September 24, 2008 ACE Board Meeting
9:00 A. M. @ Billings Hotel and Convention Center

ACE board members present: Al Sipes, Josh Middleton, Stephanie Long, Tim Dolphay, Andy Begger and Mark Brajcich.

Guests present were: Andrea Fisher, Tobin Novasio, and Mike Lee. Gail Richardson and Jerry Scott were also present for the meeting.

1. Chairman Al Sipes called the meeting to order at 9:05 A.M. and had everyone present introduce him or herself.

2. Tim Dolphay moved the approval of the August 27, 2008 minutes. The motion was seconded by Stephanie Long and passed 6 – 0.

3. The board reviewed the financial report.
   The board discussed the school fire situation at Huntley Project and possible ways to help. Suggestions included material, money for library books, and a cash donation. Jerry Scott was directed to contact the administration at Huntley and see how ACE could help and report back to the board at the October meeting.

4. Mike Lee, Ryegate superintendent, said his school board already voted to join ACE. A contract was presented and reviewed with Mike. He was under the impression that the fee to join ACE was the cost of the $2,500 dues. Al Sipes and Jerry Scott reviewed the materials, training, professional development opportunities, curriculum review, and fees with Mike. Mike said he would visit with the Ryegate school trustees and suggest adjustments in the ACE contract. He will report back to the ACE board at the October meeting.

5. A discussion on the Northwest Evaluation Association MAP testing proposal took place. The board felt that ACE should not take on the role of becoming a fiscal agent for the MAP testing. MAP testing and fees should be up to individual schools. The board felt that ACE should continue to help with information and training whenever it could. Jerry reported that he had been contacted by some individuals who were interested in becoming a trainer in order to help member schools use and interpret MAP testing results. Jerry was instructed to gather information to see if this was possible.

6. The board reviewed a proposed ASCD National Conference application form. Suggestions for the form should be sent to Jerry for the October meeting.

7. The September 8, 2008 PIR day expenses and attendance was reviewed. Twenty schools and about 536 administrators and staff members attended. A copy of names and sessions attended was distributed. Evaluation summaries are not quite completed yet and will be passed out at the October meeting. The cost was estimated at $16,600 with some bills still to be received. 64 bus drivers from 14 schools attended the bus driver training held at Shepherd at a cost of $1,764.37 for food, materials and trainers. The bus driver training cost is included in the total of $16,600 for the day. A summary of those attending the bus driving training and the evaluations were distributed to those present.
   
   The board discussed the possibility of having Joseph Whelan return during the winter to do follow-up work with ACE. Jerry was instructed to contact Mr. Whelan and see what kind of follow-up work and with what group he would suggest.

8. The March 2, 2009 PIR day will be held at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. A map of the rooms available and the number of people they will hold was distributed. The preliminary plan is to have Dr. Jane Pollock present to half of the group in the morning with the other half choosing from about 15 sectionals. The groups would switch in the afternoon. Lunch would be provided on site and helps lower the room cost to $75 each. The September 8 evaluations have a space for suggested speakers and sessions and will be reviewed at the October meeting. Dr. Pollock will be contacted in order to suggest preparations for her presentation including a possible book study.

9. Jerry suggested that Davis Walsh, Ph.D. be contact as a possible speaker for the March 1, 2010 PIR day. Dr. Walsh presented at the Sept. 19 Fall Superintendents conference in Bozeman. His books include “Say Yes to No” … “Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen” and No: Why Kids-of All Ages – Need to hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It.” The board felt that Dr. Walsh and others possible speakers should be contacted and information presented to the board in the future.
   
   The September 14, 2009 presenter is Dr. Harry Wong. Harry has requested to present to the whole group so no sectionals will be offered that day. The group felt that other schools might be interested in attending Harry’s presentation and ACE should look into possible places that will hold a large number of people. Laurel’s auditorium will hold 800 and is not air-conditioned so can be quite hot at that time of the year. Other possibilities include MSU-Billings and the new Faith Chapel church. Jerry will look into possible places to hold the Harry Wong presentation.
   

10. The group continued to discuss the future of the ACE Curriculum and its reviews. Gail reported that she went over the OPI scheduled reviews and suggested that ACE review curriculum areas that OPI is not working on. In this way ACE would not be putting in time and money for things OPI is going to change. The group said OPI has released some essential learning or grade level expectations and wondered when OPI would complete the science, library and technology curriculum that was worked on in June. No one had any idea when this was going to happen. However, the group felt that such action by OPI probably would result in a statewide curriculum with grade level expectations and perhaps even assessments. Josh Middleton said that in this case ACE would no doubt have to look at a different process when reviewing curriculum. This would mean a huge shift in the way ACE does business because the present ACE model is general and schools are required to revise it for their own needs. Tobin Novasio suggested that ACE look at doing formative assessments when they review curriculum. Stephanie Long brought some copies of the curriculum work Canyon Creek has been doing with Jim Staab. She would be glad to share their work with anyone who requests it. Stephanie said the ACE curriculum is very good but schools need to revise it in order to fit their own needs and to make it specific enough that teachers not only use it, but also are held accountable for implementing the curriculum. Both Al Sipes and Mark Brajcich stated the reality is that the deeper the state gets into curriculum revision, the less local control the schools have. They stated that State standards, NAPE testing and CRT all are driving forces in this matter. The group did agree that no matter what happens, schools would still choose textbooks and materials to fit whatever curriculum model they choose to use. Thus the process is still local. Stephanie felt that schools should not rely on OPI and because ACE is small enough it is an important resource. The group agreed that the more input the better the product. Everyone agreed that it is important to have the staff involved in the process. It seems that the process used by school now follow a National standards, State standards, ACE standards and local standards strand. Al asked what the group felt the next step for ACE should be. He asked if ACE should look at taking the framework and pare it down to essential grade level skills? Al also reviewed the history of ACE and what it has accomplished. Andy felt ACE should wait and see what OPI presents and go from there. Tobin said national trends and research also dictate where one should go. Andrea felt that if ACE would need to define specific goals with timelines if it chooses to change how it does curriculum reviews. Josh stated that taking the curriculum into the next level would be a large step and stated that ACE should look at having someone come in to help. Jim Stabb, Janet Thompson and Ten Sigma were some suggestions that come up in order to help ACE with strategic planning. The group felt that no matter who helps, there would need to be a definite goal and time line. Any meetings would need a specific agenda so that ACE members could review and be prepared to go forward. Gail stated that it is important to decide where ACE needs to go and would like to do for the 2008 – 2009 school year curriculum reviews. The group felt that for the present time ACE should continue as we have been doing with the curriculum reviews and continue to let the local members decide how to implement the ACE curriculum. Gail said she would go ahead with the career and vocational technology education review on October 9 at DJ’s in Laurel.

11. Gail Richardson reported that SMART would like to utilize the ACE Indian Education For All trainers as a part of their future Indian Education training possibilities. The board felt that the ACE trainers are primarily responsible to the ACE members schools and some schools might not release the teachers to do non-member training. The board felt that it would be up to individual schools to release their teachers for such training. Everyone agreed that in such a case SMART would need to reimburse the school for the time, substitute teachers, and any expenses.

12. The board instructed Jerry to see if ACE could set up a few workshops for October 16 and 17 since most conferences were some distance from ACE member schools.


13. Next Ace board meeting October 29, 2008 at 9 A.M. at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center. The meeting was adjourned at 10:50 A.M.