Minutes

November 6, 2006: Sacramento County Office of Education

President Jan Treff called the meeting to order at 10:10a.m.

Present: Benita Washington, Tom Mangione, Frank Boehler, Jan Treff, Sherman Garnett, Donna Opoku-Agyeman, Joe Taylor, Russell Sass, Sheri Hanni, Jerry Hime, and Jane Claar.

Additions to agenda: Purchase of a CD burner, ACSA website, State Conference workshop suggestions, statewide CWA group, signature authorization for contracts.

Approval of minutes: Minutes from the August 2006 retreat were reviewed and approved as submitted. Minutes from the Sept. 1, 2006 Board meeting were approved as submitted.

Section reports:

San Joaquin: The section recently held a workshop on expulsion and discipline with 55 attendees including 25 new members. The workshop was free to members.

The section is planning another workshop for later in the year and will hold their scholarship luncheon on May 11, 2007. Benita will notify Jan of Jan. meeting date.

Southern: The Section held a Board meeting on the Queen Mary in preparation for 2008 State conference. They are negotiating details with the hotel. The section hosted a Truancy Conference in Palm Springs with 282 attendees. They received positive feedback about the spirit and content of the workshop. Requests were made to hold the event again next year which the section will attempt to do. On January 26th the section will be holding a "topical conference" on prejudice and stereotyping relating to hate crimes. In Dec. LACOE will be doing a legislative update the section will co-sponsor.

Bay: The section will he hosting a Dec 8th workshop in Morgan Hill with Ray Culberson and Ana-Marie Jones focusing on fostering a safe and effective school environment. They continue to work on the State Conference.

Delta Sierra: The section held a workshop on Oct 21st on School/Student safety with 75 attendees. Joe recommended Steve Wolf and Wayne Sakamoto, workshop presenters, for the state conference. Their presentations are available on the CASCWA website. Steve Jeffries from Attorney Generals office was the keynote and a positive connection for CASCWA.

Treasurer: The third installment from SI&A has been received. Southern section has received their $2,500 payment, other sections will get checks today. The balance is designated for the State Conference. Membership is now accepting purchase orders.

Joe was charged $289 for his last night at the hotel in Palm Springs. Jerry will attempt to resolve it with the hotel but if not, would like the state board to pay the difference. Frank moved that the State pay the difference if it is not handled through the hotel. Donna seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

~Jerry brought up the issue of who has signatory power to sign contracts obligating the organization to financial liability. How does this affect liability? What do by-laws say?? By-laws, both State and section, need to specify who can sign contracts. The consensus of the Board was that treasurers should sign. In order to formalize the process, Jan will draft language and distribute it to the Board.

~Event insurance: Jerry got quotes for the Palm Springs conference and paid $189. He has requested a quote from the same company for the State Board that would cover sections as well to see what the costs would be. Frank moved to have Jerry continue researching prices and bring it back to the Board. Donna seconded. The motion passed.

~Donna moved that we accept the treasurer report as submitted, Jane seconded, the motion passed.

Intercom

Frank is putting the next issue together. He anticipates sending it to Dennis in the next week for printing. The Intercom is being sent to thousands via email and Frank thinks we should continue the mass mailing in order to reach more people. Each section needs to look at submitting information to Frank. There will be a link to ACSA and their 43 points relating to NCLB.

Legislation (Sherman)

Bills discussed include:

~AB 2871 Huff bill relates to pupil records.

~SB 1454 on hazing now has the same definition as the penal code which requires changes on suspension forms and how it's aligned to penal code. Jane asked Sherman to send email designating needed changes.

~The State redefined "serious physical injury" -Sherman will send out.

~The State will begin auditing schools regarding parent notifications in other languages (15% rule) beginning in Jan 2007 to see if schools are compliant. A new website- "multi lingual documents" has samples ­ districts have pass codes to access information.

~SB1327 Special Ed/504 suspensions of 10 + days, when transferring a student from school to school the County Office needs to be notified. EC 48203.

~Sherman has been asked to attend a task force meeting on foster youth on Jan. 23, 2006. Each county will have 5 reps. from schools/agencies. Sherman would like another CASCWA rep ­ Jan will attend.

Membership

Tom received a good response from the postcards he sent. Current member numbers are Bay-62, Delta Sierra-56, San Joaquin-178 and Southern-209.

Web

~Send Tom any save the date flyers to put on the website. There is now a professional development page you can check dates of events on.

~Tom will post section minutes if he gets them.

~"Ask the Expert" still comes to Tom and he will continue to forward them to the Board.

~The question of putting sponsors on our State/section homepages was brought up. Southern has the SI& logo on their website because they have donated monies. One suggestion was to include a sponsorship amount that would result in recognition on our website. It was decided to leave it as is for now but that the State Board should approve others before they are put on our website as "partners."

State Conference

Russell reported that plans are going well for the State Conference. The section is currently finalizing speakers. Their next meeting is Nov. 16th when the agenda will start being filled in. Thursday's Dinner Dance is scheduled from 6:00pm-11pm and the band is booked.

Frank suggested having back up for A/V support. The section is looking at having students who do this as part of a class assist, but they will have people there to set-up and trouble shoot. The Wed. academy includes CWA 101 and Advanced Gang Awareness. They are looking for people to present for the CWA 101 strand. Suggestions included law firms, Joe Brucia, and Board members.

Wed night there will be shuttle busses for 5-6 hours to take people to the downtown area where there are restaurants and wine bars. The hotel has a wine tasting each evening.

Arrangements for the shuttle from the airport need to be made 2 weeks in advance and people need to make their own arrangements.

Send recommendations for speakers to Russell Sass ASAP.

Jan will check on getting the conference rate for the night before our March State Board meeting. State scholarship recipients should be recognized locally by each section and will have their names presented at the State Conference.

New Business

Credit Card Merchant ­ Jan researched and found there are 2 types of machines, both portable. One is $700 and prints receipt with fees attached for use. The second is a $110 machine that doesn't print receipts with same fees applying except the statement fee. Costco has a machine Jan wants to look into. Jan will continue to research this and let the Board know at our next meeting. Others will check on the use of machines they currently have.

Slogan Contest

Board members voted on the slogans submitted. Russell brought up the point of whether the winning slogan will be the final one used or will the State Board approve the selection. The suggestion was to bring back the top three at the State Conference for final selection by attendees. The slogan receiving the top vote today will get a paid registration to the State Conference. Karen Basurto tallied the votes and reported back to the Board.

There was a tie between: "CASCWA Committed to Student Success" and "Go to CASCWAThe CWA Experts." The Board took a vote with the 1st slogan winning. The slogan was submitted by Jan who will "donate" the registration to someone in her section.

Laminating Machine

Jan had nothing new to report. Tom reported that he has a machine at home for another organization that is rarely used. We would be using it to laminate the name tag/membership cards for State Conference. Tom will laminate them if he can get them in time and can bring the machine to the conference.

National Truancy Conference

Letter of Support

An issue of home schooling came up at the Palm Springs conference resulting in the recommendation that Jan draft a letter, for approval by the Board, to CDE asking them to clarify their position with regard to private school affidavits and the process for notifying districts and county offices. Joe questioned the purpose of what we are asking of CDE. Some districts want the ability to follow up with those families who submit PSA's for less than 6 students. We also want the CDE to adhere to the registration period from October 1-15 each year instead of extending it as has been the practice.

The Southern section is planning to host another National Truancy Conference next year. The section is asking for 50% participation from the NTPA who are requiring a letter of support. In addition the International Truancy association is asking about co-sponsoring with CASCWA in 2008 in Las Vegas.

Numerous discussion points were presented in regard to the Southern Section again hosting the National Truancy

Conference including:

  1. Joe recommended that the State Board play a bigger role in the coordination of the NTPA/CASCWA conference as it will continue to grow. He felt we should move toward a State focus.
  2. Jerry shared that at their last section meeting they decided to hold the National Conference again in 2007 and are committed to that. The Southern section developed a group to work on the conference and are confident they could continue with the planning process.
  3. Russell shared that it seems incongruent to have a section of a State organization co-host with a national organization and we should look at that in the future.
  4. Sherman suggested the State "sponsor" but Southern section do the planning with NTPA. Jerry added that we could consider making it a Southern section event supported by the State Board.
  5. Frank and Jerry suggested the possibility of holding a southern and northern conference which some members felt was not congruent for a national conference.
  6. The issue of how profits would be split if the format is changed was also brought up with no clarification.
  7. Jerry shared that this was considered the sections Fall conference and they would like to continue with it.
  8. Frank suggested we discuss it at the section level and discuss options again in the future but Southern would host again in 2007.
  9. oe continued with his suggestion that we move toward a State focus.
  10. Frank expressed that the State should not be in the position of coming in and taking over successful section events.
  11. Joe felt we should have something more concrete about the future of the conference. Jan determined that in the interest of time and the lack of consensus on the future of the National Truancy conference, the topic will be put back on the Board agenda for January.

The Southern section needs a letter of support by their Dec. meeting to go ahead with two more conferences. Jerry suggested that Dr. Donna write the one for the Southern Section conference with NTPA.

CD Burner: Frank brought to the Board the idea of purchasing a CD burner that the State and Sections could use to burn CD's for conferences. The cost is about $1,700 which he suggested the State pay or split it among Sections. Frank will research further and report back.

ASCA Website: Frank would like ACSA to consider adding a link to our organization on their website. Frank would like Victor to carry this through as he is active with both organizations.

CWA Statewide Meeting: Joe reported that the next meeting is on Nov. 17, 2006 at SCOE. County level CWA's will be meeting to share info. and discuss plans for the annual teleconference in May. Riverside and San Bernardino counties are hosting this year.

2008 State Conference: There was again the question of who signs contracts. Further, the Queen Mary contract has meeting room charges included in the contract which include paying 40% of the indicated fee even if the organization meets the designated room block. Forty percent of the full fees would be $5,000. Sherman contacted Rob Jacobson who will look into this.

Old Business

Establish Legislative Committee

Next meeting

Redesign Website

Names of section reps were given at the last meeting.

Logo shirts

Southern received the shirts they requested from the CASCWA store late for the National conference and will sell them at future events. Payment was given to Delta Sierra.

Further discussion will be put on the next meeting agenda if needed.

A template for membership cards was given to Bay section.

Jane is drafting a letter to CDE regarding the State SARB chairperson and will email it to Jan for distribution to the Board.

Budget Approval

Dennis was not present with the proposed budget. The item will be moved to the next meeting.

Our next State Board meeting is Jan 12, 2006 in Monterey (ACSA Conference). The meeting will be at the Portola Plaza Hotel from 2pm ­ 5pm in Jerry's room.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:57pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheri Hanni, CASCWA State Secretary