ADAMS COUNTY EDUCATION CONSORTIUM Monthly Meeting Minutes March 15, 2006

In attendance: Jenny Alber, Laura Barribo, Bill Bates, Bill Becker, Robin Bozella, Steve Callahan, Doris Candelarie, David Cessna, Phil Corn, Jay Demore, Barbara DesMarteau, Heather Fox, Sheila Fox, Gary Goode, Janie Goodwin Booker Graves, Janet Gullickson, Curt Hawley, David Holland, Kim Howell, Amy Johnson, Anne Keaten, Michele Kelley, Terry Kish, Nita Laramie-Eaton, Josh McDaniel, Greg McDonald, Jim Neubecker, Elizabeth Parmelee, Craig Piernot, Barbara Plaven, Alice Potter, Gary Price, Stacey Renz, Dwaine Schmidt, Lee Searcy, Janice Sinden, Danny Sisneros, Jamie Skaronea Sandy Steiner, Marisa Valeras, Debbie Woodward, Wei Zhou,

Sandy Steiner opened the meeting with the introduction of our new ACEC intern, Barbara Keaten.

Sandy then requested that individuals sign up for the ACEC speaker’s bureau. There has been a request for an ACEC representative to make a presentation to an organization in Colorado Springs on April 14th. Anyone willing to do so should see Sandy after the meeting.

Jane Froman spoke on the status of WorkforceConnect, a program scheduled for the week of June 19 – 23 for teachers to visit business and industry sites in the metro area in order to develop a great understanding of business skills needed for students to enter their industries. Any business that would be interested in hosting 10-12 teachers for a few hours should contact Jane at [email protected]. Consortium members are invited to participate in the June 21 breakfast forum at the Doubletree Hotel where they will be able to network with teachers and offer their support and resources for the classrooms. Cost for the breakfast session is $16 per person. RSVP to [email protected].

Debbie Woodward gave a status report on the Community Services team projects. They are completing the Community Resource Guide that is a compilation of many resource guides already available across Adams County. They are working on creating a web ready version. From that version, a brochure will be designed to distribute county-wide. At the next meeting on April 20th, they will discuss strategies for communicating these resources to the general population. It was suggested that a way be established to document the number of ‘hits’ the website gets when the resource guide loaded. This will enable ACEC to assess the value of such a tool.

In response to concerns that the social services agencies of the county are already on overload, the team will seek additional support of industry personnel and/or contributions to help address the most pressing issues of the county population. Development of the community center concepts following the ideas presented by Dan Vallez of the VOICES program are being researched and discussed.

Therese Brown described the progress being made by the Experiential Learning team. They are finalizing standards they have designed that will infuse specific study skills and workforce development lesson plans into classroom curriculum. A ‘white paper’ is also being created to present to school boards along with the standards. The next step will be a meeting with district superintendents to present these standards for their consideration. If approved, the committee will then work on a communication plan design to implement the standards across Adams County.

Individuals from the business community are encouraged to participate in this process to help teachers, schools and/or programs to design classroom lesson plans that will aid in the infusion of work specific relevancy in to the curriculum in all subject matter. Meetings of the team meet the first Tuesday of every month, 3:30 – 5:00 at Front Range Community College. It was suggested by Alice Potter that there is a Jeffco website that has sample lesson plans available.

Doris Candelarie gave a report on the status of the academy plans. Prairie View High School will open in August with a construction academy that will teach framing, wiring and plumbing of walls. The curriculum will include workplace competencies and will, hopefully, become a model design for other academies – or small learning communities -- within Prairie View and across Adams County. The core academies will include the areas of math, science, English and technology.

Currently the Principal of PVHS is trying to find the right teacher for the academy design, someone who will motivate and engage the students. A career advisory sub-committee will be selected to guide and enhance the learning experience for students.

Brighton 27J is also working with Channel 7 to fund a health-sciences academy. There is also discussion of a landscape design and horticulture academy. A masonry academy is under consideration at the previous United Power site.

Sandy Steiner reported that there will be a tour on March 22 to do a feasibility study for a construction/manufacturing academy for Adams School Districts 12 & 50. Anyone interested in attending should e-mail [email protected].

Josh McDaniel of the Workforce Development and Business office reported on a change of perspective regarding a logistics industry academy. The North Carolina academy that was thought would be a credible example for us to follow did not work. We were not encouraged to view that as a solution to the logistics industry current issues. Other ideas are being discussed with those involved in the industry. The logistics committee will continue to discuss trends and current hiring practices, new ways to market the industry to the community and the schools, and how to overcome legal and insurance obstacles for training of drivers. The next logistics meeting will be on March 30, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. at the ACED offices.

Sandy Steiner presented a brochure prototype for the business community. Once this one is complete, additional brochures will be designed for the educational institutions and community families. Sandy also presented a scale of fundraising levels and requested input from everyone. Debbie Woodward suggested we request a presentation by the GITA group who currently are offering an 18-month grant available for enabling technology that seems to fit the profile of the ACEC.

Representatives from Pinnacle, Andrea Hough and Janice Sinden, are working on fundraising issues. Sandy and team leader, Lori Corless-Kennedy, will be meeting with businesses during March to encourage their financial support of ACEC.

As ‘open issues’:

Dwaine Schmidt requested an electronic flyer for the Workforce Connect be e-mailed to him. Janie Goodwin will follow up.

Greg McDonald, counselor at Niver Creek Middle School, announced an April 26th career fair from 8:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Any business interested in participating should be in touch with Greg. He will send an electronic e-mail flyer to Janie to distribute to consortium members.

Terry Kish announced the construction industry is holding a Job Fair at Red Rocks Community College on April 19th. Anyone interested in participating should contact him directly. He will send an electronic flyer to Janie for posting.

There was an announcement regarding a program being initiated by Colorado Partnerships for preparing students for citizenship responsibilities. Additional information will be forthcoming.

Sandra Steiner, Director, [email protected] Janie Goodwin, Administrative Assistant, [email protected] 12050 Pecos Street, Suite 200 Westminster, CO 80234-3493 303-450-5106 * 303-252-8230 (F)