EXECUTIVE BOARD Lexington Lansing Hotel The Packard Room Meeting Minutes Monday December 3rd, 2012 4:00 – 7:00 PM Executive Board Members present: Abby Allen, John Bretschneider, Andy Claes, Donna Jones, Greg Lamore, Michelle Proulx, Jennifer Scott-­‐Burton, Carolyn Smith-­‐Gerdes, Tony Thaxton, Janis Weckstein Other Attendees/Guests: Eleanor White I. Call to Order: John Bretschneider President Bretschneider called the meeting to order at 4:05pm. II. Consent Agenda A. Approval Of Agenda B. Approval of October 8, 2012 Executive Board Minutes C. Approval of Financial Report as of December 1, 2012 The motion to approve the consent agenda was moved by Janis Weckstein. The motion was seconded by Carolyn Smith-­‐Gerdes and passed unanimously. III. Report/Updates A. OSE (Upon arrival) Eleanor White Eleanor is able to attend the meetings if she can arrive at 4pm and leave by 5pm. Teri Johnson will be her designee when she cannot. If neither can be physically here, they will try to connect via conference call. Eleanor talked to Teri about the Summer Institute. She sees it as MAASE’s Summer Institute and they are just there to support and fill in when needed. Janis and Tony expressed appreciation for her help with finding speakers and doing research. Eleanor will be speaking about Disproportionality at MEA in Kalamazoo this week and will be unable to be at MAASE on Wednesday. Carolyn Smith-­‐Gerdes asked for input on the Results Accountability information from OSEP. Eleanor isn’t sure how they can compare states. Eleanor believes that progress happens over time and you can’t have progress if the programs aren’t in place. They are not going to look at graduation rates because that doesn’t mean the same thing in every state. Every time Eleanor hears them speak it is directed around reading and math. Most people at the state level believe it is going to be everything you used to do and some additional. Janis asked if many comments were coming in on the proposed rules and Eleanor said no. Eleanor was in Detroit for the rule package but they didn’t speak about the rule package. Michelle brought the topic back to assessments. Eleanor indicated there was nothing new and that hopefully teachers are encouraging students. Eleanor said educators need to become more vocal and she thinks people do listen. One of the things not in the MAASE updates is that OSE is going to begin to look at virtual schools, cyber schools and figure out what questions to ask. Tony was wondering what the buzz is within the department concerning the Governor’s finance proposals. Regarding the State-­‐Aid Re-­‐write -­‐ Eleanor suggested that everyone should read the language and see how it will impact them. Most of the topic centered on enrolling district vs. resident district. OSE had 5 days to read the 300-­‐page document and respond with comments but did not make suggestions. Eleanor will ask Teri if she can find the page numbers of the areas where there were concerns. Eleanor let the Executive Board know that they can contact her by email if they have questions on a specific bill. If she cannot answer it, she will send it to someone who can. People can send her anything they would think would be helpful for her to have as well. If something is going on, everyone could be talking about it, but she may not hear about it unless someone contacts her. Abby will send the podcasts by her superintendents in regards to the House Bill to Eleanor when they are completed. John let Eleanor know he made a connection with MAISA about the ESA waiver and center based programs. Michigan got approval from Washington and they are not going to change that at all. Eleanor said the decision to drop center-­‐based programs from Focus Schools on the waiver was made. They have to re-­‐write sections of the waiver and identify how schools will be placed on the list. She would also like feedback on including Early On in the updates since they are not in the office. B. President’s Update John Bretschneider Immediately after the last meeting, Carolyn, Jan and John met with Tony and talked about the Executive Director role and are moving forward on that. They worked on a contract and a goal. Few emails were traded in relation to MCASE. Emails were being exchanged in regards to SEAC delegates and alternates. In the past, when a delegate needs to be replaced, an alternate is asked to step-­‐up and then there is a search for a new alternate. Tony said Jennifer Scott-­‐Burton has volunteered to replace Lori Montgomery for MAASE. Sue is going to be the MALSEA delegate and we are seeking alternates for those two positions. John stated that Janis has expressed interest in being a delegate. Tony will be heading up to the UP to participate in a conference. The Executive Board has approved the letter of support for Clinton Co RESA Early On grant. John said a letter was put together related to personal property tax. John said MAASE is going from an organization that lets things happens to them, to a more proactive board. Even some of the other committees are taking a more proactive stance on some things. There was discussion on whether someone should be picked to be the point of contact between MAASE and Eleanor to ask questions about Focus Schools. Tony recommended Tina Lawson. Carolyn recommended Marcia O’Brien. Someone will speak to them to see their interest. Michelle asked if the comments the board made in regards to Part C would be announced. Tony said they had been posted on the wiki. John commented that there were some really good comments and a broad perspective. C. CASE Jennifer Scott-­‐Burton Jennifer attended the Fall CASE Board of Directors meeting and brought a copy of the annual report for CASE. Some edits aren’t quite right. They have Kathy Fortino on for the Board of Directors. It has information on highlighted work based off of goals for 2010-­‐2012. Discussion was on work including development of units, policy affecting special education, CASE working directly through units to provide PD, providing leadership and development in special education administration, and financial stability related to CASE. The meeting was two days before Hurricane Sandy so the members on the East Coast were unable to attend. Deb Seigler was in attendance. Conversation got into grant money. The Policy Committee reported and shared with the group the one-­‐
pagers created in Michigan. There was talk about membership development. At the end of October there were 207 members and it has been as high as 247. Georgia, California, Arizona, and Texas – doesn’t have a unit, talked about how to intersect partner organizations, how to work together, and gain more members that way. Georgia does quite a bit for members; they pay for members first year fees. MCEC gives a 15% discount. There were 2 presentations from the state of Michigan. There was great feedback from people attending the sessions. Indiana will be hosting the meeting next fall. Many committees are looking for more people who are CASE members that want to volunteer. Jennifer can get interested people in contact with the right person if they would like to volunteer. It is mainly work by phone. The majority of work does not require travel. Greg stated that when you look at National CEC it is predominantly university people. The university people are wonderful people but they don’t have the field knowledge. Some of the sessions there aren’t really geared towards teachers. You need balance. MCEC is Wednesday, March 13, and the topic is The Common Core. D. MALSEA Michelle DeJaeger Michelle DeJaeger was unable to attend the board meeting. E. MAISEA Rug Dozzi Rug Dozzi was unable to attend the board meeting. F. PD Steering Committee Janis Weckstein The committee had just met last time. The committee has 5-­‐members, only 3 were in attendance plus Tony. The committee is not meeting this time, but will be meeting at the one in February. There was a lot of brainstorming on how to work as one group together and running PD ideas by each other. Abby stated that there will be a 5 day conference in June around Common Core. Tony will find out what association is putting it on and contact them to see if MAASE could/should be involved. G. Legislative Action Committee Carolyn Smith-­‐Gerdes The Legislative Action Committee met Tuesday of last October MAASE. Much of the discussion was spent on legislative information, cyber schools, elimination of 1832B, sequestration, and other various topics. There is a long agenda for this week’s meeting. There have been quite a few emails being shared between meetings. A letter was put together for the Governor about the personal property tax. The committee met this afternoon to look at platform and priorities. There is a rough draft -­‐ framework to combine platform and priorities. The committee also adopted some large grouping areas from MASA. There is one about educational programming, educational excellence, and funding. The framework was built so there can be only one document. It is going to be flexible. The committee wanted the Executive Board to have the document so they can give back input and suggestions. The plan is to get the document to the board in February. Janis talked about the meeting in February and the Attorney Panel will be in the afternoon, Tuesday will be breakout sessions and Wednesday will have the normal sessions scheduled. The group discussed moving the Executive Board meeting from the normal Monday evening 4pm until 7pm. John Bretschneider announced the meeting will be from 9am until noon on February 4th. Carolyn and Jennifer are working on MAASE input. Carolyn has talked to people from finance and legislation and has input from the workgroup on rule 54 and 55. They hope to have something for the board soon so they can send it out for comment. H. Executive Director Tony Thaxton Membership is up and standing at 621, last year membership was at 559 in December. The idea that the bottom would be falling out with all of the cuts didn’t seem to translate into loss of membership. There are quite a few new members. Many retirees seem to be joining at non-­‐voting member rate. New Administrators Academy was at 84 – Tony had to shut down registration. MAASE has upgraded the academy somewhat this year with cheese and crackers and pop – those are things that we haven’t provided before. Tony may come back to the board in February about increasing those costs next year. Tony wants the board to begin to think about the website registration process, where individuals would pay a late fee. With Tuesday PD in particular there were probably close to 25 late registrations. With having to turn in numbers for food the Thursday before, this can cause issues. People seem to be waiting until the last minute to register. If a $10 late fee could be added it may be enough incentive for people to register on time. Tuesday PD is at 273. John brought up the idea of having an Early Bird rate. In terms of the financial report – profit and loss – MAASE is in the black of $1600. Last year MAASE was showing a deficit all year. Tony passed around booklets of the tax statements and review. MAASE had a loss of $5,007 for last year and Tony thinks that was close to what he presented in July. MAASE did not receive the OSE grant of $5,000. They have since paid. So the loss would be $7 with that grant. They haven’t paid for this year yet, but they paid for last year. Most of the cost overruns are our general budget. Important to note that the money we make off our membership dues in no ways covers our cost at $80 and $45 each. Tony intends to send out the specialty endorsement survey to the members. The new members don’t have the history of this. Tony explained the specialty endorsement at the last Executive Board meeting. People can reflect on that to get background information. Due to a large amount of listserv emails, Tony has not sent the survey out. He intends to send it out between holiday breaks. Tony has assurances from secondary school principals and MASA that they will forward it out to their staff. If anyone sees anything in the documents on the meeting website that you feel would be a good recommendation, please contact Tony. It is drafted in Survey Monkey, but can still be tweaked. The last meeting Tony showed the board the letter from The Lexington about the coverage of insurance for MAASE members about general liability while attending meetings here. Tony only received one proposal. He recommends the board take it; the total cost is $601 for an annual premium. It covers MAASE wherever MAASE goes. It would also cover some of the board’s liability for driving. John said someone sustained an injury at the last MAASE meeting. Tony said someone tripped over some cords, but the cords weren’t anything requested by MAASE. Carolyn and Tony met with the bank and is the current signatory alternate. In regards to the MALSEA/MAISEA Survey there were 80% who responded that ISD representatives and local district representatives ought to be included on MAASE Executive Board. Tony only received a 20% response rate. Tony heard from 5 individuals interested in a Community of Practice. It is in news and notes. He found out news and notes are at least read by a few people. Tony received responses from a few people and he responded to them individually. Another recommendation would be that Community of Practice be established and that Tony be able to direct. Then it would be a process to see if anyone would want to be a chair of this group. We have historically sponsored hospitality at the MCEC Conference, Wednesday evening at Amway Grand. Tony spoke to Larry Campbell and he indicated the board had done it during his tenure so he told Lucian we would continue to sponsor it. We received a more formal request for it this time. Tony wanted to make sure the board was ok with him making this decision. Janis agreed it was the right decision. Tony would like to make this approval on an annual basis. Janis and Greg agreed. Tony thought it sounded like a consensus to sponsor hospitality so he will keep approving it. Wendy Zdeb-­‐Roper contacted Tony about meeting to discuss mutual interests. They discussed the current status of their principal certification program MASSB has an office over here. Her role and function differs quite significantly from Jim’s. He was a registered lobbyist and that was his role. They have since hired Wendy – she was on the Executive Board– they had a PD person with Jim – it was Diane Williams. What she has done is she has switched roles, she has more of the PD Coordinator, and they have hired a lobbyist. They talked about a specialty endorsement program sponsored by MAASE. Tony was pleased to see that she was supportive of a specialty endorsement program for building administrators. As requested with the latest evaluation of Executive Director Services, PD and financial records dating back to 2000-­‐01 are stored in a commercial storage unit in Holland. They involve about 3 banker boxes per year. MAASE pays approximately $240 per year for these storage services. Tony thinks the records have to be kept for 6 years. There was discussion on whether or not they should be turned into electronic files. John stated the hard files should be kept until the time has elapsed. I. Other No other items were discussed. IV. Correspondence A. Social Worker Licensure Credit Sponsorship – Laurie Jefsen Tony received an email from Laurie concerning MAASE being a provider of CEUs. It is on the website. Andy thought some of the requirements they have are outside the line of our PD. Tony thought it didn’t seem to fit with MAASE’s mission. John thought it looked time consuming. There was further discussion between Carolyn and Laurie. Laurie wanted MAASE to reimburse MCEC for half of the $800 fee. Jan wondered if Oakland schools would consider this. Andy stated working with social workers, he knows they actively seek opportunities that apply to them and doesn’t think they have difficulty maintaining those things. Tony and John had discussed the amount of time it would take. V. Discussion/Action Items A. Michigan Social Worker Licensure Credit Sponsorship See above. Andy Claes made a motion to not support it at this time. The motion was seconded by Greg Lamore and passed unanimously. B. MDE Professional Learning Policy & Standards for Professional Learning These were items sent to the board. Janis said Sally Vaughn’s office put together a committee of representatives from various associations in the state. There isn’t really anything happening with it right now. Sally Vaughn sent out the standards that came out in the spring so people stay familiar with them. When they were out for comment, Tony was encouraging and sending it out to people to comment. The State Board of Education has already adopted it. Amy Colton sent us a notification that Dr. Vaughn will pull together a committee together soon. There was a State Board of Education policy for what they thought were appropriate standards, this committee just updated the standards. It is professional standards that every school district should be in line with. It incorporated many things like tying student achievement into evaluation. C. MALSEA/MAISEA Survey See Tony’s report. Tony would like to recommend that the board put him in charge of putting together a draft of potential bylaw language that would replace the title President for MALSEA/MAISEA with a different title. What it would result in is an individual who would be representative of ISD administrators or local or PSA administrator members as opposed to a President. If new bylaws were created and eliminated there is the potential a SEAC position would be eliminated. Janis stated that when the PD Steering Committee came up she was concerned that seat would be eliminated. Andy Claes made a motion to charge Tony with the job of coming back to the board with a draft. The motion was seconded by Michelle Proulx and passed unanimously. Carolyn will work with Tony on getting information. D. Student Services Administrator CoP Tony’s recommendation is for the Executive Board to create a student services Community of Practice. Tony will ask them to fill out the form. Greg wants to know what it is they want to accomplish. Janis agrees that filling out the proposal form would be helpful. Tony stated there is no procedure for establishing a Community of Practice like there is for a committee or project. Tony will put together a proposed procedure. Andy Claes made a motion to approve the Community of Practice. The motion was seconded by Carolyn Smith-­‐Gerdes. The motion was defeated. Greg Lamore made a motion for Tony to develop a procedure relative to a Community of Practice. The motion was seconded by Abby Allen and passed unanimously. E. Certificate of Liability Insurance Proposal See above Greg Lamore made a motion to approve the recommendation. The motion was seconded by Carolyn Smith-­‐Gerdes and passed unanimously. F. Other Greg encouraged the board to go to the lounge after the meeting to meet the new administrators. VI. Adjourn Janis moved to adjourn the board meeting. It was supported by Andy Claes. President Bretschneider adjourned the meeting at 6:38pm. MAASE Executive Board
Executive Director Report
December 3, 2012

The Numbers:
2012-13 Membership = 621 (12-2011 = 559)
10-2012 New Administrator Academy = 84 (12-2011 = 57)
10-2012 Tuesday PD = 273 (12-2011 = 224)
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Financial Report:
MAASE Balance Sheet - as of 12-2-2012
MAASE Profit & Loss Statement as of 12-2-2012
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2011-12 Tax Statements and review
I’m passing around the final 2011-12 Tax Statement as submitted as well as the “Financial
Statements” as received from our CPA firm, Meyaard Tolman & Venlet, PC. There are no
surprises again this year and the final numbers are very close the report I shared with the
Executive Board in July which demonstrate a loss of $5,007.00 for 2011-12 with income of
$376,785.00 and expenses of $381,902.00. I will remind the Board that this result reflects
the first yearly loss for the last 5 years and that we did not receive the 2011-12 OSE Grant
($5000.00) until this fiscal year and that we experienced a significant decrease in Summer
Institute 2011 receipts over expenses for which you made modifications of the registration
price.
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Specialty Endorsement Survey
I included in your handouts a copy of the latest iteration of a survey I intended to send to the
membership this past 2 weeks. I determined that there were too many listserv email sent
during this time so elected to delay its dissemination until next week. Thanks to all of you
making recommended edits in the survey introduction and questions. I do have assurances
from MAASP and MASA that they will be pleased to send tis survey out to their membership.
I will also attempt to get approval from MEMSPA.
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Certificate of Liability Insurance
We have a proposed policy from Home Owners Insurance Company (subsidy of Auto
Owners. Inc.). I recommend that purchase this coverage at the proposed rate.

MAASE Signatory for Fifth/Third Accounts
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Carolyn and I meet at the Grand Haven Branch of 5 /3 on Wednesday November 14 and
completed the process for giving her signatory authority for the checking account and
certificates of deposit.
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MAISEA/MALSEA Survey Results
We received responses from 114 members. I recommend that we propose new Bylaw
language to the membership which will create two (2) Executive Board positions of 1)
LSD/ESA Representative and 2) LEA/PSA Representative and that will eliminate MALSEA
President and MAISEA President from the Bylaw nomenclature. I am happy to draft
proposed Bylaw changes in a strike/cap format.
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Interest in a new CoP
I have heard from five (5) individuals including Christine Brown, Gail VanDaff, Mindy Horn,
Jane Dykhouse, and Cindy Green about their interest in a CoP for Student Services
Administrators. I recommend to the Executive Board that this CoP be established and that I
also be authorized to conduct a direct appeal to the membership (not in a “News & Notes”)
and determine if anyone might be interested in serving as a chairperson of this group.
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MAASE Hospitality at MCEC Conference
We have historically sponsored a Hospitality at the Amway Grand Hotel on Wednesday
Evenings of the MCEC Annual Conference. I know I have attended this hospitality on and off
since 1981. When I came on board as Executive Director I was asked by Lucian if we were
planning to continue the practice I spoke to Larry Campbell and he indicated we had done it
during his tenure so I told Lucian we would (cash bar, we pay for hors d’oeuvres). We
happened to be more formally approached this year and the request came to Jennifer as the
CASE/CEC Liaison. My question is…would the Executive Board like to make the approval of
this request on a year-to-year basis from now on?
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Meeting with Wendy Zdeb-Roper
As the new Executive Director of MASSP, I met with Wendy (former High School Principal at
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Rochester High School) on November 19 . We had been introduced to each other late last
spring and talked at that time about meeting to discuss mutual interests. We discussed the
current status of their Principal Certification Program, her role and function as it differs fro Jim
Ballard’s (former E.D.), and their support for a possible Specialty Endorsement Program
sponsored by MAASE.
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MAASE Records
As requested with the latest evaluation of Executive Director services, MAASE Meeting,
Professional Development and Financial Records dating back to 2000-01, are stored in a
commercial storage unit in Holland, Michigan. Specific Storage Unit business contact
information is kept in my files in my home office. MAASE pays approximately $240 per year
for these storage services.