Lakeshore Alliance for Student Success, Inc.
Board of Directors’ Meeting
TuesdayJune 2, 2009
Fifth Third Bank Community Conference Room, Valparaiso, Indiana
*Minutes
In Attendance
BooneTownshipGeorge Letz, Dana Goelz and Becky Vaughan
EastPorterCountyCSC
Hanover CSC Carol Kaiser and Millie Postma
Lake Ridge Schools Sharon Johnson-Shirley and Janet Flores
LakeStationDan DeHaven and Gayle Green
Merrillville CSC Tony Lux andMark Sperling
PorterCounty Community FoundationRic Frataccia
Porter Township SchoolsTerry Tafflinger
SchoolCity of Whiting Sandra Martinez and Kathleen Herochik
Tri-Creek CSC Alice Neal and Bob Hopper
Unity FoundationMaggie Spartz
PurdueUniversityCalumetRobert Rivers
CalumetCollege
ValparaisoUniversityJan Westrick
LASS/PUC Theresa Crussen
LASSEd Schoenfelt and Dana Adams
President Neal called the Board of Directors’ Meeting of the Lakeshore Alliance for Student Success, Inc. to order at 1:25 P.M.at Fifth Third Bank, Valparaiso, Indiana.
Secretary’s Report
The Secretary’s Report was previously emailed to the membership by Ms. Flores.
- A motion was made byDr.Sperling to approve the minutes, and Mr.Letzseconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report
Dr.Lux presented the Treasurer’s Report(attached) which showed an ending balance of $277,667.92. The State Grant Report showed an ending balance of $64,840.06.
- A motion was made by Mr. Dehaven to approve the Treasurer’s Report, and Dr.Martinez seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Preliminary Budget Report
Mr. Schoenfelt presented a 2009-2010 preliminary budget with the advisement that there are outstanding invoices from KJ Learning and PurdueUniversity. Ms. Spartz asked whether the new schools had been figured into the budget. Mr. Schoenfelt replied that LASS will invoice them after this meeting. Also, he stated, Portage and Hobart are interested in joining, but nothing has been finalized as yet. Dr. Lux asked about the starting balances on page 3 and how the current balances are reflected. Mr. Schoenfelt explained that, on page 3, the balances are “inherited” and will change with new grants and funding and will be different as of July 1. Ms. Spartz asked how this budget is different from the original budget. Mr. Schoenfelt the prelimary budget reflects reductions and is more accurate. At the August LASS re-organizational meeting, another budget will come to the membership.
- A motion was made by Mr. Letz to approve thepreliminary budget, and Dr. Sperling seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Unfinished Business
A. MISi
Mr. Robert Hopper, Tri-Creek, presented a PowerPoint demonstration (attached) on the history of why and how LASS selected Data Warehouse as the recommended application for all LASS schools. Mr. Hopper said that the selection process took 2 years. Ms. Spartz said that she would like to see some of the output from the Data Warehouse project and asked whether there have been any big revelations. Mr. Hopper replied that there hasn’t been anything big yet because there hasn’t been time to train all of the teachers. Dr. Lux explained how the software works for Merrillville C S C and said that they are pleased with the product and the parent portal. Dr. Frataccia asked whether the intent was to exchange data between districts. If so, he asked whether you could exchange STN numbers rather than names. Mr. Hopper said that STN numbers arenot public on the IDOE web site. The issue is pulling data info off the IDOE website and combining information for disaggregation purposes. Dr. Lux added that LASS may want to go deeper into disaggregation with such information as KJ Learning, Balanced Literacy participation, etc. Mr. Hopper stated that a future agenda item should be what kind of analysis this group would like to see. Dr. Frataccia added that we need also to decide what questions we need answered. Dr. Rivers said that the questions should be about Balanced Literacy so that papers/research and baseline information can be done by the universities. He added that LASS is not going to get resources unless we start showing growth. Mr. Letz stated that Hebron has had a difficult time with MISi because MISi representatives spent most of their time with other LASS districts.
Dr. Lux suggested that LASS members should send disks with IDOE information to a central location where data could be combined. LASS members, however, would have to agree on a common assessment to identify ways to get at what we want to monitor. Mr. Letz stated that he thought that LASS had identified running records as what we would be using. Dr. Rivers said that the intent for using Data Warehouse was to get a common instrument. Dr. Martinez suggested investigating whether we could use ARRA money for this project. The group agreed that Mr. Schoenfelt should look into this. In closing, Dr. Rivers stated that LASS needs to identify a baseline and Purdue Calumet is willing to help with that. Nick Brown stated that we need a group of professionals (University Test and Measurement Professors) to determine the questions we have and what we need to do to find answers to those questions. The group should include principals, teachers in BLI and Teri Crussen.
It was mentioned that scale scores would work well to compare BL students to non-BL students. Balanced Literacy coaches are trained in running records which can show growth from day 1 to day 180 and can be compared to the scales. It was suggested that LASS talk with MISi to see what they can do as far as finding a way to measure/compare BLI to non-BLI, and potentially apply for USDOE grant funds to acquire MISi for all LASS school corporations.
- Slate of Officers
The LASS 2009-2010 school year begins July 1, 2009. Nick Brown was nominated for the presidency by Dan DeHaven, with Kathy Herochik seconding that motion. Dr. Sharon Johnson-Shirley was nominated as vice-president. Janet Flores will continue in her role as secretary and Dr. Lux will continue in his role as the treasurer. The Executive Committee will consist of Dr. Joi Patterson, Millie Postma, Kathy Herochik, and this new slate of officers.
- A motion was made by Dr. Sperling to approve the 2009-2010 LASS slate of officers, and Kathy Herochik seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously
C.Letters of Commitment
Several letters of commitment have been submitted to LASS and Mr. Schoenfelt stated that we are expecting to receive the remainder in the weeks ahead.
D.Balanced Literacy Update
There were 3 evaluative handouts provided.
The first gave the purpose that each Balanced Literacy characteristic serves in a classroom, which had been requested at a previous board meeting.
The second was a self-evaluation filled out by each Balanced Literacy coach that denoted the changes their classrooms had undergone through the first year of Balanced Literacy training. The average percentage of Balanced Literacy characteristics present before being trained was 33% and after training, the average rose to 92% of characteristics present in their classrooms.
The third was an average rating that the LASS team planning sessions were given by each participating Literacy team member. 88% of participants felt that the information they received will be helpful in assisting their school create an effective literacy team, 87% felt the presentations were clear, 98% were satisfied with the facilities and 85% believe that the team planning sessions were worthwhile and helpful. Teri Crussen added that she feels the literacy teams really appreciate being given time to work together, plan and develop relationships between the coaches and the teachers.
Mr. Schoenfelt mentioned that he attended a NICTE meeting of the 5 college deans and that they are interested in doing a research project next year with the intent to publish data from the Balanced Literacy Initiative.
New Business
A.Meeting with Dr. Tony Bennett
A group of LASS members traveled to Indy and met with Dr. Bennett. The intent of this meeting was to provide him with information regarding LASS history, activities and goals. Dr. Neal stated that Dr. Bennett was initially concerned that we were in competition with the ServiceCenter, but that we have given information to indicate we have a positive relationship with the ServiceCenter. There was not enough time to get through everything with Dr. Bennett and Mr. Schoenfelt is attending a second meeting on July 6th in Indianapolis.
B. LakeCounty Foundation
A handout on the Lake County Foundation was provided. Mr. Schoenfelt touched on the fact that the Lake County Foundation provides scholarship opportunities and pointed out some of the grants that they have awarded in the past. It is important to try to continue to connect to our community foundations.
C. Carolyn Coil Presentations
On August 12th and 14th, 2009 MSDBooneTownship and LASS will be hosting 2 Carolyn Coil presentations. MSD Boone is providing the venue free of charge to LASS, however there will still be a minimal fee for LASS members to attend. A concern was raised that there should be no fee to LASS members, but Mr. Schoenfelt explained that we need to cover our costs and the fee being charged is very reasonable for the amount of value each participant will receive.
D. CRUs
An update was provided on the first round of CRU’s that LASS was able to award to the participating members of the SupportingLASSHigh School Sessions. LASS will continue to provide CRU’s to eligible participants at all future events.
- Marketing
A handout provided requested funding to public radio and television to market LASS, Public television will host a immunization fair on July 11, 2009 at the Railcats stadium. Mr. Schoenfelt stated we will continue with our current marketing plan and no action requested.
- School Membership Fee
With the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year approaching, membership invoices will be mailed. A discussion indicated that at this time membership fees will not increase.
- A motion was made by Sandy Martinez to keep the fee the same, at $500 per school ($5,000 per university). Dr. Lux seconded that motion. The motion passed unanimously.
- Starfish Logo
George Letz recommended changing the LASS logo from a starfish to something new. The Northwest Indiana Literacy Coalition uses a starfish as their logo, so LASS members want to try to think of something original. Teri Crussen suggested using a sequoia tree since they need “connection” in order to survive. Unfortunately that sequoia is a California native tree, and we would like to focus on something that is native to Indiana. Mr. Schoenfelt suggested that we consider including some aspect of our “unique lakeshore”. No action.
- Title V
Dr. Sandy Martinez announced that the Title V Grants will not continue. She said she is not sure what the “Race to the Top” is going to look like, but we need to be ready. She thinks we need to have the initial set up costs of an evaluative tool paid by the grant because we need that tool to show progress so that we can continue to receive funding and support.
Executive Director’s Report
Ed Schoenfelt provided a task report.
Other
Dr. Lux mentioned that there are technology stimulus grants available to specific qualified Indiana School districts. It would work to LASS’s benefit to link school corporations so all members of LASS benefit from the grant funds. He suggested that we need some technical people to decide what we should propose to do with those funds. The applications will be available June 9th, with the deadline in early July 2009. Thisis Title IIDstudentachievement stimulus funds.
A claim to pay Teri Crussen for 2 days of team planning workshops beyond her contract in the amount of $618 was presented.
- A motion was made by Dr. Sandy Martinez to approve the claim, and Nick Brown seconded
the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Mr. Schoenfelt asked if we wanted to meet on Tuesday July 7th, and Mr. Letz said that in the past, LASS has not held a board meeting in July.
Dr. Neal gave thanks to the board for letting her serve as Board President.
Dr. Lux thanked Teri for a great job done with this years Balanced Literacy program.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:18pm
Next Meeting
Tuesday, August4, 2009
1:00p.m.
5/3 Bank Basement, Valparaiso