Leadership Council
January 24, 2019
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Hill 339
Notes
In attendance:
David Hough, Russ Brock, Denise Cunningham, Janice Duncan, Karen Engler, Judy Gregg, Stephen Kleinsmith, Dennis Lancaster, Juli Panza, James Satterfield, Emmett Sawyer, Ximena Uribe-Zarain, Sharon Lopinot
Guests: Dr. Matt Teeter, Superintendent-Willard, Dr. Chance Wistrom, Superintendent-Republic
Faculty Advisory Council and the Budget Committee members reviewed the 14 program support requests that were submitted. Dean Hough read a memo that would be emailed to faculty today or tomorrow who submitted a request. Proposals were evaluated by Faculty Advisory Council and a rubric was completed by 8 of the 12 FAC members. The Budget Committee agreed, upon the Dean’s recommendation, to fund the applications based on their ratings. A total of $32,731.00 was allocated. Funds will be used from the COE Program Support account. Money must be spent by June 30, 2019 and cannot be encumbered after that date. Faculty members are to work with their department head, the Dean, and Sharon Lopinot on expenditures. The department and Dean’s office will maintain spreadsheets to track expenditures. After a short discussion LC members voted unanimously in favor of this process.
In November, the Dean met with the Southern Ozarks Alliance for Rural Development and presented a report on a study of teacher supply/demand in the SOAR ten-county region. Dr. Allen Moss, Superintendent-Houston, led the discussions. The group discussed “Grow Your Own” and wanted to see if they could get a cohort and work together to make it work. They were looking at the Internship Academy. Dean Hough will meet with this group on February 11, 2019, in Mountain Grove to further the discussion.
Dean Hough welcomed and Stephen introduced Dr. Matt Teeter, Superintendent-Willard, and Chance Wistrom, Superintendent-Republic.
Stephen is working on two MOUS with the Superintendent of Nixa Public Schools. One has to do with banking hours that could be used toward earning a degree at our university rather than being paid for having student teachers, practicum students, and interns. The other is regarding a dual credit program. Dean Hough and Stephen will be discussing this with faculty. They would like to include other school districts. Springfield School District has a program for sophomores through seniors starting next year at Hillcrest and Glendale High Schools that would work with a dual credit class.
Matt said Willard has the Internship Program this year and asked how to address it with secondary. He would like their district to partner with GO CAPS. Chance is interested in dual credit and Grow Your Own. He said we need a grander picture and make it not so difficult to become a teacher. Chance believes they could double the number of students interested in education early by making these connections.
The College of Education and Care to Learn Foundation are hosting a Professional Education Think Tank on February 7, 2019. Stephen and Julie are working on the agenda and facilitating discussions. Community leaders from public schools, DESE, public schools, and other areas are attending. The Dean has invited Ashley Flores, who has recruited part-time for the University of South Alabama. We would like to recruit her for our college and start with an awareness of the problem, which is a shortage of teachers. The purpose of the Think Tank is to generate ideas for recruiting individuals into the field of education.
Stephen discussed the new college brochure he is working on. He is also working on short promotional videos, the Twitter account, and Facebook. Stephen had a list of information needed for the brochure and asked everyone to sign-up for one or more areas. Dean Hough has completed the welcome and overview and is working on an alum to spotlight. After faculty/staff were assigned to specific topics, Stephen asked them to have their information to him by the end of next week. The Dean asked Matt and Chance to both provide a quote for the brochure.
Regarding the five themes for increasing enrollment in the college, Stephen met with his group on Theme #1. Their discussions are going well and have scheduled regularly monthly meetings. Regarding Themes #3 and 4, the department heads are going to be scheduling meetings. Denise has discussed this with her faculty at her last department meeting and asked program supervisors to bring her a list of things they are doing now and could be doing to be more innovated. Dean Hough is meeting with the Theme #4 group, including Lori Fan, on February 6th. They will start identifying where COE alums are teaching and how to go about having “A Bear in Every Building”. Juli is meeting with her Theme #5 group today. They are going to look at how to work with students who are undecided about their majors. They would like to have a seminar at Hill Hall to promote teaching and show them what is available in the education field. They are also reaching out to students currently admitted to the college.
Judy reported that the CAEP Self-Study is finished and ready for the dean to review and submit. All evidence had been collected.
Around the Table
Sharon Lopinot
Prior to the start of the meeting, she informed the group of an email from Tara Benson, who is looking for a faculty advisor to assist a staff advisor starting this semester for Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society that was started at the university 30 years ago, but became non-active in 2012 due to the lack of a faculty advisor. Sharon will send the email to the department heads who will then forward it to their faculty members to see if anyone would be interested.
Sharon asked everyone to mark their calendars for two events on May 17th. COE Commencement is at 1:00 p.m. and the COE Graduation Reception is 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. in the PSU Ballroom.
Janice Duncan
They have two new 27” TV contained portable units. One is in the kindergarten room and the other in the science wing. You do not need projectors or smart boards to use it. One of their students made a large marble maze for six people to hold and maneuver. The kindergarten instructor position posting includes the Early Childhood degree. The AdvancED visit for accreditation is in March. Janice viewed the Bowling Green You Tube video shown at one of the LC meetings regarding a discussion on recruiting. She is going to have her students create one to present to the AdvancED group.
Emmett Sawyer
The Graduate Certificate for Dyslexia is open for enrollment. Currently 21 students have enrolled with others in the admission’s process. Dr. Lewis and Dr. Sawyer met with Dr. Masterson, Dean of the Graduate College, to discuss how they could support COE in marketing this certificate. The search committee for the associate dean has one more reference to call to make on a candidate.
Matt Teeter
He was impressed how the meeting focused on partnerships and thanked everyone for their commitment. He said it is important to keep people in the teaching profession. He also mentioned the importance of dealing with staff struggling to handle stress. There is a need to learn self-regulation of stress and asked if this skill is something taught to students. Matt asked where this fits in with Leader and Me for teacher preparation. Not being able to handle stress can cause teachers to leave. Students/teachers need to learn to filter the right way.
Chance Wistrom
He also thanked everyone for the dialog and focusing on what we can do regarding the teacher shortage. It is real and dynamic. Our current students have different needs and challenges than those from years earlier. We need to attract and retain education students/teachers. These need to be connected to the mission of the school and district. He would like to work on MOUs with us.
Denise Cunningham
Denise thanked Matt and Chance for participating in our Internship Academy.
Meeting adjourned at 10:30 a.m.
Dean Hough asked the department heads to stay.
Submitted by Sharon Lopinot, Executive Assistant II