Interstate Compact on EducationalOpportunity for Military Children
Meeting minutes
Department of Public Instruction
Conference Room 150 South
301 N. Wilmington Street, Raleigh, NC 27610
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Start time: 9:00
State Council members present were: Mr. Kirk Denning, Mr. Donnie Loftis, Mrs. JamieLivengood and Mr. Michael Boose.
Others attending were: Iris Pierce,ShevelleGodwin, Cathy Hurley,Tina Paulson, Brittney Norman, William Meier, Alice Dean, Rick Mendzel, Doug Taggart, and Henry Moore
Meeting was called to order by Mr. Donnie Loftis, and the role was taken by Henry Moore
Old Business Discussion
Mr. Donnie Loftis asked the attendees to introduce themselves. Mr. Donnie Loftis moved to discuss old business and stated that Mr. Taggart had information to discuss and update. Mr. Doug Taggart discuss that he was not able to have time to discuss the composition of the state council Mr., Kirk Denning, and Robert Freeman. Mr. Taggart stated that a letter was submit to Bill Hampton asking for Mrs. Tina Paulson participation on the state council and stated that by the end of this month that they would hear something back concerning her participation. Mr. Taggart discuss the orientation packets, stated that he and Mr. Donnie Loftis did get some work done, but he receive an example of the orientation packet from MIC3, and will used that a model and will try to have that done before the next meeting. Mr. Taggart stated that he did find out from Mr. John Matthews, could a military liaison counselor could serve on the state council. Mr. Taggart stated that other states have military liaison to serve on the state council as non-voting members. Mr. Taggart stated they were putting together a list of state transition issues and write a letter from the state council to the State Board of Education. Mr. Taggart discuss the service support email did go out to all the school liaison officers that participate in REACH MCNC and he asked the school liaison officers to discuss their feeling about the contacts that they made. Mr. Taggart provided updates on the Military Student Identifier in Power School, and stated the he did receive a report on March 15 that there 47,337 students for the military identifier and that the deadline is June 2016to get all their collection. Mrs. Tina Paulson asked, Mr. Taggart to elaborate on the report.
Mr. Doug Taggart next discussed that he had talks with Mrs. Kim Day, the Troops to Teachers program chief, about the Interstate Compact and possible the promotion of the compact Troop to Teachers participants and former teachers. Mr. Taggart stated that he will provide additional information about the compact to Mrs. Day.
Mr. Doug Taggart discussed the DODEA grants and deadline is coming up for STEM focus schools and partnership grants. Mr. Taggart stated the window of opportunity is closing to be able to apply for these grants.
Wake County and Military Connected Students
Mr. Rick Mendzef provided updates concerning Wake County Public Schools and their military connected students. Mr. Mendzef stated that military connected is still being defined for Wake County Public Schools, and that it has been his job to define it. Mr. Mendzef elaborated that this is the first year that he has time to delicate to this matter. Mr. Mendzef stated that there are several focus areas, the first being PowerSchool, they are trying to develop a digital eco-system link between PowerSchool and EASY, which is their student educational system. Mr. Mendzef stated that he is not able to aggregate the data within PowerSchool, but in the works within EASY, there will be an icon that he will be able to pull information from concerning military connected students by school, disability, and free and reduce lunch which help identify trends. Mr. Mendzef stated that second focus area, what are the needs of military connected students in Wake County Public Schools. Mr. Mendzef elaborated that Wake County Public schools are a large school system and the first time they did the paper survey collection, the military connected population has remain about the same plus or minus ten percent around 3200 and between 5500 students. Mr. Mendzef stated that they have a sizeable National Guard, Reserve, and Active Duty presence in Wake County. Mr. Mendzef stated that digital eco-system one, what kind of web link will be provided on the Wake County Public School page that will provide useful data for parents and staff to have access to and the second part of the digital eco-system, how will Wake County Public Schools collect data and how will that data be used.
Military Impacted Schools Association
Mr. Kyle Fairbairn provided updates about Military Impacted Schools Association (MISA). Mr. Fairbairn stated that MISA was created in 1986 by 17 school superintendents from heavy impacted military school districts and the districts that he represents are over 20% military impacted children. Mr. Fairbairn currently there are 51 member school districts in the organization and the reason for the creation of MISA, was because there not a lot of attention for the military child. Mr. Fairbairn stated that MISA works closely with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) with grant funding for military impacted school, but the main focus for MISA is lobbying for money opportunities at the Department of Education and the Department of Defense for military impacted schools districts.
Open Discussion Items for Interstate Compact Council
Direction of State Council
Mrs. Jamie Livengood stated that she believes that the state council needs a clearer framework, bylaws, standard agenda items, and legislative updates provided to the state compact or big changes in North Carolina’s education coming from the state level. Mrs. Livengood believes that future dates for the Interstate Compact meeting can be scheduled before hand with a set date.
Process for escalation of issues,
Mrs. Tina Paulson discussed a child's enrollment denial from one school district to another in North Carolina. Mrs. Paulson stated she reached out to district superintendent and this issue was resolved within 24 hours, but her concerns was that the military liaisons were aware of this issue for several weeks and asked what are the timeline for elevating these issues and that within the Marine Corp they will implement a deadline to escalate these military child issues. Mrs. Paulson stated that the compact should develop a best practice model to escalate issues.
Educational Custody Agreements
Mrs. Paulson stated that Onslow County Schools knows that other school districts have an education custody agreement which will allow a person to step in to make a decision while the parent is away on military deployment. Mrs. Paulson stated that Onslow County Schools will not accept the custody agreement unless it is a formal custody arrangement.
Penn State Clearinghouse Options
Mr. Doug Taggart stated that the Penn State Clearinghouse will be releasing 3 videos concerning the Interstate Compact with the next few weeks and that he will get a copy of these videos and provide to the state council.
Engagement Updates
PTA Engagement
Mr. Michael Boose called and spoke to the current state president of the North Carolina PTA whom will be leaving her post at June 30, 2017. Mr. Boose stated the president does not get a lot of transition issues in the Greensboro area which she is based and that she hears that Cumberland County and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base have these issues occurs often in these areas.
NCHSAA engagement
Mr. Donne Loftis stated that he made contact with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and spoke with someone at the front desk and sent that person some information about the interstate compact and was transferred to another person who has not returned his phone call at this current time.
NCMAC engagement
Mr. Donnie Loftis stated the letter that was submitted to NCMAC that they have not received any feedback from it and that we will follow up with a person on the phone.
NCAE engagement
Mr. Donnie Loftis state that he did not follow through with any engagement with the NCAE and that he will follow-up at the end of April and provide that information to Doug Taggart.
New Business Discussion
Mr. Donnie Loftis asked for any new business discussion that anybody would like to bring up. Mrs. Jamie Livengood discussed that formation of the bylaws. Mrs. Tina Paulson stated that she and Mrs. Livengood would research and draft bylaws for the Interstate Compact.
Next Meeting Dates
The group agrees to host the meeting for the 2nd week of March or September. The group agreed to have the next face to face meeting on September 14, 2016. The next conference call meeting will be in August of 2016.
Meet Adjourned at 12:00 pm
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