will also be scheduled. Dave Huether moved that ACE be a sponsor for the conference at a cost of $500. Andy Begger seconded the motion, which passed 5-0.


6. Bob Barnes arrived at 9:35 stating he confused the ACE board time with the special education time. Comments dealing with special education and Bob were made but not noted.


7. Bob called on William Schlepp, superintendent from Roundup. Bill said Roundup was very interested in joining ACE because they have heard good things about the consortium and the work it does. His past school was a member of the Golden Triangle Consortium so he was familiar with cooperations and work done in this type of setting. He said it was the goal of the Roundup to join a consortium and would like ACE to come to visit with the staff and board. Al Sipes inquired about the number of members ACE now has (39) and how many staff and students it represented. (ACE will need to get those numbers). He said the expectation of ACE membership was for its members to participate in the training, the curriculum reviews and other committees. Bill said that Roundup is very interested in becoming involved in this manner. The ability of a consortium to provide services at a shared cost was also mentioned. Bill was asked if there would be a problem with his staff buying into ACE’s curriculum after working on their own. Josh Middleton reviewed the process Laurel went through in order to solve this problem and said the Laurel staff now feels they have ownership, especially after participating in the curriculum reviews and workshops ACE provides. Gail Richardson said it is through participation in the curriculum reviews where staffs get to know the curriculum standards and how to use it effectively. She commented that the review groups do a wonderful job. Jennifer Hickok said the ACE K – 6 booklets are a key part of letting their parents know about what is being expected from the students as well as getting the parents more involved in school. Fritzie Walker discussed how Laurel went from a very large curriculum to a more balanced ACE curriculum that was useable. Tim Dolphay moved to allow Roundup to join A.C.E. using the same contract conditions as for Elder Grove. Les Cabot seconded the motion which passed 6 – 0. Jerry will do a presentation for the Roundup board on December 11th.


8. The group discussed the plans for March 5, 2007 PIR day. The board felt it would be best to have Wayne Callender do a full day presentation on Response to Intervention (RTI) for K – 6 staff and administrators. Jerry went over possible sessions for grades 7 – 12 and will continue to work on getting presenters. Dr. B. McGarvey will do “Classroom Instruction That Works” for the September 10, 2007. She wants to work will all of the K – 12 staff and administrators. It was felt that a classroom setting would be better than an auditorium. The board suggested having ACE trained personnel to do future workshops. Jerry said he has sent out requests to see who would be willing to do workshops and plans to list them on the ACE web site.


9. Deani Kirkness demonstrated the ACE web page which can be found at mtace.org. The board agreed with Deani that the site should include the past two year’s agendas and minutes. Deani discussed the amount of work it would take her in order to place the entire curriculum on the site. The board directed her to just include links so people could go to it. Member school web site links will also be included. All those present felt the ACE web site was well done and will be a helpful tool. Deani will come to the December board meeting and take photos of the board members as well as update the group at that time.


10. Jim Staab visited with the group about the work he is doing for the Columbus and Shepherd schools on the use of data and assessments. He emphasized the importance of common staff training and trainers because of the turn over each year. Expenses would be less if ACE could provide common training opportunities instead of each school doing their own. Jim emphasized that training needs to be researched based, reoccurring, and meaningful. Administrators, especially principals, need to have the same training because they are the people who will make sure the training is implemented in their schools. Jim stated that it is important for schools to look at data as they move to standards based education. The data should lead to research based intervention for individual students. In this manner schools should not have a problem making AYP. The group discussed MAP assessment and felt A.C.E. should look into having a presentation at the March 5 PIR day. Al Sipes stated cost to schools for MAP or other resources could be spread out by utilizing the consortium. Jim talked about the importance of tying the curriculum into assessment. Assessment needs to be ongoing, and not just in the spring. The group also discussed the importance of using some type of school improvement process. Fritzie Walker said that it was very important for schools to maintain a focus. Gail Richardson commented that perhaps ACE might have to revisit its vision and goals if it is to become a resource for school improvement and use of assessment data. Jerry and Jim will continue to maintain a contact and discuss the possible future of ACE in these matters.


11. Gail reviewed the last Indian Education for All grant session.


12. Gail went over the work done by the Science and Technology Curriculum review committees. She said one of the problems they encountered was that OPI has not released the new science standards. She will review the new standards in order to see if the committee needs to meet once again, or if she can just do some editorial changes in the work they already have done.


13. Jerry reported on the Elder Grove workshop he and Gail did on November 21st. He said he has received a request for ACE to pay 3 subs from Elder Grove in order to have staff attend the 3/5/07 PIR day. Elder Grove pays its subs $60 per day. The board stated that member schools are responsible for expenses to attend the ACE PIR days.


14. Jerry said he has now received three applications for the ACE scholarship to attend the ASCD Annual National Conference on March 17 – 19 in Anaheim, CA. The deadline for application s is December 8. He will send out a reminder via email and put it on the web site.


15. The Golden Triangle Consortium is sponsoring an Eric Jenson workshop in Great Falls on April 5th. Jerry reserved 4 seats for ACE.


16. There will be an Instructional Technology Strategies Conference in Portland on Feb 18 – 20 and Jerry will present more information at the next board meeting.


17. Tina Lynch requested ACE purchase school library catalogs for use by ACE schools. The cost is $290 per year per level. The board felt it needed more information before it could consider such a request and directed Jerry to have Tina come to the next board meeting if she wished.


18. Bob Barnes said that he was resigning from the position of ACE president effective at the end of this board meeting. He called for the election of a new ACE president. Bob nominated Al Sipes to fill that position. Les Cabot seconded the motion. No other nominations were presented and Al was elected president by a unanimous 6 – 0 vote.


19. The next ACE board meeting was set for 9:00 AM on December 20th at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 A.M.