NNER Governing Council Meeting Minutes
October 21, 2004
Millennium Hotel
St. Louis, Missouri

Attending: Barbara Landau, Hawaii; Vi Florez, New Mexico partnership setting representative; Stephanie Kenney (substituting for Cindi Chance), Georgia partnership setting representative; Sally Luttrell-Montes (substituting for Pat Wasley), Washington partnership; John Anderson, NeNER, A&S tripartite council chair; Jeanne Gerlach, AUSNER representative; Marilyn Hadley, NeNER setting representative; Mike Moody, NeNER tripartite school representative; Jim Lowham, WYSUP setting representative; Patty Schumacher, MUPER setting representative; DeBorah Zackery, St. Cloud partnership representative; Vernon Henshaw, tripartite school chair; Steven Baugh (substituting for Richard Young), BYU-Public School partnership; Dianne Ashby, Illinois Partnership representative; Ken Jones (substituting for Betty Lou Whitford), USM partnership representative; Nick Michelli, CUNY partnership representative; Ada Beth Cutler, MSU/NJNER setting representative; Greg Bernhardt, Wright State partnership setting representative; George Johnson, A&S member at large; Les Sternberg, USC partnership representative; Paul Chaplin, school member at large; Van Dempsey Benedum/WV setting representative; Mary Ellen Finch, Missouri Consortium representative, Carol Wilson, governing council chair and CoPER representative; Ann Foster, NNER Executive Director; and, guests: Pat Lopez, Bryan Burgin, Bruce Field, Tom Haynes.

  • The meeting was called to order by Carol Wilson and introductions were made.
  • Announcement: Nick Michelli announced that he is working with McGraw Hill to publish a series for Teacher Educators based on the Agenda for Education in a Democracy. Common themes will run through the series to reinforce the AED. The series will include methods and foundation text. All will include authors representing the NNER tripartite work. Nick has an advisory committee that will guide the work. It includes David Keiser, Sandra Hurley, Carol Wilson, Dick Clark, John Anderson, Brenda Greene, Ana Maria Villegas, working with Allison McNamara and colleagues from McGraw Hill. A call for proposals will be coming out soon.
  • Budget: 2004-2005 Operating budget was approved.
    Discussion: provide more detail as to the actual expenditures in each category. More information on each line item of expenditure will be added.
  • There was discussion of the five complementary registrations offered to settings for the annual conference, the relationships between those registrations and the conference funding and attendance. Discussion continued interconnectedness of the conference financial structure, the need to operate within our means, and the current NNER setting dues. Discussion will continue on Saturday.
  • Research Committee Update: Cindi Chance was not able to attend the conference. Cindi Onore has agreed to co chair the group and follow up will be done regarding the research committee meeting scheduled for the conference.

Note: The meeting was held. The participants agreed that the group needs a viable electronic communication link and clear direction for the work. They suggested that as one primary focus, the group could work on how the AED is actually influencing local work, what structures etc. are in place to embed the AED in various aspects of our work, and how effective these are in advancing the AED in our work. Further discussion will follow.

  • Tom Haynes from Illinois State University summarized his current study of partner schools and supervision. He is using the survey that John Goodlad and colleagues developed for the Education of Educators study. His work provided an example of inter setting research related to the AED.
  • Brandon School Division University Partnership application was approved and it is now the 24th NNER setting. Ada Beth Cutler and Vernon Henshaw reviewed the application. Mark Booth, Alice Tomasini, and Ann Foster did a pre orientation session at the setting prior to their application. It is the first international setting. The NNER executive board will address the implications for the Network’s name as a result of this extension into international work.
  • Bruce Field and Bryan Burgin gave an overview of the 2005 conference to be held at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The conference theme is still under discussion and will be finalized after a conversation with John Goodlad. The hotel capacity necessitates a 300 participant cap, and therefore, there will be no daily registrations, only total conference registrations. Information will be posted on the NNER web page.
  • Les Sternberg noted work done in the past and suggested that this is an appropriate time to build on this work. With limited time, discussion was begun, but we need to find additional venues for continuing it.

Meeting adjourned.


NNER Governing Council Meeting Minutes
October 23, 2004
Millennium Hotel
St. Louis, Missouri

Attending: Mary Ellen Finch, Pat Lopes for Barbara Landau, DeBorah Zackery, Jim Lowham, George Johnson, Marilyn Hadley, Patty Schumacher, Barbara Nourie for Dianne Ashby, Stephanie Kenney for Cindi Chance, Cori Mantle-Bromley, Les Sternberg, Carol Sue Marshall for Jeanne Gerlach, Donna Michaels, Nick Michelli, Van Dempsey, Ada Beth Cutler, Steven Baugh for Richard Young, Mike Moody, John Anderson, Carol Wilson, and Ann Foster.

  • Carol Wilson called the meeting to order.
  • 2004 Conference: The Governing Council extended its appreciation to Mary Ellen Finch and the planning committee for the successful 2004 conference. The participation was the highest since the current conference format began; feedback on sessions was extremely positive. The tone of the conference was collegial and productive for content shared and networking opportunities. And Mary Ellen’s ability to deal with unexpected changes was noteworthy and appreciated.

    Mary Ellen noted that while all the conference information was posted on the NNER web page in a clear and timely manner, it appears that few people accessed it to get information on the conference, including deadlines for registration, conference schedules, and event information. She posed the question of how to have people use the web page more generally as a source of NNER-related information.
  • Donna Michaels, superintendent of Brandon School Division and her colleague Blaine Hatt from Brandon University were welcomed to the NNER, with note that it is now an international network and the name should reflect this.
  • Tripartite Meeting Update: Tripartite Chairs or their designee reported on their role alike meetings. The groups agreed that their different perspectives and needs must be brought into the NNER work as directly as possible to ensure that they are valued for their contributions. The reports will be returned to the tripartite chairs and the executive council will do further work on the ideas generated by the groups. The reports include perspectives that would expand sessions at the conference, explore alternative opportunities for groups to meet, and embedding A&S research into the NNER work more directly.
  • Budget and Conference: John Anderson moved that the annual NNER dues remain at $5000 per setting. Complementary annual conference registrations are set at three (3) per setting and transferable at the setting’s discretion effective the next budget cycle.

Discussion: New settings expressed concerns that they will not be able to send as many people to the conference as costs in addition to registration, including substitutes for teachers, and travel make it difficult. It was strongly encouraged that settings who are not going to use the three complimentary registrations transfer them to their colleagues in other settings.

A friendly amendment was proposed by Les Sternberg, that to encourage participation, one complimentary registration would be awarded for every three paid registrations received. The amendment was defeated. The original amendment was passed.

Announcements:

  • Dick Clark announced a Leadership Forum co-sponsored by the IEI, NNER, AASA, PEN, First Amendment Center, and ASCD will be held in June of 2005. It is designed for school leaders to address the specific school district related issues in relation to the AED. The session format, with keynote speeches by John Goodlad, Gene Carter, and Paul Houston, is small group interaction that connects the AED to the day-to-day issues that school leaders face, including NCLB, state testing, and hiring highly qualified teachers.
  • The IEI will host a group of 12 hybrid educators from around the NNER on Nov. 4-6 to study their work as boundary spanners. This session is funded by a Carnegie Corporation grant and will provide information for the NNER in this crucial area and background for the IEI work with the Carnegie initiative, Teachers for a New Era.
  • Paul Chaplin’s membership on the governing council as a school representative for the duration of his term was raised. Paul indicated he was now working on campus at USC. His term expires at the next annual conference. He asked if he should serve in this role for the duration of his term. The question was deferred to the school tripartite council group.
  • Carol Wilson observed that it was not possible to work through the entire agenda and suggested that as we have numerous agenda items requiring discussion, we should consider alternative approaches to scheduling and conducting our meetings. The executive board will consider possibilities at its December meeting. Governing Council members are invited to share their thoughts with executive board members prior to the December meeting.

Meeting was adjourned.

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