West Virginia Department of Education
Institutional Education Programs
Principal/Lead Teachers’ and Central Office Administrators
MINUTES OF THE STAFF MEETING
Snowshoe Resort
September 10-11, 2009
Attendees:
Katherine Blankenship
J. P. Tenney
Keith James
Rhonda Mahan
Jacob Green
Tracy Chenoweth
Joe Michael
Fran Warsing
Gary Wingrove
Bobby Buckland
Jared Hughes
Matt Kittle
Bill Ball
Kent Moreno
Dan Gardner
John Marra
Lisa Hoskins
Bill DesRochers
Juvenile Principals – September 10, 2009 - am
Fran discussed the H1N1 vaccinations which will be given at the DJS facilities. Our staff can be
vaccinated at these facilities as well if they wish to. It is not mandatory, but recommended. If
there is a charge for the vaccination OIEP will pay the cost. Central office staff will also be
offered this service, they will have to go to a DJS facility
Dewayne reported on the Testing Policy which has been revised. It needs to be reviewed again
before it is distributed for comment. There was a committee who helped revised this important
policy. As soon as the review is completed it will be emailed to everyone. Discussion followed
and questions were answered.
A new principal has been selected for Donald R. Kuhn, Tiger Morton and Grant Gardens, it will
be Pam Abston. She has previously worked at central office and the GED office at the
department. We are looking forward to working with her again.
Rebecca Derenge has been chosen to take the position of Attendance and Homeless at central
office. She will begin working on October 16. She currently works in the Title I office and will be
a great asset to our office.
Dewayne distributed an On Site Review Checklist. Each item on the checklist was gone over
and discussed. Emphasis was given on quality lesson plans and their importance. If you have
any suggestions or additions to this document, please let Dewayne know.
Dewayne also led discussion concerning transition specialists. These individuals are paid with
federal dollars, must be used for transition only and should not be sitting at school doing
nothing. Can attend appropriate meetings with counselors, etc.
Jared will be working with transition specialists who are holding open houses and resource
fairs. He will be working with Kari to accomplish this. The transition specialists need to be
trained in entering data in the database.
Scheduling – monitors had a problem with middle and high school in same room – they want the
kids separated. Facilities with this type of issue, please send Fran a formal document
explaining why this isn’t possible. We are going to ask the monitors to provide a document that
states what they will be looking for, this should help with confusion.
Jared - procedures for students in lock-up – power point presentation reviewing the response to
the monitoring findings
A website for standardizing special education in our facilities is in the process of being
developed and will be of benefit. It will include an IEP template, amendment form, and prior
written notice. It will also include OIEP FAQs and facts.
Jacob – WVEIS – had a recent training for principals. Found that there were access problems
that will need to be corrected. Secretaries and counselors need to be trained in the new web
based WVEIS and they will need to come to RESA III. Counselors will be trained on October 5
and secretaries will be October 6.
It is possible for teachers to have limited access to WVEIS, they could enter the grades if it is
agreeable. Send Jacob an email if you have opinions so he can set them up or not.
Schedule for entering enrollment dates were given again. Please see that they adhere to this
schedule.
It was mentioned that we needed additional discipline codes, notify Jacob and he will see that
they are added.
Calendars - will use common codes in the coming year. Instructions will be given on what the
codes will be. Schools will be entering their own calendars next year in WVEIS.
Tracy – Test mate clarity – instructions were done together as a group. New information was
loaded onto computers Explore and Plan administrative manuals were distributed to facilities
that administer these.
Information was distributed on the ACT testing webinar to be held on 9/18/09.
All principals – September 10, 2009 - pm
Participants:
Katherine Blankenship
J. P. Tenney
Keith James
Rhonda Mahan
Jacob Green
Tracy Chenoweth
Joe Michael
Fran Warsing
Gary Wingrove
Bobby Buckland
Jared Hughes
Matt Kittle
Bill Ball
Kent Moreno
Dan Gardner
John Marra
Lisa Hoskins
Bill DesRochers
Lori Loomis
Kathryn Toler
Greg Curry
Judy Burkle
Row Harman
Tracy discussed the annual conference - each participant will sign in at the registration desk
every day for accounting purposes. Copies of each person’s registration were distributed. If
there are errors email Tracy for corrections. Secretaries need to bring a laptop to the
conference.
Strategic plan – needs to be completed. No one had any comments so it is finished. Will send
you the final copy as soon as possible.
Webtop – will be presented at conference. Most is geared to WVDE, but other options can be
added that are specific to OIEP.
Annual report – if you haven’t sent a picture of your staff members for this report, please do so.
Budgets – Fran – had to submit a 4% reduction to the budget for next year. Cutting 6 positions,
3 were previously RIFd and 3 are vacancies not being filled. Had to cut $800,000 from our
budget, cut school budgets 4% and central office budgets 22%.
Jacob presented a power point on the swine flu – information was given about precautions
concerning the flu outbreak. More information can be found at www.flu.gov
Has information to use at work and home.
On line leave – still having issues, if you have former employees showing up, send Jacob an
email. We are trying to correct problems as they come up.
Mentoring – will be an online class using The First Days of School by Harry Wong. All teachers
with 0-4 years of experience will participate. It will be a 16 week portfolio class.
Judy Burkle – Work Keys – Key Train - provided information about Work Keys. Students will
receive a certificate from the Governor’s office entitled “Ready to Work” Someone will need to
be trained in order to give the Work Keys test.
Adult Principals - September 11, 2009
Participants:
Kathryn Toler
Rhonda Mahan
Dewayne Duncan
Kenneth Holbrook
Tracy Chenoweth
Karen Boone
Fran Warsing
Jacob Green
Jared Hughes
Lori Loomis
Kari Rice
Greg Curry
Keith James
Row Harman
Judy Burkle
Kari distributed information concerning Open Gate from the transition manual. This information
needs to be updated. Send Kari what you are currently doing and who is doing it, she will
consolidate the information and send you a collection of best practices.
Jacob distributed an on-site monitoring checklist form that will be used during visits. This is not
an evaluation document, it will be used to collect information only. This can be shared with
teachers.
Keith distributed information on safety inspections and reported the importance of conducting
these inspections in a timely manner. This should be done by CTE instructors at a minimum of
each semester and more often if possible.
We are in the process of completing the necessary paperwork to become a NCCER resource
center. Once our application is accepted we will have an initial audit within the first 6 months.
This is an intensive process but will save facilities $300 annually when it is finally completed.
When all discussion and questions were answered, the meeting was adjourned. The next
meeting will be held at the Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg. More details will follow.