September 15, 2010 ACE Board Meeting
9:00 A. M. @ Billings Hotel and Convention Center

Present were ACE board members Al Sipes, Jennifer Hickok, Brenda Koch, Tim Dolphay, and Andy Begger. Guests present were Trent Windsor, Tobin Novasio, Andrea Fischer, Cathi Rude, and Victoria Falls Down. Gail Richardson and Jerry Scott were also present for the meeting.

1. Chairman Al Sipes called the meeting to order at 9:10 am with introductions of those present.

2. Andy Begger moved to approve the June 22, 2010 minutes. Jennifer Hickok seconded the motion which passed 5 - 0.

3. The financial report was reviewed including outstanding bills for dues, MAP testing and PIR day workshops. Pryor’s new superintendent indicated that they will not be an ACE member this year because OPI is providing their curriculum and he is working on getting their budget in order. Jerry said he spoke to some of the OPI staff that were present for the Jay McTighe workshop and he will follow-up by making a personal visit to Pryor in the near future.

4. A summary of the expenses for the September 13th PIR day was presented. There were over 700 attending the McTighe workshop and 80 bus drivers. Samplings of the evaluations were distributed. Al Sipes said the workshop and facilities were excellent. He said he passed out Jerry’s email comments on groups not allowing their own students to behave as they did. The group discussed workshop attendee behavior. Jerry said he received two emails thanking him for the comments. Gail Richardson will work on the attendance and evaluations. Jerry said he will post them on the mtace.org web site. Andrea Fischer reported on the Tuesday follow-up workshop Jay McTighe did in Laurel. The staff was divided into groups to work on a unit plan using the understanding by design method. Jerry Scott reported that he visited the workshop and it was easy to see that the majority of the groups understood how to formulate essential questions and unit plans. Others looked like they did not plan to change any plans from what they had done in the past. Both Andy Begger and Andrea Fischer visited about the need for follow-up sessions to be offered to all ACE members. Tobin Novasio mentioned the need for details in unit plans as well as true assessment. Tobin felt the PIR day was a great introduction to such plans. Trent Windsor stated that he was willing to help set up follow-up training using interactive white board technology. Andy Begger also mentioned that because this is Jerry Scott’s last year as the director, the ACE board has the chance to decide on its future.

5. Gail Richardson attended the OPI Common Core Curriculum State Standards Project in June stating that is was a very interesting process with groups looking at the national standards and trying to see how they related to the Montana standards. Federal money will be tied to states adopting the national core curriculum. The group also felt that textbooks would also become tied to the standards as they are developed and printed. Gail said that the common core curriculum’s lack of creativity bothered the majority of those attending. She expressed concern over government agencies dictating things that should be left up to local boards. Gail felt that the common core standards were more specific than the state standards and encouraged everyone to look and respond to them. OPI posted the project results on their web site and will accept comments through September 17th. Gail said she would email information on the ACE curriculum reviews as well as place them on the ACE web site. The first review will be on October 7 for K - 8 math.

6. Technology train the trainer … Trent Windsor, Al Sipes. Al stated that we have not had the white board training in most of our member schools for some time now. He proposed that ACE schedule train the trainer workshops so member schools can then schedule workshops in their own schools using the ACE trainers. This would make for better implementation of interactive use of the white boards. Trent Windsor has done some workshops in the area and is willing to work with ACE. Trent said the training usually costs about $4,500 for about 10 people for a 4-day training. He proposed the training be held around the third week in January. Trent said that there have been some technology consortium meetings that have already taken place. Al said the last meeting was on October 17 with about 7 ACE schools present including Blue Creek, Elder Grove, Columbus, and Huntley Project. The training would include understanding by design and essential questions as well as other research based teaching and learning skills. The technology consortium meetings are free and open to everyone. The next meeting will take place on November 4 in the old middle school at Laurel. Trent will give Jerry the details so he can put it out to ACE schools. Tim Dolphay moved to have ACE pay for members to attend the trainer workshop if they commit to taking the training to other ACE schools. Andy Begger seconded the motion which passed 5 - 0.

7. A handout on Google Apps training by Becky Berg was reviewed. Jerry brought the September 11 Billings Gazette article on Billings school district switching to the use of “Google’s Cloud” for the majority of their technology needs. Tobin Novasio said his school has also switched to using the Google Cloud saying that it frees up storage space and saves license fee expenses because it is free. Google apps include word, excel, power point, calendars, email, and communications with staff, students, parents and the community. Andrea Fischer said Laurel is also working on switching to use Google apps and will visit with Jerry on how to distribute information to ACE members.

8. Information on the Six Traits workshop offered in October was announced and handout material will be available at the September 13 PIR day. The information will be put out in an email to member schools and placed on the mtace.org web site.

9. The board directed Jerry to email any information on MEA day workshops being offered in the area as well as place the information on the ACE web site. The board said that ACE does not plan to sponsor any workshops but will be a renewal unit provided for those who do offer sessions to its members.

10. The National ASCD conference will be on March 25 - 27, 2011 in San Francisco. Jerry said there is a savings of $70 per person on if they register by December. He suggested that ACE continue to offer to pay for 50% of the cost of registration, plane tickets, and hotel rooms for ACE teachers and administrators. The board agreed to offer the scholarships and to close applications before the November ACE board meeting. Jerry will email the information to ACE members and put the application on the mtace web site.

11. MAP Testing training was offered on August 3 for ACE schools just starting the testing. Other ACE schools were also invited to participate in the training. Jerry reported that 34 teachers and administrators from 12 ACE schools took the training. The cost of the training has been billed to those schools that took the training. A billing has also been sent to schools that are paying for their MAP testing through ACE. A copy of the billing was provided in the board packet.

12. Billings Catholic Schools inquired about joining ACE and Jerry visited with their curriculum committee on September 8th. Trent Windsor is a member of the committee and he reported that he felt ACE did an excellent job with curriculum and teacher training. Jerry said Trent was a wonderful resource at the meeting. Trent said he was encouraging Billings Catholic Schools to join. A copy of the proposed contract for Billings Catholic Schools was included in the board packet. The contract was the same as last years contract for Judith Gap and would amount to $7,000 for dues, workshops and materials. Andy Begger moved to allow the Billings Catholic Schools to join ACE if they choose to do so. Jennifer Hickok seconded the motion which passed 5 - 0.
    


13. The board discussed having an ACE goal setting workshop so they could begin the process of a job description for next director and what future services to provide ACE members. The group suggested the meeting be held on October 20 from 9 AM - 12:00 because they will be coming to MCEL that day anyhow.


14. Next regular ACE board meeting will be on October 27 at 9:00 A.M. in the Billings Hotel and Convention Center.