MEMBERS PRESENT: Cheryl Harshman (President), Patti Kem (President-elect), Steve Wornhoff (Treasurer-June 2012), Lisa Waber (E–June 2013), Bev Garrison (SE-June 2011), Tom Barth (NC-June 2011), Wendy Hite (Secretary-June 2014), Tom Adams and Joan McCormick (Co-Chairs Legislative and Research Committee June 2011), , Tom Bell (C-June 2013), Jada Conner (NW-June 2012 ), Kathy Hensley (Chair Professional Development Committee-June 2012) Vendetta Gutshall (Past-President), Jane Sanderson-Winkoff, (NW--June 2013) Fran Wood Osborne (President-Elect 2011-12)

ABSENT: Denise Bashore (Deputy Treasurer), Saundra Lange (SW--June 2012), Dave Chastain (Chair Membership and Fiscal Management Committee-June 2012), Paula Nichols (NW--June 2013)

OTHERS PRESENT:  Anne Davis, Melissa Lancaster (SE--June 2014), Karol Farrell

I.    APPROVALS

A.    Minutes – Cheryl Harshman called the meeting to order and asked for a motion to approve the April 21, 2011 minutes. MOTION: Patti Kem moved to approve the April 21, 2011, minutes as presented. One correction was made. After a second by Bev Garrison the motion was unanimously approved.

B.     Treasurer’s Report and Claim Docket – Steve Wornhoff presented the ICASE Statement of Cash as of April 30, 2011, showing a balance of $275,465.24.

The April docket of expenditures, totaling $6,181.51, was presented by Steve for approval. MOTION: Tom Adams moved to approve the April docket of expenses as presented. After a second by Kathy Hensley, the motion was unanimously approved.

Steve presented the proposed ICASE budget for 2011-12, effective July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012. We have a healthy cash balance due to having 3 topicals, which is more than we typically have, and profits from conferences. Our membership stayed pretty flat and attendance at conferences was solid as well, so the initial concern for the state's financial situation affecting membership and attendance at conferences has not had an impact. Central is scheduled to have a topical in fall 2011 and East is to have a topical in spring 2012. There was a question as to what conferences are paid from the budget. $10,000 covers the Fall CASE/Spring CEC and the Legislative Conference in Washington, DC for 3 ICASE Executive members. There will not be a legislative reception in the 2012 short session. Corrections were made under the total membership/fiscal membership column (250.00) After discussion, there was consensus that we will not have a secretarial training through ICASE this year. A few years ago the committee decided to maintain $100K in cash balance. There will be a profit at the end of this year.

MOTION: Jada Conner moved to approve the ICASE 2011-12 budget as presented. After a second by Tom Bell, the motion was unanimously approved.

C.     Draft ICASE Calendar 2011-2012 – Please review the draft Cheryl sent.

II.          IDOE REPORTS

Anne Davis answered questions that we submitted to her.

·         Interpreter licensing---The license is not final yet. There will be 2 testing sites: Culver Elementary School and Indiana School for the Deaf. A service center in Lafayette is trying to get approval to be a testing site. Once the licensure is finalized, Anne will notify us on the director's update. LVIS will add a piece related to the FAQ. Marg Mast is the contact person for this. Risa Regnier, director of licensing, can cover questions currently, as Marg is out of the office. Anne believes the effective date is July 1, 2011. Joan will check with Kelli Waggoner as this information conflicts with what she received.

·         HB 1341--will APC dollars go to non-public schools for the 11-12 school year? Is it retroactive to January 2011, and how is this determined since the money has already been spent? Anne is currently working on providing guidance. Go to the survey at the following address: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R6Y2777   This is from the educational communication team at IDOE. All questions related to the legislation should be directed to this group.

The Federal Part B dollars contains the requirement for proportionate share. The APC dollars generated by non-public school students has to be spent on non-public school students. Those funds go into the pot for all of your non-public school students. The only requirement is that the money must be spent on your non-public school students. When districts conduct their Dec. 1 report, one of the fields indicates if the student is a non-public school student. You can then calculate how much money was generated. As part of the consultation meeting, you have to share the federal amount that is generated, but there is not a legislative requirement to share the APC amount. This law does not change the final authority resting with the public school. The ultimate decision for expenditure of funds still rests with the public school. The recourse of the non-publics schools is that they can write a letter to you saying they don't agree. The responsibility of the public school is to say what they didn't do and why they didn't do it. IDOE does not get involved with the decision making. The monitoring piece is that districts will have to demonstrate how they spent those funds. This piece will get added into the procedural audit. The fiscal audit currently has the ARRA dollars included, but as ARRA dollars are done, the non-public funds can be included in that fiscal audit. Anne is looking to ICASE for recommendations on the audit. What should the audit look like? Superintendents really aren't aware of this piece of legislation. Anne would like us to ask our roundtables as to what this audit piece should consist of in looking ahead at 2012.

There were numerous questions regarding the timeline because consultation meetings already occurred, RIF decisions have been made, budgets have already been trimmed, etc. Superintendents don't understand how much money may already be impacted in the general fund. Anne stated that this has not been ironed out yet with IDOE. You can include anything for services with the APC dollars (professional development, transportation, child find processes, etc.) What is the least burdensome way for districts to document it and for IDOE to monitor it? Anne would like a recommendation from ICASE within 2 weeks. There is confusion as to how this money will be spent on a home schooled student. If you don't spend your dollars, it has not been defined by APC. Whereas, with the federal $$ , if you don't spend the funds, you have the second year to spend it. There are home schoolers and non-public schools that don't want the money. Anne said to get the refusal from the non-public school in writing. Document why you weren't able to spend the money. It was stressed that we have clear guidance from Anne so everyone understands the process.

 Get this information to your roundtables quickly and get recommendations back to Cheryl by June 1st. Tom Bell has resigned his position on the funding committee. .

·         IMAST is not going away next year. ISTAR and IMAST are not built into the growth model because of how the scores are scaled. ISTEP is the only assessment included in the growth model. What is the plan for determining growth with AYP and the transition to schools being rated A-F? Superintendents still think it's a 3% limit for proficiency. It is only through AYP that the 3% limit applies. It's not that districts don't want to be accountable for their students, but the sanctions involved in the centralized programs are significant. A waiver process is still in discussion phases. IDOE is meeting with USDOE to determine the impact on cooperatives who have centralized programs. In these situations, can we roll up the 3% to a co-op level so it doesn't negatively impact the district that houses the program? There is not a plan for an IMAST version for end of course assessments. If IDOE hears that there is a need or interest for an IMAST version of ECA.s, they will respond. Email Michele Walker with your rationale as to why this would be helpful for students so they see the benefit. The high stakes decisions that are impacted by these assessments is key. It was discussed having superintendents, curriculum directors, principals, and parents, share this need. With the change to the common core standards, the timing is key to communicate this need since they are in the process of changing the assessments. You can email Michelle Walker at: mwalker@doe.in.gov

·         Professional Growth Points--Cooperatives provide many trainings and offer PGP's. The local district can give authority to whoever can sign off on those PGP offerings.

·         Grant allocations---IDOE has taken $3.5 million less in funds to flow through to the districts in the state because they know we are struggling. IDOE received slightly less funding from USDOE. Jen Thompson is working on the new amounts currently. They hope to be emailed by June 1st. Their goal is to get them to districts sooner than that. The overall application process is the same. The pre-application and application is combined into one document this year. Instead of emailing them, we will need to send a hard copy to IDOE. The deadline for turning them in is August 31st, and it will still be retroactive to July 1.

The application will determine Maintenance of Effort for you when you enter the numbers. It will help you determine how much you can reduce it by. IDOE is working with a vendor on an electronic application but it will not be ready for this cycle of applications. It will be streamlined with the budget modification process and will be much easier to use. Anne will get further clarification on how to submit our applications.

·         Indiana IEP: Any document that is a pdf will be brought over into the Indiana IEP. Finalized IEP's will also be brought over. Tell your teachers to save their present levels in a file so they can cut and paste. The progress monitoring piece was not part of the original RFP so they are working with a vendor to make sure this can happen. We don't want teachers having to use paper/pencil for progress monitoring.

·         There was clarification that Dec. 1 2011 count will not be generated from the Indiana IEP this year. The intent, however, is that the DOE-EV, DOE-TR and Dec. 1, 2012 count will be pulled from the Indiana IEP system.

·         West Ed Parent Surveys--The notification was too late to send this school year so it will be sent to us in July for us to send to parents in August. Make sure to have parents send in the survey directly and not send from the districts as this compromises the data. The vendor is aggregating the results from the first survey that was sent and will get us the data. Response rates were increased, which is positive, but the approval ratings dropped because there were more surveys returned. As a result we have a better picture as to what parents are thinking. We will have the results of the first survey before sending out the new surveys. John Hill is in charge of the surveys if you have any questions.

·         Significant Disproportionality--John Hill's advice is to be thoughtful as to how you are spending your 15% in your grant for CEIS if you are a district out of compliance. 

III.        EXECUTIVE STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

A.    Governmental Affairs Committee Report – Joan McCormick reported that the committee met yesterday. There are numerous bills that affect people in many different ways. The committee would like Kelly Waggoner to put together a synopsis of each of the bills that impact us. They would also like to conduct a seminar on the impact of the bills on special education. Dr. Tony Bennett and Dr. John Ellis are willing to help us put this together. We can hold a panel with Dr. Ellis facilitating. The goal is that ICASE continues to be seen as a strong force to partner with. It is important that we work together. Preliminary dates for the seminar are July 25th or the first week of August. July 25th appears to be the best date to meet because the Indiana IEP training, the statewide transition conference, and ICASE Executive meeting are all held the first week of August. IDOE legal counsel should be involved since many of us all have different legal counsel that we work with. Mark Booth volunteered Noblesville's auditorium so there will be no cost for the facility. It will be held from 9:00-11:30. The target audience will be ICASE members and directors. If your superintendent or business manager wants to come, that is fine but the focus is on special education administrators. The panel would include a facilitator, an IDOE attorney, Dr. John Ellis, possibly Dave Emert from IBSA with Kelli Waggoner facilitating.

A motion to move forward with conducting the seminar on the legislative impact on special education was made by Vendetta Gutsthall with a second by Jada Conner. The motion passed unanimously. The motion was amended to include up to $5,000 for expenditures. Jada Conner seconded. The motion unanimously passed.

The Washington, DC trip is July 17-20, 2011. Liza Bates, Fran Wood Osborne, Tom Adams, Patti Kem, and Cheryl Harshman are going. If roundtables want to send someone from the roundtable, the roundtable would pay for the expenses. Roundtables can work with Fran and Liza on the logistics of getting group rates. Donna Lehmann had recommended that Jada Conner and Wendy Hite may be interested in going. Wendy Hite cannot attend.

B.     Membership Committee Report – Bill Dreibelbis will chair this committee. He will be at the June 2nd meeting. 

C.     Fiscal Management Committee Chair – Dave Chastain will continue on this committee.  

D.    Professional Development Committee Report – Fall 2011 Conference – Kathy Hensley reported that if will be held at the Indianapolis Marriott East on September 28-30, 2011. This is the 50^th anniversary of ICASE. Spring 2012 ICASE conference will be on February 21-24, 2012. Tentative dates for Spring 2013 are Feb. 19-22. Both of these will be at the Hyatt Regency downtown Indianapolis. Kathy looked at offering a group rate for districts that send multiple people from the same district/cooperative just for ICASE members. There was an $8,000 decrease when Kathy ran the numbers. Most people registered by their cooperative. Luann Purcell suggested to Tom Adams giving unified members a discount. Steve believes that we can do this with minimal impact on the budget. We may want to do this for the 50th ICASE conference to generate more interest. We need to figure out what to do about patron members. Becky Krumweid will send out membership applications soon so they can be given to people before school is out.

IV. SPECIAL COMMITTEE REPORTS

A. President’s Appointments

1. Licensing Focus Group – No report

            2. IASP/ISHA Best Practices Task Force – No report 

V.SUPPORTING THE MEMBERSHIP

A. Identifying and Addressing Membership Needs

1.      IAPSS Coalition of Organizations – Lynn Gosser will be the ICASE representative. She is taking Margie Labelle's place.

B. Improving/Facilitating Communication

1. Roundtable Topical Proposals – Tom Bell (C)

2.      Roundtable Reports

·         C – Tom Bell stated they are looking at all of the legislative changes. They are working on the topical in November on Executive Functioning.

·         SW – Fran stated that they have discussed legislative issues. They are going to have a retreat. A request for funds will be forthcoming. Evansville Vanderburgh has separated from Posey County. Larry Bass continues to be director at Evansville Vanderburgh and Fran will continue to be director at Posey County.

·         SE – Bev stated that they discussed current issues around the state. They want to request funds for a retreat. They don't have an amount currently but it will be held in June or July. A motion was made to not exceed their SE roundtable amount. Tom Adams made the motion with Kathy Hensley providing a second. The motion passed unanimously. Tom Bell mentioned that they have received sponsorship for their retreats. Pearson has sponsored them in the past.

·         NE – Jada shared that Leah Nellis presented on SLD eligibility decisions and guidelines.

·         NW – Jane shared that they had a great retreat with a focus on various topics such as reading, the CHAMPS program, best practices, etc They are developing a roundtable chart for professional development. They honored Pat Pierce for her retirement, and had a great turnout. Jane asked for reimbursement for $746.95 from their roundtable funds to cover the cost of their retreat. A motion to approve was made by Steve Wornhoff and seconded by Jada Conner. The motion passed unanimously.

·         E –Lisa Waber had to leave before reporting.

·         NC – Tom Barth stated they are meeting on Monday, May 24th.

VI.PROMOTING/ADVANCING THE ORGANIZATION

A. Examining Organizational Structure

1. Future Revision of Strategic Plan – ICASE Executive members will work on finalizing the Strategic Plan at the June 2011 meeting.

2. Executive Committee Handbook – No report

B. Strengthening National Connections – The CASE report is due July 1, 2011. Vendetta Gutshall will be contacting those involved in compiling the report. The report is a summary of each unit. This report is used to determine rewards received at CASE. There are also individual awards that they call for every year. Tom Adams stated there are some people who should be nominated for these awards. Some of the states base their nominations on the awards they give their members each year.  

C. Promoting State Partnerships – Cheryl Harshman asked if we should put together a task force to focus on teacher evaluations. Think about someone who can chair that group and who would participate from your roundtable. Email Cheryl quickly so we can get started. It is the consensus of the group that if we don't do something with this piece of legislation to provide further guidance that no one else will. We can look at what other states have done, NASDSE, CEC, etc. for recommendations.

VII. OTHER BUSINESS

A. Bob Marra was not able to attend today.

B. Karol Farrell reported from the State Advisory Council on the Education of Children with Disabilities. She is the chairperson for this group. At a recent meeting, a few of the membership were very open about the fact that the advisory council has not operated as it has in the past. There is concern among the membership that ICASE has had little input into the recent legislative changes. How does ICASE want to approach the concerns from the State Advisory Council? Karol spoke with Anne Davis. If Anne can't attend the meetings, there is not an alternate representative from IDOE attending in her place. There needs to be open discussion about the implications for students with disabilities with the latest educational reform. There was lots of discussion with some of the co-ops that are decentralizing and why doesn't the plan go to the group for approval as it had in the past. Approving cooperative structures was never the intent of the group as they are strictly an advisory group. Some of the parents have been on the council for a long time. There is the feeling that we are taking a step backwards with special education and there is more divisiveness among general education and special education. This group is defined under Indiana Code, yet the legislation doesn't specify the focus of the group. Bob Marra provided structure and a sense of purpose for that group in the past. They are feeling the same sense of status loss that directors are also feeling. Parents are very confused about pieces of legislation, and the group does not have a defined role. Karol will meet with Anne before the next meeting. It was suggested that the group be provided with a historical perspective of the last few years. The group can provide questions for Anne ahead of time so she can address them at the meeting. ICASE officers can also attend as they meet 4 times a year. The next meeting is June 24, 2011. Karol will attend the next ICASE Executive meeting to gather information to share. It was stressed to share this with roundtables so directors attend some of these meetings. Thank you to Karol for all of her work.

C. Indiana School for the Deaf update---Patti Kem---The school board is a 7 member board. There have been several years that 3 people have not been appointed by the governor as the approval process takes a great deal of time. Names were submitted to the governor's office that were good candidates for the board. By statute there has to be one alumni, one parent of a current student, and one director of special education. Their budget is from the state budget. David Geeslin, superintendent, has done a very good job of managing the budget. Mary Jo Dare and Denise Thompson (itinerant HI teacher) were notified their terms were up. Patti Kem was asked to stay for another four year term. Lucy Witte and 2 parents (not of current students) were appointed. The 2 parents are associated with oral education. About 150 people attended the May board meeting. The Indy Star has had articles about this. Parents are very insulted by the appointments as they feel there should be more deaf representation on the board. Scott Jensen has been the board president for a long time. Comments were directed at these 2 parents. Patti believes there will be more comments. The board is issuing a statement. They represent all students in Indiana by statute, not just students at ISD. There are still people who move to Indiana to have their children attend ISD. The governor's office is critical of the ISTEP scores. Be mindful of what is occurring at ISD.  

D. It was decided that ICASE executive committee roundtable alternates be added to the ICASE executive google group so they can stay informed.

VIII. MOTION TO ADJOURN

 Motion to adjourn was made by Jane Winkoff and seconded by Tom Bell.

IX. Next Meeting

June 2, 2011, Hamilton-Boone-Madison, 10:00 a.m.

 

.