Colorado Council on High School/College Relations

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Colorado Council on High School/College Relations

Executive Committee Meeting

Daniels Fund

March 24, 2017

9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Members and Organization Representatives Present: Freddy Burciaga, Liliana Diaz, Vicki Glaser, Lori Hixon, Ernie Navarette, Stephanie Panion, Jenny Schneider, Rick Sciacca, Sharon Simmons, Trina Visocky

By phone/web: Jill Corbin, Tara Holmes, Jody Wilson

Minutes

I.  Call to Order – Liliana Diaz

·  Meeting was called to order 9:07 at a.m.

·  February 2017 minutes - approved

II.  Treasurer’s Report – Sean Broghammer/Tara Holmes

·  Total assets: $371,376.16

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III.  Organizational Updates

·  ACT – Lisa Wolf

-  As a result of the announcement (attached to minutes email), ACT is going to be doing a study between ACT Engage and Tessera at grades 6-12. If anyone is interested in the details and may want to participate, please reach out to me.

-  I have accepted a new position within ACT and will start on March 27. I will be the Director of National K-12 Partnerships. My current position of State Lead for KS and CO is currently posted. I will continue to do a double-duty of sorts until it is filled and will be sure to introduce the new state lead to CCHS/CR when they are hired. I hope to make it to the meeting in April as well to see everyone – I’ve been bummed that I’ve been traveling during the last 3 meetings!

·  CIC/DHE – Maria Elena Rivera

-  Dr. Kim Hunter Reed kicks off #COCampus Tour

Dr. Kim Hunter Reed, executive director of the Department of Higher Education, stopped by Colorado School of Mines last week to discuss issues of equity and diversity with students, administration and faculty. Over the year, Reed plans to visit all of Colorado’s 31 public institutions. Follow the tour on social media using the hashtag #COCampusTour.

-  College Friday is less than a month away!

Help us rally around Colorado students by wearing your college gear on Friday, April 21 to show you support students’ decision to continue their education—whether at a community college, university or certificate program.When you sport your gear, be sure to stop by any Illegal Pete’s location for a free cookie or Le Peep for a free sticky bun.

-  April is Financial Literacy Month

As college acceptance letters roll in, April’s a great time to reflect on financial habits that help put college in reach. Our Money 101 site includes tutorials, worksheets, tools and more that can guide you toward smart saving and spending behaviors. Improve your financial IQ today: http://www.cicmoney101.org/default.aspx?auth=0

·  CDE – Eve Pugh

-  Eve is at the School Counselor Corps Grant proposal review today. There isn’t much of an update, as legislation is pending.

·  CESDA – Sharon Simmons and Deneshia Hearon

-  Looking for keynote, checking with mayor of Avon regarding Mayor Michael Hancock. The CESDA Annual Conference Committee 2017 held May 24-26 at the Westin Riverfront Resort in Avon, Colorado.

-  This year’s conference theme is “Inspire Others To Dream More” and the conference committee has opened the Call for Proposals for this year. The Call for Proposals will close at 5pm on Friday, March 31st, so please submit any proposals by that time. A full listing of this year’s sessions will be available on the CESDA Conference Website on April 17th. Please encourage anyone you know to submit a proposal.

-  CESDA Upcoming Symposiums North Classroom Building, April 7th, 2017 -8:30 AM - 2:30pm, Auraria Campus, Downtown, Denver, 1200 Larimer St., Denver, CO 80204; UPDATE 3/30: Regretfully, last week the symposium organizing committee at Auraria Campus and the Pre-Collegiate Co-Chairs, decided to cancel/reschedule the 2017 Spring Symposium due to low-attendance. Despite out best efforts with outreach, we had extremely limited RSVP’s with only about 1.5-2 weeks away from the symposium. The organizing committee from CCD, CU-Denver, and MSU have recommitted to coordinating the Fall 2017 Symposium.

·  Boettcher – Stephanie Panion and Tiffany Anderson

-  Very exciting time - sent out decision letters this week.

-  Will send out a reminder that students are required to submit one test score, they can list Boettcher as one of their test score selections.

·  CAFAA/College Goal Sunday – Liliana Diaz

-  No update.

·  KOO – Lori Hixson

-  Met last night. Moving toward conference, June 5-8. Have 9 signed up, little below average, please share with schools. Scholarships are available. KOO I - $375 for 4 days. Counselor less than 5 years. All info is on the Colorado Council website. New people are coming on: Trina Visocky and Diane Campbell, looking at transitioning the team as current leaders start to pull back. Thanks to Council re: KOO budget. Still need swag.  Looking for flash drives.

IV.  Committee Reports

·  Admissions Practices – No chair

-  Kim Medina reached out to Todd Rinehart at DU, he responded that he couldn’t add any duties right now, but urged us to revisit this committee:

o  I think you should revisit the idea of eliminating this position/committee. It sounds like bylaws may need to be revised to do so, but this committee really doesn’t have any jurisdiction to monitor or enforce SPGP rules/penalties. That really needs to be governed in our state by NACAC and RMACAC, with RMACAC being the initial point of contact for any complaints. We should educate and encourage our Colorado Council members to file all complaints with RMACAC, and let their AP Chairs manage the process. Plus, by doing this, the complaint gets recorded regionally and nationally, ensuring the offending party does not repeat the violation with another student/school (or if they do, it is treated as a repeat offense).

-  Are they willing to enforce at our fairs since that is not really in their jurisdiction? This is particularly a problem with proprietary schools. Otherwise, what power does RMACAC have to enforce at CCHS/CR fairs? Plus, there is an issue with ownership; would RMACAC start to feel ownership over our fairs? We do like the idea that we could elevate issues to a higher level that could impact an institution regionally or even nationally. Look at what this might look like.

-  Otherwise, we still have an open committee chair position. Still working through how we police violations at the fairs? Can we fold that part into the DNC? Could be addressed by the DNC chair at the fair and then brought to the executive committee.

·  Annual Conference – Rick Sciacca

-  Committee is meeting this afternoon, should be making a final decision on the location.

-  Looking at theme/decorating ideas.

-  Keynote ideas - one Rick really likes

-  Time line is moving along nicely.

-  Trying out Trello for group communication/organization/details.

·  College Day/Night Fairs – Kim Maxwell

-  Day/Night Fairs are continuing to contact host schools about fairs. We are close to having a schedule completed. Most schools are waiting on their schedules to be approved for next year.

·  Counselor of the Month – Maria Elena Rivera

-  Committee chair utilized Member Clicks for the first time to promote COM – apologies if you received duplicate e-mails.

-  Thank you Tara Holmes for your support with this new process, and Bea Salazar for pointing out the broken nomination link 

-  As a result of using the membership list in Member Clicks, we received 27 nominations within 2 days!

-  Next week, the COM committee members will begin the selection process for the months of February and March.

-  January COM – the CIC Outreach team is still in the process of planning the presentation with the principal at The Classical Academy– College Pathways, forGrace Ferguson.

·  Counselor Workshops – Patrick Fay & Morgan Raleigh

-  Patrick is setting up our first meeting for the committee to finalize an agenda

-  We have confirmation from Colorado Mesa (9/14), Colorado School of Mines (9/26), and Auraria for workshop dates

-  Pueblo Community College is interested in hosting both the Day/Night Fair and the Workshop, but is still working on logistics

-  We are still waiting for Adams State and CU Boulder

·  Elections and Recognition – Kim Medina

-  No Report

·  Financial Aid – Freddy Burciaga

-  IRS retrieval tool has been shut off by IRS (eff. 3/3) to prevent potential fraud, even though no fraud has been uncovered to date. This leaves families who have been selected for verification needing to request a tax transcript which takes at least 2 weeks. There is a request to see if the DOE can approve to go back to using regular 1040s. This IRS decision probably impacts all PELL eligible recipients. Even if your student hasn’t been selected for verification, encourage them to order the IRS transcript any way so they can be ready for it and make copies. (See the attachment for additional information.)

-  Why are financial aid offices still waiting until March to package financial aid? They didn’t have a requirement to package earlier, and many are still dealing with spring packaging. Still in process of figuring the earlier filing impact.

·  Government Relations – no chair

-  No chair, but Shawn Rodwell has expressed interest in filling this position, which is good since there is so much going on!

·  Handbook Distribution – no chair

-  Still no chair, need to figure out the distribution, particularly for the college fairs. Could each school take a week? Send ideas to Lili.

-  Jill Corbin helped sell handbooks at the Spring College Fair (1/$3 or 2/$5) – we made $253! Got rid of all but 2 boxes.

·  Handbook Revision – Lisa Borgmann

-  No report

·  Membership – Lauren Kelly

-  No report, but we have had 2 renewals  per Tara

·  Professional Development – Lori Hixon

-  Lori hasn’t contacted those interested in being on the committee yet, but will be doing that soon.

-  The Resource Guide will start revisions and emails will go out this next week. Revisions will be due mid-summer, before fall workshops/fairs.

·  Public Relations – Misty Sellden

-  They are waiting for submissions for the newsletter!

·  Scholarship – Tiffany Anderson

-  Decision deadline is April 2.

·  Technology – Liliana Diaz

-  Not much of an update, but committee chairs and reps should have received a link to the drop box so docs, etc. can be uploaded and saved.

V.  Representative Reports

·  College/University – Cody Dozier: No report

·  Two-Year College – Ernie Navarette:

o  Application task force is reconvening and working to streamline the app for 2 year colleges, trying to get it down to 10 questions or so (greatly reduced) – hoping it will be out by next fall.

o  Instructed by System Ops to use Guided Pathways and cluster models so that students can look at everything under a category. Exciting because should streamline for students. There is a program that will really guide students on their selected path. Software tool – Navigator – probably rolled out by fall.

·  Private High School – Jill Corbin: No report

·  HS District 1 – Jody Wilson: No report

·  HS District 2 – Adele Alfson: No report

·  HS District 3 – Vicki Glaser: No report

·  HS District 4 – Becky Gibbs: No report

·  HS District 5 – Jennifer Farias: No report

·  HS District 6 – Josh See: No report

·  HS District 7 – Trina Visocky: Wanted to ask about apprenticeship programs that is hot in their district. Wondering if this is something we want to approach or discuss?

VI.  New Business

·  Cynthia E. Gayles Award Funding – it was mentioned there is about 7 years remaining for this award. What is our plan for the future? Tara is wondering if the money raised with the raffle baskets ($600-700 annually) at the annual conference could be designated to this award instead of scholarships? Could we ask a question on the survey if people would still participate if the funds went to the award vs. scholarships? Could we identify backfill resource plus basket money so that we always have $1000 in that account? We do have time to find a solution. We could also look for another sponsor. J

·  Counseling Secretary at Ft. Morgan HS, Debbie Fowler, looking for a list of counselors/high schools in NE Colorado. Has been sent to Tara for action.

VII.  Old Business

·  CDE Credit – Lili talked to Eve since Mary Abbott won’t be able to manage any longer. Eve is willing. We will add a question to workshop and conference registration about whether they are interested in PD hours – Eve could have pre-printed and ready to go; they would have to be present at the end to collect their certificate. In the past, collected signatures at the end of the workshop and would receive an email with an electronic certificate. Make it a hybrid? Have a list ahead of time, initial at end that they were there and then send via email afterward. Stephanie is still willing to help collect the info.