CACTA TASK FORCE MEETING MINUTES
SEPTEMBER 23, 2015
12:00 P.M. -3:00 P.M.
Pickens Technical College
500 N Airport Blvd, Aurora, CO 80011
Attendance:
Mimi Leonard-LPS
Janet Renden-Bollman Tech/District 12
Darrel Green-CACTE
Sarah Heath-CCCS
Teina McConnell-Pickens
Renie DelPonte-CCA
Eric Ward-Pickens
Ryan West-JeffCo
Deniece Cook-St. Vrain Valley
Shelly Goerdt-JeffCo
Marv Lewis-Bollman Tech/District 12
Nancy Mitchell-Otero CC
Rita Stople-RRCC
Lorrie Toni-CCCS
Kevin Simpson-Pickens
Joan Bludorn-Boulder Valley
Roxie Aldaz-Lake County
Kristy Baumgartner, GOAL Academy
Valerie Dodrill-Killen, APS
Paul Francisco, SD 27J
Call to Order
Janet Renden called meeting to order at 12:18 p.m.
CACTA Task Force – Janet Renden
Sent out communication to everyone to gather feedback on meeting topics and conference topics.
Does not seem to be much difference in what is needed from postsecondary and secondary
members. We need to narrow down what needs to be addressed in a task force meeting and what
needs to be offered at CACTA Mid-winter conference. The following topics were suggested and
discussed:
● Digital Badging-Sarah Heath said Brenda Tera is working on Digital Badging under
Casey Sacks from CCCS. Sarah will ask Brenda to come speak to Taskforce for the
March 11th meeting.
● How a CTE Administrator Can Support New Teachers-Pickens has created a CTE
specific induction program.
● Offering Academic Credit for CTE Courses-Legislators and parent groups voicing
questions on this. This will be addressed at the January 15, 2016 meeting.
● Implementation and Data Gathering/Best Practices - CTA, VE 135, etc will be the topic
of the April meeting!
CACTE Board – Darrell Green
Summer conference was a success. 50 % new and 50% returning attendees totally 321. 78 new
teachers attended for credentialing classes and working with teachers so that the new teachers
could participate more. Will be at Steamboat Springs for CACTE Summer Collaborative Summit
July 18-21, 2016 at Sheraton. May look at restructuring the sessions so we take a break during
the day and attend sessions at night. Will be working with CO Mountain College. Sustainability
is the theme. Room rate is $119.00. 2017 conference will be our 100th anniversary. Divisions are
in charge of offering specific content-focused training/professional development on division day
and CACTE as a whole tries to offer sessions around program leadership. ACTE Vision
Conference November 18-22, 2015. CO needs 5 voting delegates. ACTE and Region 5 provide
fellowship program and the fellows attend VISION and National Policy Seminar. We need more
legislative committee members.
CCCS updates per Sarah Heath:
● Communication is a priority for Sarah and the CCCS staff. Mimi asked if Sarah would do
CCCS updates monthly to send out to CTE Directors.
● David Barnes will be new STEM, Arts, IT Director immediately.
● Julie McWilson will be the main support for secondary credentialing questions tied to
funding. David will answer questions around postsecondary credentialing questions.
● Sarah Heath will oversee BDOC for exceptions. Looking for secondary teachers to sit on
the Board Oversight Committee. About an hour a month for meeting time commitment;
additional time is needed to review materials ahead of the meeting. Skilled Trades and
experience and rural perspectives would be great.
● Tony Raymond will be the new Assistant Program Director for STEM, Arts, IT and TSA
Advisor
● Will be posting position for Assistant Director/State Advisor for SkillsUSA and will be
under Ben Nesbit.
● CCCS is meeting with CDE starting October 21-23, 2015 to revise CTE credentialing
worksheets and letters sent to teachers. The changes will be active January 1, 2016. Email
Sarah Heath by first week in October if you have any major worksheet issues or
challenges you would like them to address.
● CTE Director credential solely exists for CTA funding and DCT purposes. CDE still
requires a Type D or Administrator license. It is going to be modified to include credit for
prior learning using a rubric to demonstrate proficiency in lieu of some CTE coursework.
Sarah welcomes feedback on this. Mimi Leonard asked to consider allowing the CTE
Director credential to be issued prior to the completion of all the coursework.
● Exciting work is being done to make it easier for Art teachers to enter into CTE. Jonathan
Howard, Denver School of the Arts, took ownership of Creative Careers last school year
since there was not a State Creative Careers Advisor. He is happy to work with other
districts to help grow Creative Careers. Sarah met with CDE Art Content Specialist,
Carol Gates; CDE will be meshing the Art standards with the CTE Arts standards on one
document and providing support for Art teachers. Trying to replicate this relationship
along other content areas at CDE.
● CTE Strategic Planning at CCCS—creation of the plan is on hold until a new Provost is
hired by January 1. Seeking out areas of growth or ideas so they can work it into their
strategic plan. One of Sarah’s goals is to improve communication between her team and
all stakeholders in the state. Working on updating CCCS CTE Common Calendar so all
CTSO and program area information will be housed. New State Plan website coming
soon due to meeting ADA accessibility requirements; things may look different. Looking
at improving mentoring programs for teachers and administrators and how we can “grow
our own” leaders. They want to improve structure of sessions at CCCS events so that
there are tangible outcomes to guarantee teachers and administrators are walking away
with useful information/plan/work. Sarah and her team are holding structured meetings
and bettering their understanding on what local control really means and its implications.
● In addition to focusing on CTE administrator leadership, CCCS is also wanting to offer
professional development for teachers - such as opportunities for new teachers to visit
other programs and workshops and is considering granting a Credit for Prior Learning
option that would count as occupational experience for the credential. Partnering with
Sector Partnerships, CCCS hopes to be the convenor of occupational experiences for
teachers over the summer!
● CCCS is pulling together all instructors of EDU 250, 251, 260, 262, and 263 to
align/create common curriculum and meet teacher needs. This would include and smaller
training modules to use in EDU 251. This goal is for CDE to accept courses from through
multiple institutions. Looking at opportunities to offer it through CCC Online.
● Occupational Experience-CCCS wants to be the convener of those experiences over the
summer so that teachers could get those occupational hours for credentialing. Teaming up
with sector partnerships to help sponsor these activities and expand usage of sector
partnerships. They are piloting this concept by offering a pre-advisory board meeting
with the Advanced Manufacturing Sector in the metro area. This is the concept of a
regional advisory committee meeting that can comply with desktop monitoring
requirements.
● Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act changes could impact CTE. Local WIBs
should be involved in planning for use of Perkins funds. We want make sure that our
community colleges, DTCs and AVSs are on the Workforce Provider list.
● Rob VanDyke and Sarah Heath are attending The Futuring of CTE (the CTE State
Directors Conference). State Director Board and ACTE Board will be meeting in
January 2016.
● Precisions Exams contract is expiring this year. Let Sarah know your usage so she can
determine if we will renew it as a state again. The biggest concern is when or if the work
is going to be done to align it to CO standards. Teachers appreciate the pretesting and
post testing to show student growth for SB 191. However, administrators do not
necessarily inform teachers on how to improve their practice.
● Sarah is meeting regularly with CDE
● A new State Plan website will be launching soon to meet requirements of accessibility
and communication changes.
● Perkins Monitoring Visit
The federal government was overall pleased with our state monitoring practices. There
were no fiscal findings. Every eligible recipient of Perkins is suppose to provide feedback
into Perkins Metrics targets. Sarah would like to change the Perkins session at CACTA
Mid-winter Conference to have districts look at their data and address actual problems.
Email may be another avenue to gather feedback. We need to be more intentional about
how special populations are benefiting from Perkins funds. Plan to provide time to
improve Plans of Study possibly through regional workshops.
o New questions that will be required for Perkins Plan:
▪ Describe how the CTE programs will be carried out to meet the Perkins
funding requirements.
▪ Sarah will provide us with more information about the new questions.
Sarah is starting her evaluation process with her team and customer service is part of their
practice. Please share any feedback with Sarah regarding her team members.
Mid-Winter Conference Suggested Topics:
● Conversations around CTA reporting procedures/practices including programmers,
financial department to share planning and preparation strategies for April meeting.
● New Administrator 101 was highly
● Recruiting and hire qualified CTE teachers
● Grad Guidelines
● CE/Articulation agreements
● Advisory Committees
● Plans of Study
● Growing CTE programs
● Sector Partnerships/Talent Pipeline
● IB connections to CTE
Please share more ideas or suggestions with Janet Renden or any other CACTA Board member.
Adjournment
Sarah Heath moved to adjourn meeting and Darrell Green seconded.
Meeting was adjourned at 2:30 p.m.