Consortium Meeting Minutes

November 14, 1997

Welcome: Cindy Maw welcomed everyone. She talked about transitions and even though they are difficult, they are welcome. She quoted from the book Managing Transitions by Bill Bridges. She said we need to take care of yourself (sharpening the saw) by these four rules: 1) Show up! Be there to participate. 2) Be present! Give it your best shot. 3) Tell the truth! 4) Let go of outcomes! You can't control others. The role of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

Updates:
ULRC:
Bruce Schroeder went over folder contents. ULRC staff Jerry, Karen, Davalee and Tracy were excused due to Mentor Training. Bruce talked about the Edu-Quiz for November on web page at www.provo.k12.ut.us/ULRC/ulrc.html. Tony Done, San Juan County, was the winner for October. Bruce reported on the Precision Teaching Conference and reminded Consortium that the next Precision Teaching Conference will be in Salt Lake.
Randy Schelble introduced the November issue of the Utah Special Educator, New Opportunities, New Challenges...Discipline: Policy and Procedures. She also mentioned that the 9th Annual Mentor Conference on January 15 & 16 will be at the Olympus Hotel in Salt Lake. Registration forms were given out.

PARENT CENTER: Julie Davis said that Helen Post and Jennie Gibson went to Washington, D.C. and brought back training manuals to update according to IDEA 97. "Choose to Thrive, Not Simply Survive" Parent Conference will be on Mar 27- 28, at the Olympus Hotel. Stipends for parents may be available. The Parent Center has presented at the human exceptionality classes and has told what it is like to have children with disabilities. Parent trainings for surrogate parents will be held in Ogden and Moab during January. Parent Center has received a mini grant to help native American families learn about IDEA. They will have trainings in February at the Ute reservation and SLC. They also have a grant from Health department from Family Voices to help parents deal with health care issues. Head Start money available to work with kids with disabilities in Head Start programs.

USOE:
Tim McConnell announced that on Nov. 13, 14 SLC and Tooele have been participating in a regional conference on inclusion. 250 people signed up for first regional conference. Other regions will be having conferences. Contact Tim for dates.
Donna Suter announced a Transition Conference on March 19-20 at Egyptian Center in Ogden. The theme is "School to Life -Putting the Pieces Together." Call for papers going out now. Registration will be through districts.
Brenda Broadbent announced the Preshool Conference at the Olympus Hotel on March 25-27. The call for papers has gone out.
Steve Kukic gave everyone the book The Power Principle by Blaine Lee from Covey Leadership Center. (Steve will be leaving USOE in January to work for Covey Leadership Center.)
Mae Taylor-Sweeten gave copies of federal registrar about IDEA 97 (official federal regulations). (Steve announced that Mae will be Steve's replacement.)
Ken Reavis talked about Part B dollars. There is a "State Improvement Grant" directed toward CSPD that states can apply for. The amount available for Utah if successful would be $500,000 for five years. Consortium could be the central mechanism for writing the needs assessment for the direction that the grant will take. A motion was made proposing that the consortium through the consortium board be the steering committee to apply for the grant. The motion was seconded. The timeline was discussed. Then the motion was voted and approved. When the RFP comes out in January more information will be provided at a consortium meeting.

INSTITUTES OF HIGHER EDUCATION:
Westminster: Carolyn Kuehne gave an update of their new special education program leading to dual certification. It has been approved by faculty and now needs to be approved by the state.
Utah State University: Jane Pemberton talked about the program in Vernal with Sorenson Vision where technology is being used in the classroom.
University of Utah: John McDonnell said that in mid October they received two low incidence personnel grants in special education to train teachers in Utah and in the region. National faculty will be brought in to help their training.
Weber State University: Tammy Abernathy said that the special education students will have dual certification when completing the program.

CEC UPDATE: Pat Beckman, Utah CEC president, announced the CEC Spring Conference on April 25 in St. George. The theme for the conference will be "Learning with Competence and Caring." Pat asked for support from special education directors to help teachers attend this conference.

FEATURE PRESENTATION:
Tim McConnell introduced John McDonnell, Connie Buckner, and Nadine Thorsen from the University of Utah Achieving Inclusion Through Collaboration (AIC) Project. The best results came when schools decided to have inclusion for ALL students within their buildings. The project became the vehicle to help schools do this.
John McDonnell, project director gave an overview of the project. The goals of the project are to develop a planning process that assists faculty to establish an organizational structure that promotes the inclusion of all children in the general education curriculum and typical classes; and assists faculty members to continuously develop the curriculum and instructional skills necessary to meet the educational needs of all children. John went through the process and the preliminary evaluation findings with the consortium. He concluded with these general findings: 1) Effective instruction for students with severe disabilities in inclusive settings is achievable within current resources. 2) Efforts to develop effective inclusive programs by focusing on all children does not jeopardize the educational programs of students with severe disabilities. 3) When given the opportunity, faculty will use available resources to assure a high quality program for all students. 4) The roles of general and special education teachers change significantly in inclusive programs. Special education teachers struggle the most with this change. 5) The characteristics of inclusion in elementary and secondary schools is different and reflects their distinctive philosophical orientations and organizational structures. 6) Inclusion efforts in secondary schools must focus on moving faculty from a curriculum-centered to a student-centered model; and 7) While attitudes are important, building the instructional skills of the faculty is the key to successful inclusion. By the end of this year they will have a more accurate measure of results.
Bruce Schroeder talked about the theme for the year: new opportunities, new challenges and had the group again look at the square wheel picture. It is important to get new ideas out and try them before you "put them on the wagon". Bruce and Randy Schelble talked about "shared vision," the goal is to help the whole process get to the teacher/student level. "Strategic planning" relates to personnel development, especially the IDEA Users Manual.
For "Needs Analysis" the group actually spent time writing who would benefit from the User's Manual (see, write in Og Lindsley's terminology). Group discussion and sharing of ideas was encouraged before ideas were discussed by the entire group.

Meeting was adjourned at 12:00 noon.