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Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 3 | Region 4 | Region 5 Contact Person: Cyndi Godbey (clg5723@garnet.acns.fsu.edu) REGION 55 - 17 - 99 Meeting Minutes
I. Welcome and Introductions Carrie Mickey, Chairperson, called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. in the school district's meeting room. Ms. Mickey thanked John Andola, of the Monroe County School District, for making arrangements for the meeting place and lunch. Ms. Mickey also thanked Sheila Long for helping to chair last month's meeting. John Andola later introduced the group to Peggy Smith, Monroe County Deputy Superintendent, and she welcomed the participants to Key West. Renew Introductions Ms. Mickey asked the participants to introduce themselves. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
DOE STAFF PRESENT:
GUESTS PRESENT:
PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS PRESENT:
Guest Speaker Ms. Mickey began the meeting by reminding the participants of the need for the involvement of workforce development advocates. In that vein, Ms. Mickey next introduced Dr. Bruce Waite, representing the WAGES coalition, and asked him to speak. Dr. Waite began with some background information on the WAGES program in Florida, telling the group that while the program in Monroe County is expected to grow, there are only 250 WAGES recipients here, compared to 20,000 in the Miami-Dade area. Three "one-stop" centers will be started in Monroe County to provide services to 3,000 people. Dr. Waite asked the group for questions. Ms. Mickey said that, following recent changes in Florida legislative mandates, the Workforce Development Boards would have a more active role in developing adult education programs and reminded us that political considerations were important as well. Housekeeping and Announcements Cyndi Godbey handed out materials that were included in the ADE 21 project's session at the recent Florida Literacy Conference in Orlando. She reported that the session included the participation of representatives from regional councils who described the project and regional activities. Maria Lin passed out Travel Reimbursement forms for the participants to complete, pointing out that a one-night hotel stay would be paid for out of the project budget. Homework Ms. Mickey brought out her copy of the "Constituency Building" diagram that had been distributed at the last meeting. She acknowledged that there may have been some confusion about whether this sheet was to be completed before the meeting. Ms. Godbey briefly went over the content of the constituency diagram and made additional copies available. Ms. Mickey then asked the participants to complete the diagram and fax it to Cyndi well before the next meeting so that she could compile the results for distribution at the next meeting. Review/Adoption of Agenda Ms. Mickey briefly reviewed the meeting agenda which was then approved by the Council. II. Old Business Review/Adoption of Minutes Ms. Mickey asked the group to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Copies were distributed and the group took a few minutes to review the minutes. The minutes were adopted with changes to the by-laws as described below. Review/Adoption of Bylaws Ms. Mickey asked the group to approve the bylaws. Copies were distributed. Discussion ensued about the bylaws, and they were adopted with one correction -- under Article IV, the first sentence should read: CATEGORIES: Participation in the Council shall be empowered through three bodies. Associate Council Members Ms. Mickey asked if council members were prepared to give recommendations for associate members for the council. Ms. Godbey pointed out that recommendations for associate members could be generated by using the Constituency Building diagram. Discussion ensued about what groups should be included as associate members. Reference was made to the groups mentioned in bylaw article 5.2. Council members brainstormed about other groups that might be called on to represent their constituencies, and these included:
Council members agreed to bring recommendations for Associate Council members to the next meeting. Needs Assessment Ms. Godbey reviewed the professional development needs which were identified by the Council at the last meeting:
Ms. Mickey reported on a needs assessment that was done by the Office of Applied Technology, Adult and Career Education at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The needs assessment was completed by 64 teachers and 26 administrators or counselors, on the subject of the GED preparation program. Ms. Mickey provided the groups with handouts of the survey forms and the results of the needs assessment. Council members discussed the following issues: providing in-service workshops for teachers, on-line or web-TV courses, mentoring, providing GED training for WAGES recipients, language problems. Sheila Long asked whether all five regions could come to consensus about ways to address needs in basic skills around the state; Ms. Godbey said that a statewide council that will be established in Year Two of this project might be able to address those needs. John Almond commented on the quality of instructional delivery in schools and that businesses here have difficulty finding qualified employees. Dr. Waite said that providers of adult and vocational education will be publishing complete information on their programs so that adult students will have choices. Ms. Mickey said that the example of employers who go out of state to recruit employees showed the need for better communication between adult education providers and business and industry. Review Next Steps for Year 1 Ms. Godbey referred the group to an overhead on project deliverables and performance criteria and asked the participants to consider the criteria that the DOE might use to evaluate the Region 5 PDC's efforts in Year 1. The group brainstormed and developed the following performance criteria:
Judy Langelier asked whether training would proceed without completing the Needs Assessment process. Douglas Smith responded that training should follow an "action research" mode, with on-going assessment and continual tweaking to make it more effective. Referring back to the overhead on deliverables and performance criteria, Ms. Godbey asked the group about policy barriers and the following issues were identified:
The group adjourned for lunch at 12:10 and reconvened at 1 p.m. Presentations on Best Practices Melody Chaykin presented on workshops in Broward County Public Schools to provide training for new adult education teachers. Her presentation was accompanied by a handout on "Conditions of Employment Workshops" that explain the required ten hours of workshops for new teachers, and copies of a handbook that is provided to new teachers in Broward County. The workshops cover (1) Module A: A comprehensive overview of all Adult General Education (AGE) courses offered through adult and community school programs. (2) Module B provides training in specialization areas of Adult General Education courses - Adult Basic Education (ABE), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), General Educational Development (GED), and Adults with Disabilities (AD) are individually presented for comprehensive understanding. (3) Module C: Any Module B workshop not previously taken and/or other specifically designed (by curriculum facilitators) workshops relevant to AGE. Judy Langelier (a.k.a. "CASAS Queen") presented on adult education teacher training in Palm Beach County. Judy distributed a handout explaining in detail the in-service program which is offered twice yearly in order to provide a cadre of trained professionals for ESOL site admeting management, personal success skills, etc.. Valerie Bryan followed with a presentation with computer and overhead projector on ACENET, and its Clearinghouse on Best Practices which is found at the internet website. Some of the resources they offer include compiled demographic data to use in needs assessments and catalogues of exemplar programs. Doug Smith presented on a training program called "Performance-Based Management in Adult Education" through which seven topics are offered for college or in-service credit. The topics include (1) creating and sustaining a supportive environment (2) strategic planning (3) developing benchmarks and best practices based on quality indicators (4) performance measurement (5) using performance results (6) performance based budgeting, and (7) contracting for performance. These training require 7 seminar sessions, 8 hours for each session. Carrie Mickey continued with a presentation on "The GED/HSCT (Florida High School Competency Test) Exit Option with At-Risk High School Students," which was accompanied with a handout on the program's guidelines. Pam Shrestha completed the presentations with a discussion of DOE adult education grants that was illustrated by a handout providing detailed summary information on grants awarded in 1998-99 in the Region 5 area. These include both programmatie and professional development projects. The professional development projects include a training project for future adult education administrators, a project to modify the Student Success Tracking System; and a project on wrokplace instruction, among others. Regional Lead Institution A brief discussion about the Regional Lead Institution followed. A question came up as to the process of contracting, and Pam Shrestha answered that FSU would subcontract with the Lead Institution. She suggested training on two topics: the adult learner; and, retention as a whole. Cyndi Godbey discussed ways of choosing the Lead Institution. In another region, the council developed an Request for Proposal (RFP) process to choose the institution. Judy Langelier asked if the institutions represented here were interested in serving as the Lead Institution(s). In response, Doug Smith said yes for Florida International University (FIU), and Valerie Bryan said yes for Florida Atlantic University (FAU). There were a few questions about how the two institutions would work together and whether one of the two would be chosen to serve as fiscal agent, but there was consensus among council members that fiscal concerns would not be a serious obstacle to the two institutions working together. A motion was then approved to select FIU and FAU as the Lead Institutions for Region Five. It was agreed that the two institutions would collaborate on a partnership agreement to delineate responsibilities; the fiscal agent would then negotiate a purchase of services arrangement with FSU. Regionally Based Training Ms. Godbey reviewed the training priorities identified at the previous meeting. They cover:
Continuing with themes already discussed, the council brainstormed more training topics:
Carrie Mickey then asked if the group members were approaching consensus on topics. She suggested that if there were one or two sessions, one might be called "Teaching the Adult Learner." The group finally reached consensus on the three training areas which would be inclusive of those previously discussed, as follows:
III. Close of Meeting Homework for Next Meeting The homework for council members to complete before the next meeting (6-21) includes four items:
Next Meeting Date and Place Ms. Mickey confirmed with Willie Johns that the next meeting would be held at the Seminole Tribe of Florida's facilities, 6300 Stirling Road, in Hollywood, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, June 21. Directions to the meeting site will be distributed by the FSU project team in advance of the meeting. Evaluation of Meeting
The group thanked John Andola for arranging the meeting place as well as
for the wonderful (& free!) lunch. The meeting was adjourned at just
after 3 p.m.
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