College of Education
Leadership Council
July 23, 2015
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. – Hill Hall 314
Attendees: Tami Arthaud, Donna Breault, Rick Breault, Gilbert Brown, Janice Duncan, David Hough, Cathy Pearman, Tom Johnson, Candace Fairbairn, Denise Cunningham, Teresa Steele, Kim Dubree, April Babington
Tom Johnson, the new Director of Safety and Transportation, met with the LC to discuss his role and that of Safety & Transportation. He has worked with a variety of campus enforcement groups his entire career. He is also an active shooter instructor. Greenwood faculty will have a refresher course before school starts. The university has an emergency response plan in place. Security at PCOB was discussed and the group recommended a card reader be installed by the Center City Counseling Clinic.
A discussion of Mandated Reporting was led by Kim Dubree. The Field Experience Office has provided this training in the past. Community Partnerships of the Ozarks has a program online with modules. After completing the program, students are issued a certificate. There is not cost. The LC agreed to use CPO’s online training for teacher candidates who need to complete the training every year.
A discussion of PAFs and other hiring paperwork for student teacher supervisors ensued. Currently these are completed by academic departments. The Dean’s Office will complete forms for St. Louis and Kansas City. The group agreed this process is appropriate.
Dean Hough explained the need for Missouri Educator Evaluation System training and asked Rick Breault to explain how the RPDCs came to be the training sites. An email regarding July 30 or August 6 dates for MEES training for student teacher supervisors originated from a DESE DL list. It went to people that oversee student teacher supervisors who could then forward the information to them. RPDCs are also sending personnel to MEES training who would then be able to offer training to student teacher supervisors. Donna said MEES training will be offered during the August 8 per course orientation from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Student teacher supervisors are invited to attend. Registration is through My Learning Connection. Gilbert and Kim will compose a letter to be sent to departments to forward to their student teacher supervisors regarding the mandatory training.
All student teacher supervisors need to go through the training. The Dean asked if COE faculty would be interested; if so, departments should identify those who would like to complete the training so they could assist others and we would always have someone available. He would pay for the training out of his budget and would like one or two faculty from each department including Kim Dubree to consider completing the training. Gilbert will coordinate all of this with the department heads, Kim and Rick. Faculty could take the training July 30, August 6, or August 8. Other dates can be arranged.
The COE Certificate in American Education Practices was distributed by Donna Breault who had worked with Tami and Cathy to ensure the version distributed remains the most current edition. The certificate was drafted three years ago. Jim Baker had asked for a certificate that could be given to international students who are here for a short period of time upon completion of certain classes. Donna will email the document to the dean who will then send it to Jim Baker for further discussion.
Gilbert Brown provided an update on the Summer Teaching Task Force. Because COE met criteria for providing cost effective summer school courses, the COE budget was increased by $27,000. The budget committee recommended to use the money for summer teaching. The task force’s charge was how to allocate both existing and new money. The task force is recommending COE maintain the current budget used for the three departments and the $27,000 will be used to fund proposals for extra summer classes, which would be approved first by department heads. The budget committee would decide which proposals are approved. Gilbert will work on the evaluation process for the proposals. The document will include the rationale used to determine how the decision was made on allocating the funds. Dean Hough asked all departments to share the draft document with faculty and place same on their August 14th departmental meeting agendas.
Teresa Steele shared an audit of COE majors and enrollments. A review of the numbers revealed that not everyone reports information the same way. Dean Hough noted that when we use data to inform decisions, we need to make sure the data we share are accurate. Departments are not always using the same processes to report majors and enrollments in their annual reports. The Dean asked each department head to meet with the COE Budget Officer to review their reports to ensure everyone gathers and reports numbers in the same manner, so we will have consistency across units.
Dean Hough shared a draft of the COE Annual Report that he and Elijah Kleinsmith, have been developing. The dean will send a copy to everyone electronically tomorrow so they can edit their sections and send pictures if needed. Changes are due to the dean by Monday, August 3.
Teresa distributed copies our updated COE information sheet she et al. have been working on. This document is shared each year with the Board of Governors as they are provided updates about each college. The dean will then discuss what is going on in our college. Everyone is to look at their information and let Teresa know of any corrections by Friday, August 24th. The information is for the start of academic year as of August 10, 2015.
The Beginning Teacher Assistance Program needs to tie in to MEES and MOST. Gilbert will form a new advisory board which will include two people from each department. One of the members could be the department head. Junior faculty members should be considered.
Around the Table
Dean Hough:
Regarding new hires, the budget committee consistently states we should prioritize hiring tenure track faculty. Instructors should be hired as needed, but the priority is tenure-track faculty positions. The Faculty Advisory Council has supported this commitment. Discussion focused on the need not to hire full-time staff to perform temporary or less than full-time duties and assignments. Ergo, when temporary or less than full-time staff are needed, COE should make every attempt to hire tenure-track faculty who can perform some duties that would have been assigned to staff. The LC agreed our newly developed Strategic Hiring Plan allows this flexibility. We were given $122,000 from the provost based on last year’s credit hour production and number of students. A discussion on the possibility of using this to start up one or two of our searches – Asst. Prof. of Child & Family Dev. (withy emphasis in human development) and the Asst. Professor in Multicultural Education. We would need approximately $20,000 to fund both positions. Extra money will be available from faculty retiring but the money cannot be allocated until letters are submitted. This has been the hold-up with initiating a search for the Child and Family Development position. The LC supported Dean Hough’s suggestion to move forward by developing funding plans and hiring proposals.
It was recommended and agreed by the Budget Committee and FAC that the BSED in Family & Consumer Sciences be moved from COB to our college if additional funding to support same would also be moved. Dean Hough will meet with Dean Stephanie Bryant, COB, on Friday, July 31st to try to negotiate this move. He recommends FCS be moved into the CEFS dept. and everyone agreed.
One of the main discussions at the ALC meeting was freeing up Ellis Hall next year and where to put everyone/everything. We will not move from Hill Hall until after the following summer. This gives us time to plan. The HVAC system(s) will be a major focus of Hill Hall renovations.
The university has a contract with United Van Lines. There are guidelines to follow for using other moving companies. As the hiring authority for COE, Dean Hough is charged with working with new faculty regarding moving details and reimbursements.
Teresa Steele:
Final numbers reconciling the FY15 budget will not be available until October. Dean Hough estimates we will carry forward approximately $500,000. That is our goal.
Janice Duncan:
There have been numerous things going on this summer: volleyball tournament, science college classes, science teacher workshop, international student tutoring, and public affairs academy. Most faculty have been hired. Part-time hires completed: Ruth Ann Maynard will be one of the part-time counselors replacing JulieAnn Jenkins, elementary science, band and social studies. Current enrollment is 368, with the addition of 48 new students. They will be getting a small statue of John Wilkinson, former student, as a child with Elvis Presley who he ended up playing guitar for. Parents are looking at raising money to build a new band room. The current band room would then be remodeled as a new locker room.
Cathy Pearman:
RFT is recruiting students to enroll this fall in the new MATL and SPTL degrees. She anticipates 6-8 in the MATL and 10 – 12 in the SPTL
Kim Dubree:
Kim discussed issues with fingerprinting students. After the meeting she emailed the following to everyone:
As a follow-up on the discussion from COE Leadership Council regarding the fingerprinting issue, I contacted Springfield public schools human resources office to verify their policy on what type of background check is required for practicum students. Dr. Cunningham was correct in that they do require a fingerprinting background check for any practicum over 30 hours.
Therefore, the majority of our education students will be required to have three fingerprinting background checks. The first will be a fingerprinting using MSU’s MOVECHS (Missouri Volunteer & Employee Criminal History Service) fingerprinting code for any practicum over 30 hours (this will be the mid-level practicum for most programs since DESE requires a 45-hour mid-level practicum). The fingerprinting is valid for one year, so if that fingerprinting will expire before student teaching is completed, the student will be required to get a second MOVECHS fingerprinting for student teaching, and then a fingerprinting using the DESE code during student teaching for certification.
We will modify the Educational Field Experiences website with instructions for all education students to use the MSU MOVECHS code 6627 when they register for fingerprinting for any practicum over 30 hours and/or for student teachers.
Candace Fairbairn:
Over the last week she was told that out of the KC, St. Louis and our area, reference checks and interviews on our student graduates have surpassed the other areas. People want to hire our students over graduates from other colleges/universities.
Denise Cunningham:
She is working with Donna on a proposal for an Early Childhood/Special Ed Accelerated Masters program.
Donna Breault:
– She completed the MoLead training. The “4” rating example was on an MSU student.
– Donna and Denise went to Kansas City to work on an articulation proposal with Metropolitan Community College. They are also working with OTC and will be going to St. Charles.
– CEFS is going to do projects with Flat Boomer this year. They will send Flat Boomers to elementary schools in Missouri with MSU graduates and ask for people to take pictures in different scenarios, which can be sent to a website. Information on graduate programs will also be sent. This is good for marketing purposes.
– They took out a GRE subscription. For .46 per name they can get names of people interested in graduate programs. You can request specific information by regions and the number of names you would like. Tami and Cathy are welcome to talk to her more about it in depth and have her run requests. Their cost would be .46 per name.
– Some students in the apprenticeship program needed 1 to3 extra hours to comply with financial aid requirements. She has added an EEM course they can take for 1 to 3 hours. Donna will submit a formal course proposal for this class.
– The dean reminded everyone to talk to Don Simpson regarding student recruitment and Joye Norris for anything regarding outreach just to keep them in the loop.
Tami Arthaud:
– The retirement party for Bob Watson and Linda Robbins is today from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
– She is getting good numbers for the Blind/Low Vision program and may need to hire additional per course faculty.
– She signed a MOU with Mercy Hospital and Arc of the Ozarks.
– New faculty are arriving and getting settled.
Rick Breault:
– They are now fully staffed.
– He is working on the budget.
– Lois Jones is going to retire, but has not submitted her paperwork.
– He is meeting with Tom Tobias, Art Education Director at DESE and Julie Hale from the Missouri Arts Council regarding a rural arts program. The dean asked him to include Gloria Galanes, dean, College of Arts & Letters in the meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:15 a.m.
Submitted by Sharon Lopinot