FACULTY MEETING MINUTES
PRESENT: Richard Anderson, Cara Berryman, Dennis Bonanza, Jim Candon, Jeff Cassarino, Diana Chapman, Al Clark, Wade Cole, Chris Colwell, Sheila Commo, Anne Cote, Pauline Dwyer, Anne Emerson, Jenny Estey, Alan Frost, John Gorczyk, Barb Hagen, Lisa Harrington, Audrey Irons, Dan King, Mary Koen, Sue Kuzma, Mark Lather, Steve LaTulippe, Dianne Lawrence, Tod Lessard, John Long, Bob Lucenti, Paul Major, Eric Marchese, Katherine Miller, Broni Plucas, Gene Rembisz, Bob Salzman, Bob Sattelberger, Bobbi Shutts, Guy Smythe, Sharon Strange, Dave Strong, Claire Swaha, Scott Tomlinson, Peter VanWageningen, Bob Walsh, Tony Washburn, Tom Woods.
ABSENT: Kathi Cassidy, John Cross, Mary McCallum, Mo McIntyre, Maryanne Murphy, Mary Nelson, and Mary Poulos.
Introductions and
Announcements:
Bob called the meeting to order at
Roll Call was taken.
Bob Lucenti announced that Tony Washburn has decided to retire from his Vocational Instructor position at the Northern State Correctional Facility after twelve years with the Community High School of Vermont. He will be retiring at the end of April.
The CHSVT State Education Board's annual meeting will be
held on Wednesday, March 1st, at the Three Stallion Inn in
John Gorczyk passed on information about the Work Force
Development conference being held on March 14th, and 15th, at the
Bob stated that the Habits of Mind curriculum has been printed and will eventually be distributed to all sites. Before distribution, information will be gathered from experimental and control research groups to obtain information about work force development and habits of mind outcomes. Preliminary reports have found that the HOM curriculum is having a positive effect with approximately 48 percent of the "control" group returning to the custody of corrections and only 27 percent of the "experimental" group returning.
Sue Kuzma asked if more information could be sent about the Work Force Development conference. John Gorczyk said that he would send an email with more details.
Bob, Steve and the Steering Committee will be meeting with
members of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) on
New Legislation, Bill S222, was passed to fund Adult Basic Education literacy programs. You can view the Bill on-line at www.leg.state.vt.us for more information. Please let Bob know if you have any questions or comments. No corrections legislation is active at the moment. Steve Gold has been appointed as Deputy Secretary of the Agency of Human Services.
A question was asked as to whether or not S222 will affect our funding. The bill will use general fund monies since adult education is not a school.
Jim Candon met with the chairs of the focus groups two weeks ago. He explained that each chair has copies of standards four, five and six and explained the scoring sheets for the standards. He also informed the focus groups that they would be working on condensing course numbers and providing a syllabus that individualizes each course. At this time, the focus groups met to work on condensing courses, providing syllabi and scoring the standards given to them. When the groups were finished, each chair gave a brief summary of what they had accomplished. Most had finished scoring the standards and condensing their courses.
Bob discussed the mission statement with the faculty and read the vision statement from 1989 which was quite lengthy. In 1991, the vision statement was shortened into a mission statement and state standards were integrated. Steve presented all of the ideas for our new mission statement for discussion.
Jim Candon made a motion to accept statement #6 as the new mission statement of CHSVT. Sue Kuzma seconded it. The motion was called and all in were in favor. The new mission statement reads as follows:
"The mission of the
Steve will email the mission statement to the faculty. The new mission statement needs to replace the old one. Please alert central office if and when you change it in a document so that we can be sure to change it everywhere.
NEASC Steering
Committee
Barb Hagen, with the steering committee, has developed a survey to gather data about CHSVT to be submitted to NEASC for improvements. The survey is to be completed by several groups: Faculty, adjuncts, students, alumni, stakeholders, advisory board members, superintendents, etc. The faculty filled out the survey at the faculty meeting and surveys were handed out to each facility for alumni, students and adjuncts. The surveys need to be returned to Barb by March 15th so that they may be processed. Names need not be included. Discussion ensued about how to ask the students and alumni for help with the surveys. Some ideas were to present the survey to the students and explain that by filling it out they will be helping the school. Lists of all the students at each site are done and should insure that everyone is included. Students may be over and under 22. Alumni do not need a diploma from CHSVT in order to be considered for the survey, however, please put a "G" on the survey if they did graduate. Basically, whatever works best at each site to obtain the information is fine.
Steve gave a brief overview of the upcoming visit by NEASC
representatives in October. The group will be arriving on October 15th, in
Local Site
Announcements:
Dan King had nine graduates at his last graduation. One of the graduates had come from the work camp and Cara Berryman came to present him his diploma. Also, two new educators have been hired to complete the team at the Chittenden Community Site. Deborah Jaimes who was a past adjunct will be a correctional instructor and Nicole Marabella will be the vocational coordinator.
Gene Rembisz announced that there will be a graduation at
the Barre Community Site on April 20th. They will have between four and eight
graduates. Also, they are working with the
Diana Chapman has participated in the VT Humanities program, and brought a storyteller in for a course with 15 students.
Sue Kuzma is anticipating four graduates in April.
Bobbi Shutts will be graduating six students soon. One student is signing up with the National Guard. They also had a published author in one of their reading and writing classes.
Barb Hagen has lots of tomato plants and veggies in the greenhouse. See her if you are interested in any of them!
Katherine Miller announced that they will have a graduation on March 23rd, in combination with their local advisory board meeting to show them the end product of hard work.
Bob Lucenti met with a person from the Youth Service Bureau about the "Spectrum" program. He told Bob that students don't like to use the program because it is not a real school and request information to attend the CHSVT. Nice for us!
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Local Standards
Board - Jim Candon
Jim updated the faculty about the plan of operations for
maintaining licensing. Anne Cote made a
motion to adopt the plan of operations. John Long seconded it. Jim opened
the floor for discussion of the procedures. In order to proceed to the next
level of licensing, you must obtain three credits (they do not need to be
college credit) if you are not teaching in your endorsement. The license
expiration date remains the same. The portfolio focuses on the IPDP and
"smart goals" All were in
favor of the approval of the plan of operations as written. The next LSB
meeting will be Friday, March 24th.
Technology
Committee - Pauline Dwyer
The tech committee did not meet this month. The next meeting
is March 29th. The student computer inventory needs to be turned in, ASAP. This
determines the number of student computers needed.
NEASC standards ask that the school have a technology plan. Pauline responded that CHSVT already has a technology plan in place.
Special Education
- Mary Koen
The federal compliance monitoring report is complete. Mary
read highlights from the report. Students interviewed by the monitoring team
indicated that they felt respected by staff at CHSVT, and they felt they were
able to succeed because of the staff. The report provides positive information
to the Department of Education about how well the CHSVT is doing with providing
special education to its students. Mary also announced that there was a Spedoc
training on February 14th.
Library Committee
- Mary McCallum
Mary was not able to attend the faculty meeting. Guy Smythe spoke for the committee and reminded faculty to spend your money and get your order slips in soon. The committee's next meeting is scheduled for March 21st.
Curriculum
Committee - Barb Hagen
The committee is working on prior learning credit
information and assessments. Guidelines for these items will be forthcoming.
Steve is a little concerned with the electronic file
transfers. Please don't forget to transfer the education files in the database
before you send them on!
OLD BUSINESS
Bob Sattelberger is still working on the Job classification process. The information on market factor should be available sometime in March. Bob reminded everyone that this process only includes the Correctional Instructors and if the Vocational Instructors are interested in the process, he would be more than willing to help them.
Bob Lucenti has not contacted personnel yet about the Correctional Instructor name change to Educator, but will keep the faculty informed of the process.
There was no new business.
Dennis Bonanza made a
motion to adjourn the meeting. John Long seconded it. The meeting adjourned at
Respectfully Submitted,
Sheila Commo