STATE EDUCATION BOARD
MINUTES
Members Present: Dwight Davis, Richard Fraser, Blanche Kelley, David Luce, Don Messier & Albert Pearce
Members Absent: Wilma Paronto & Dave Mulholland
CHSVT Administration Present: Bob Lucenti, Director - Stephan LaTulippe, Principal - Maureen McIntyre, Business Manager - Sheila Commo, Program Services Clerk
Guests Present: Guy Smythe, Correctional Instructor - Heather, Educational Assistant and student - Mary Haslam, Dale Local Advisory Board Member - Mike Bellizzi, Superintendent, Dale Correctional Facility
The meeting was called to order at
1. Education
Presentation - Guy Smythe, Correctional Instructor
Guy Smythe shared information about education at the Dale Correctional
Facility. He is the only instructor at Dale. Dale houses 45 residents. About a year ago,
Dale changed from a sentenced facility to a detention facility. Therefore, most
of the women are here for only a short amount of time, and the last thing they
are thinking of is education which makes it hard to engage them. This means
that flexibility is crucial. The under the age 22 population varies from
sometimes none, up to twelve. Classes are offered to all residents. A strength of a small facility is excellent communication
among staff, and everyone gets to know and understands each resident.
They have an incentive program that includes hours in the classroom in exchange for weekend visits and packages from the mail. A lot of the older women chose to earn their GED or a diploma from the Adult Diploma Program because it takes less time to obtain for the short amount of time they are at the facility.
Interaction between Dale and the Southeast State Correctional
facility in
David Luce introduced Mary Haslam, Dale local advisory board member. David also serves on the local board. David and Mary explained how the Dale advisory board serves as advocates not only for education, but other activities as well. They do this for reasons that Guy had explained earlier regarding how difficult it is to get their hands around the education issues.
Guy praised the local board for their continued support and
advocacy for the women at Dale. He feels that their perspective and ideas are
very helpful. Guy went on to discuss vocational and career counseling and how
difficult it is set up programs that serve the needs of women who are not there
long enough to become established. John Gorczyk, Manager of the Workforce
Development Program, is working to set up a
Blanche Kelley shared a newspaper article from the Rutland Herald. The article was spearheaded by the Vermont Children's Aide Society and Vermont Humanities Council.
Mary Haslam expressed concern that the inmates are not getting their individual needs met, and that it may be beneficial to have them complete a survey of what their needs are. She also expressed how helpful it would be, if we had mentors that could help see that those needs were met.
Guy completed his presentation by saying that technology has
made it easier to track the students from one place to another since all the
facilities have access to the same database. This makes communication about a
student, their hours and credits more accurate. He also stated that the staff
is looking forward to the opening of Dale II and the
2. Review of
Meeting Minutes & Acceptance of January Agenda:
Richard Fraser made a
motion to accept the meeting minutes of December 7, 2005. Don Messier seconded
the motion. The motion was called and it passed unanimously.
Dwight Davis made a
motion to accept the January agenda. Richard Fraser seconded the motion. The
motion was called and it passed unanimously.
3. Meet
Commissioner Rob Hofmann
Commissioner Hofmann was unable to attend the State Board Meeting at this time due to a scheduling conflict.
4. Graduation
Statistics and Supervision and Evaluation - Stephan LaTulippe
Since
David Luce wanted to know if students created portfolios to carry with them from site to site. Some portfolios are created but the student's graduation plan serves as the connection from site to site. It was also shared that the education file is separate from the correctional file. This means that none of the work, transcripts, diploma, etc. carries any mention of the Department of Corrections.
Blanche asked about the preservation of student education files. Where are they kept and for how long? All education files stay with the student as long as they are taking classes. When they receive their diploma or are released, the records come to central office where they are filed for three years. After three years, the files are sent to public records where they are retained until put on microfiche. They are available at anytime from the State's public records division, should a student re-enter school. Bob said that with the development of the career resource centers, we will encourage employers to ask for transcripts so that they can see what was learned while a student was incarcerated.
Steve handed out a copy of the Differentiated Supervision
and Evaluation System for the Professional Teaching Faculty of CHSVT. The
handbook is a guide for how evaluations are conducted for Correctional
Instructors, Vocational Coordinators, IT Specialists and Special Educators. Steve
is responsible for evaluating 38 instructors on three strands of evaluations;
Supervision/Evaluation, Colleague Consultation and Professional
Growth/Self-Directive Focus. Steve also handed out a copy of a Performance
Evaluation Report and explained the process of evaluating each teacher.
Evaluations need to be maintained on an educational level in order to keep
their tenor in line with the public sector should they ever return to a public
school. An evaluation requires a prior conference, observation of classroom
performance and a post conference. The State of
Some of the Board members shared concerns that this may be
too much for one person to conduct all of these evaluations yearly, along with
other duties. Discussion ensued about what could be done to change the amount
of evaluations that need to be done. It was suggested that the teachers would
have to be willing to request a change of language in the agreement between the
VSEA and the State of
David Luce asked about the ratio of adjunct teachers vs. full-time teachers. He is concerned about the quality of instruction with so many adjuncts teaching. Guy said that the teachers hire and evaluate adjuncts and that course descriptions must be approved by Steve before they may teach a class. Bob said that the advantage to having adjuncts on board included introducing citizens to corrections, citizens becoming desensitized to inmates, they would be more willing to hire a released inmate after spending time with them, and many of the adjuncts have become full-time teachers with the CHSVT. David Luce suggested that an evaluation/survey of the adjuncts by the students should be done at the end of a class. Bob said that some teachers do this already, and he will look into it becoming a common practice for the adjuncts.
Mary Haslam feels the need for more volunteers available to mentor and assess students coming into the program. She feels that there are students falling through the cracks who need more one on one attention. Bob feels that there is more need for structure with the outcome being employment. David feels that brings us back to a survey/assessment needed when a new inmate arrives to assess and determine the high needs for each individual. Steve said that self-assessments and WRAT tests are conducted to determine if a student is in need of compensatory education. The problem lies in the fact that the tests are only for under 22's and there is a lot of movement of inmates at Dale. Mike Bellizzi feels that the local board goes beyond the guidelines to advocate for the inmates, and he is thankful for this. Bob and Steve reminded the Board that there are guidelines that the instructors must follow. Mike feels like the smaller facility works well together without overstepping boundaries.
5. Bob Lucenti -
Changes in Statutory Language:
Bob handed out a copy of the Statutory Authority Title 28 §120. The big issue here is Section e. The legislature had requested a report, written jointly by the Department of Corrections and the Department of Education, to explain how the provision of special education would be implemented at all CHSVT sites, and the cost associated to provide these services.
Bob shared a copy of the report with the Board. He also shared that he recently had a meeting with Jim Reardon, Commissioner of Finance and Management Department, Steve Gold, Deputy Secretary of the Agency of Administration and Senators Bartlett and Collins. They discussed how the funding should be obtained for these services, whether from the general fund or education fund.
Bob also shared a re-write of our statutory language that was done by the Department of Education. He then shared a list of concerns that CHSVT had with the language changes. He told the Board that he then did a re-write of the statutory language that he felt was more appropriate. Tomorrow, January 5th, a meeting is scheduled with Corrections Attorney, Marie Salem, Jacob Humbert from the Attorney General's office and himself. They will be going over the language changes that Bob made.
Blanche would like an update when Bob is finished meeting with the lawyers. David L. is concerned that we are fighting the Department of Education on two fronts, special education and school status. Blanche reminded the Board that if we were to go back to a "program" all kinds of things can go wrong with it and it really needs to remain a school.
Dwight Davis made a
motion to keep Independent School approval as our primary goal, not public
school approval. Richard Fraser seconded the motion. The motion was called and
it passed unanimously.
6. State Education
Board Annual Meeting:
Suggestions and discussion as to where to hold the annual
board meeting in March had everyone in agreement to hold it at the Three
Stallion Inn in
7. Board Member
Terms:
There was discussion about Laurel Butler's position and why she remains on the Board member list. Maybe she never officially resigned. However, no one is sure. Chuck will call the Governor and see what he can find out.
8. Old Business:
Don Messier was wondering how the press release draft
regarding CHSVT successes and its impact to
Dwight Davis made a
motion to adjourn the meeting at
Respectfully submitted,
Sheila Commo