Wisconsin Technical College System Board
310 Price Place, PO Box 7874
Madison, WI 53707
Edward Chin, State Director
Present:
Members Absent:
Guests: Reba McColley, LTC
John Hamilton agreed to act as Chairperson for the meeting since Karen Lawlor was unable to be physically at the meeting. He called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM. Karen Lawlor joined the group by telephone. The group wished Karen a speedy recovery. Members introduced themselves.
A motion was made by William Barribeau to approve the minutes of the June 28, 2001 meeting as submitted. Mary Peters indicated that the date of the meeting listed under Command Spanish should be March 2, 2001 and the typo in the same sentence should be corrected from "were" to "where". Bill agreed to submit an amended motion. Motion seconded by Jan Jablonski. Minutes were approved. A call for additional items to the agenda was made. Sharon indicated an addition for review of a request by Fox Valley Technical College related to Foreign Language be added, as well as stating that Doug Lindsey from LTC would be on the phone at 2:00 PM to discuss the proposal to change Guideline 32. Also, NCTC had a suggestion for a minor language change in 103.
Karen Lawlor mentioned that she found out some individuals at her district were wanting to offer the Train-the-Trainer courses in other program numbers besides the 455 number it had been assigned. She was able to correct the district staff on this matter, but wondered if other members of the Committee had heard of this happening at other districts. No other Committee members had heard of this happening. Sharon provided clarification that at the time of audit she would be asking to see sample documentation on individuals who were certified using the unique criteria, and that it would be up to the districts to provide this for her. Then a sampling of such cases would be presented to the State Committee for their review. This would be done for the 2001-2002 school year, during the time of audit of that year (2003). Sharon reviewed several minor additions to the Guideline within the 302, 311, 316, 317 and 812 Driver Education area. These changes will be retroactive to the June 2001 date. A motion was made by Bill Barribeau; seconded by Mary Peters to accept the document with the additional changes. Motion carried.
Mike Carney gave a presentation on the new methodology for districts to report Staff Accounting. Districts are no longer required to report staff wages and fringes at the course level beginning this year 2001-02. It was designed to reduce the staff time it took to keep track of this level of detail and to reduce the time at the end of the year to fix edit errors. It is optional for the districts. Mike indicated that about half of the districts would probably use this new option. Banner and Datatel districts probably won't change. A new code or codes will need to be added on Staff Accounting to allow districts to indicate those instructors teaching 15 hours or less, in order for them to not show up on the certification audit list. Also, for those individuals who are uncertified, the penalty will need to be calculated down to the course by the state office. Then district staff will have the opportunity to show documentation locally if they want to contest the dollar amount. Mike then discussed the 99-00 certification penalties and final state aid adjustment for the districts based on the penalties. The important point is that the total state aid is a finite pot of money, and if you take away money from one district, it ends up being re-distributed to the other districts. Therefore, it was demonstrated that even though a district had a certification penalty, it is conceivable that they can gain state aid based on the distribution formula amongst the districts. However, they are lessening their amount of gain because they received a penalty.
Sherm Ansell gave a presentation on the concept behind the 660 foundation for Electronics. He discussed why he chose the word "foundation" vs "core". He shared a chart that was developed that described the proposed change with the current methodology. Electronics is becoming a widespread knowledge base for 5 program areas. The Electronics programs have a strong common foundation but are clearly differentiated in the second year. Adding 660 allows instructors to specialize and also allows Deans to balance faculty loads, and allows for flexibility in staffing and extending lab hours. Automation is based on electronics and will become a major cluster for the future. A concern was expressed as to if this perceivably could eliminate full time instructors. While that may be possible, the other side of the argument is that it could actually help part-time specialists fill out their teaching load. Sherm mentioned that the ideas had been presented at all related State Called Meetings where instructors were present, and there was no resistance to the idea. The districts are allowed to pick their own foundation courses, and districts are not required to do this. One change was added to the 660 Occupational Experience Document under Section II. Jan mentioned this concept might help in other areas in the future. Bill Barribeau made a motion seconded by Jan Jablonski to approve the concept and the new Occupational Experience Document. Motion carried.
Mike Tokheim gave a power point presentation on the growth within CIS programs which included a discussion of the potential programs he is considering designating "New and Emerging". They are: E-Commerce/Web Administrator 10-152-1 at Milwaukee, 31-152-1 Web Developer at MPTC, 10-154-3 Computer Support Specialist at NCT, 10-154-5 User Support and Training Specialist at WWTC, 10-107-8 CIS Network Specialist at all districts but SWTC. Jan asked why the 10-107-8 program was not moving yet to the 150 area. Mike indicated that the Business Deans felt they should proceed slowly with these transitions, and the first step should be to firm up what the new 154 programs look like, and then secondly to move existing things into new numbers. Also, the 10-154-2 program at MPTC will be transitioned to the 113 program area by next fall. This occupational experience document was up for approval by the committee. Mike indicated he would like the approval of the document as is until the number change takes place. Bill Barribeau made a motion, seconded by Mary Peters to accept the 10-154-2 Occupational Experience document. Bill also made a motion to accept the 31-152-1 Occupational Experience document. It was decided to amend the language in Section IV to clarify that currently no industry certifications are required for this program. The amended motion was accepted and seconded by Kitty Willkomm. Motion carried. Mike Tokheim will take the list of tentative new and emerging programs to the Business Deans meeting in October, and then bring them back to the next Committee meeting for a vote. (November Wisline or December).
The most recent draft of the 850 document was distributed for review. Kitty explained changes made to the ESL section; i.e. the addition of Foreign Language Instruction. Mary Ann Jackson was unavailable today, thus voting on the document will be delayed until a Wisline can be scheduled in October. One issue yet to resolve, relates to the Five year in levels 5 & 6, for Reading. An advanced degree in Reading would not contain 30 credits of Reading Instruction. It was suggested to use 12 credits for Provisional and 20 for 5 year. Committee members would like a review of what was removed from the document and why. Questions related to retroactive status, and grand fathering of prior instructors need to be addressed. Jan feels the requiring of a note to be added on the 116 form is irrelevant, as instructors could be assigned either on campus as well as off site.
The Committee was asked to review the 810 Speech Academic Preparation document for a minor change of adding "Language Arts" as a degree/credit area that would be acceptable. A discussion was held as to whether this would be more confusing to people, and some colleges like Cardinal Stritch have a degree titled this, but it really emphasizes reading. In the end, Mark Kearns made a motion, seconded by Kitty Willkomm to accept the change. Motion carried. Sharon briefed the group on a question that had come up with interpreting 801 Communication. The question is whether an individual needs to have 20 credits specifically in one of the designated academic areas, or whether it can be across several areas. It appears most districts are interpreting it to be across the areas listed. It was suggested to add the language "drawn from the areas of" to clarify the sentence. Also, we need to add "Language Arts" as an acceptable area within this document. These changes will be made, and brought back for vote next meeting.
Karen Lawlor and Sharon Spangberg gave an update on the discussion on certification held at the Human Resource Directors meeting. They gave a presentation to the HR folks on changes the Committee had been working on to add flexibility to the Code. The general reaction from the group was that while these changes were useful to some extent, they were not enough. The group feels that they need more control locally over determining who is qualified to teach, and that the Code is severely limiting their ability to do so. Basically they feel the Code is out of date and should be eliminated entirely. State Board staff that attended the meeting responded that the chances of certification being eliminated are nonexistent. Future changes to the existing code, while a possibility, have not been discussed. It is unknown if the next Director would want to pursue that option. A copy of the Minority survey was handed out. While the survey was not conducted in a scientific manner, and therefore no conclusive results were obtained; it appears that no glaring difference between whites/nonwhites and certifiability exits. No further work on this topic has been assigned.
Sharon gave an update on progress to date. The workgroup working on this will be meeting on October 23rd to begin work. Committee members would like a copy of the project proposal sent electronically to them. Sharon will do. Facilitators will need a chance to give input, and this is part of the grant proposal.
Sharon presented the work of the committee that reviewed the competencies. They concluded there was a 100% match to the competencies. A motion was made by Mark Kearns seconded by Val Roeser to accept the use of WLDI to meet Requirement # 58. A second motion was made by Mark Kearns, seconded by Bill Barribeau to allow individuals who had participated in WLDI in the past to be able to utilize this option upon presenting their completion certificate to the Certification Officer.
Doug Lindsey (by phone) and Reba McColley presented a proposal to modify Guideline 32 to expand the substitute hours allowed for labs to 30 hours. The proposal was a result of discussion among the Trade and Industry Deans from a majority of the colleges, however GTC, SWTC, and Milwaukee were not at the meeting where it was discussed. Many colleges have difficulty finding substitutes. Discussion revolved around too much complexity dividing by the type of hours. Would we want to consider 15 hours for academic areas and 30 hours for occupational areas? What would the application and complexity be for this beyond trade and industry areas? Sharon will follow-up with Marge Wood on these questions and the issue will be revisited for vote in December.
David Hague and Sharon presented a letter received from Marie Martin at Fox Valley Technical College regarding a growing interest in foreign language study for credit with an occupational focus. Her letter states that developing curriculum for these specialized courses requires native language fluency and expertise in foreign language teaching methods, which is different than the certification requirement for a minor or 20 credits in the foreign language. They are interested in broadening the Foreign Language requirements to include native speakers with degrees in Linguistics and Foreign Language teaching. David and Sharon will be putting together a workgroup to outline the pros and cons for doing this and then will bring the results back to the committee by the next meeting. Kitty will be asked to join the workgroup.
Jan brought up an issue that has surfaced in Milwaukee. An instructor wants to count some life experiences towards advance standing in MATC's Management Courses and then use towards meeting Requirement # 59. The committee may need to spend future time discussing this and the broader topic of alternative methods for achieving the education requirements. Perhaps developing a challenge exam for individuals to test out of the competencies for the requirements is a viable option. The issue was tabled for now, to be discussed at a future date.
Roe Parker gave a presentation on his work to re-design the agency Websites including Certification. He has been working with Sharon and Tom on this project. He reviewed a validation exercise on the uses of the Certification site with the Committee to gather their input. Sharon also discussed a change in classifying the Guidelines differently, dividing them into Administrative Bulletins, Policy Guidelines, and removing some to be housed only in a Handbook for Certification staff locally. Also, we would like to categorize the remaining Guidelines into a smaller group with fewer, more general labels, and then make these easier to find on the Website. All this will not be done immediately, but will transition to the new design on the Website over the next 3-9 months. Roe also showed a new sample format for the Guidelines, in which 3 related Guidelines were incorporated into one Guideline. Further input from the Committee will be needed, and from the local certification staff. Mary Peters volunteered to work with the state staff on this. We will seek input from the workshop attendees tomorrow.
A Wisline will be tentatively scheduled for November 1st, and the December meeting will be held on the 14th at the State Board office. The 850 Document will be reviewed at the November Wisline. Topics for December include the foreign language request, request for increasing substitute hours, guidelines work, on-line course development, and a 103 language change request. Sharon reviewed the workshop agenda and asked for help with several items.
Mary Peters, seconded by Kitty Willkomm made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 PM.