Welcome: Mary Vaughn welcomed everyone to the last consortium of this school year.

Jerry Christensen went through the folder. He mentioned the copies of tapes by Art Cesnosia and Al Hoffmeister that were available. He also called attention to the index of Special Educator issues for the past year that was in the folder.

Jerry gave Dick Mecham a planter to mark his retirement at the end of this school year. (Arlene Brockbank is also retiring)

Davalee Miller reminded people of mentor applications that were mailed out. They need to be turned in by June. She also highlighted the May issue of the Utah Special Educator. She called attention to the additional information about some of those who contributed, which is new this month. This issue has good information on social skills.

USOE: Bruce Schroeder facilitated the USOE updates.

Nan Gray announced the newly appointed monitoring and assessment specialist is Deb Sparks, from Wayne School District. She also expressed sympathy for the death of Loydene Hubbard-Berg’s husband.

Brenda Broadbent distributed brochures for the Law Conference which will be August 2-4 at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center in Ogden, UT.

Valerie Scherbinske announced that the preschool conference will be September 28-29. There will be a letter coming with information and the registration form. Registration is due back by June 2. Valerie also announced that the SIPC project will be advertising for a position. The SIPC project has a web site at www.usoe.k12.ut.us/sars/PRESCL/home.htm

Dale Sheld described a program for a Masters in Speech Language Pathology offered from USU via distance ed. There are 20 slots available and applicants from rural areas will be given first opportunity to sign up. ISSI (Intermountain Special Studies Institute) will be held in Pocatello, Idaho, June 12-16. This is sponsored by USOE and there are 10 spots available. Those interested can contact Dale.

University of Utah: Jack Mayhew said that at their spring reception, the award for the outstanding alumni was given to Peggy Milligan. The Jeanette Misaka Award was given to the Utah Parent Center. Summer Sampler 2000 was given out containing the courses for the summer. Included is an insert specifically for educators (Summer Institute, a week-long institute the week of June 19). Special workshop by Cecil Mercer on Wednesday of that week ($95 for that day only). Westminster: Peter Ingles announced that they have a new special education program which provides an endorsement in special education.

Utah State University: Cyndi Rowland reminded people about the Intervention Conference June 19-23 at Utah State University. She also announced the De-escalating Aggressive Behavior course June 12-16 at USU (different from Mandt). She talked about the CECSEP program which is a collaborative program by distance education for preschool paraprofessional people providing preschool certification.

Utah Parent Center: Helen Post gave a follow-up to the update in St. George. She passed out "A Bridge to the Future"and mentioned that more copies are available. A materials list was given out. Utah families are free but educators may be charged for these materials. Their Parent Conference was last weekend (April 29-30) with 450 people attending. Helen thanked those who presented from the consortium group. Helen read Dr. Suess’ perspective on IEP’s

SIG: Bruce Schreoder called attention to a survey for special education on a national level. This can be taken online or the copy in the folder can be mailed in. Bruce gave a summary of RFPs (Requests For Proposals) that are coming out. Sharon Neyme talked about the RFP she has put together on district based proposals to improve and provide access to the general curriculum for all students and comprehensive staff development programs. Monica Ferguson’s has preservice RFPs to field test a curriculum that will identify what is needed for students.

Bruce said that nine more states were awarded improvement grants. Sharon developed a survey for administrators to see how well they are prepared to deal with students having disabilities. She wanted to know how much help and support they feel they have in this area. She is currently working on collating that data and will add more information from surveys at the Rural Schools Conference.

Special Presentation: Darol Wagstaff, founder and president of Youth Motivation Institute and Champions for Life Speakers Bureau, was the presentation speaker. He said we need to examine our lives and know that what we do is worth it. We need to have a dream and work toward that. Things will change but your dream can remain and will keep you young. Young people need to define a positive purpose to their lives. In Champions for Life, teams work on four attitude qualities: 1) believe in yourself; 2) develop inner strength; 3) be a good friend, and care for others; and 4) insist on victory; don’t quit. He put forth the idea of a "personal life coach" which could be a parent, teacher, etc. He said you are at risk, if you don’t take a risk. He said that there are three sources of power : first from ourselves; second from other people, third comes from our faith (in God).

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.

DiAnne Adams

Loraine Adams

Morgan Anderson

Mary Baldwin

Joyce Barnes

Pat Beckman

Brenda Broadbent

Jerry Christensen

Jim Curtice

Harriett Dickerson

Monica Ferguson

Peggy Fratto

Nan Gray

Peter Ingles

Larry Henry

Michael Herbert

Steve Hirase

Nancy Jones

Paula Kashiwaeda

Tracy Knickerbocker

Karen Kowalski

Anna LeFevre

Jack Mayhew

Richard Mecham

Karen Medlin

Davalee Miller

Peggy Milligan

Sharon Neyme

Steve Noyce

Lowell Oswald

Linda Otte

James Payant

Helen Post

Gloria Rasmussen

Ken Reavis

Colleen Riley

Cyndi Rowland

Valerie Scherbinske

Bruce Schroeder

Dale Sheld

Cheryl Smith

Deb Spark

Ellen Stantus

Vonnie Steele

Peter Titze

Mary Vaughan

Tom Walker

Minutes prepared by: Cheryl Smith