Office of Kelly F. Blanton
Kern County Superintendent of Schools
Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT)Ed Data Meeting Minutes
October 29, 1997
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.Alameda County Office of Education
Room 104
In attendance at the meeting:
Ron Basich, KCSOS (805) 636-4345
Lynn Baugher, CDE (916) 653-5128
Quirino Bisquera, Alameda COE (570) 670-4290
Scott Hannan, CDE (916) 322-5792
Martin Harris, CDE (916) 323-6027
Tom Henry, FCMAT (415) 499-5820
Penny Howell, Ed Source (650) 857-9604
Pat Keegan, CDE (916) 657-4748
Bill Luehe, FCMAT (805) 636-4614
Donna Lum, CDE (916) 323-6050
Barbara Miller, Ed Source (650) 857-9604
Andrew Prestage, KCSOS (805) 636-4615
Gary M. Rose, Alameda COE (570) 670-4285
Angel Sanchez, KCSOS (805) 636-4559
Sandra K. Williams, Alameda COE (570) 670-4253
Trish Williams, Ed Source (650) 857-9604
Pat Keegan of CDE commented on the Ed Data Partnership and its viability, noting that it is a healthy partnership that will continue. Pat indicated that it is appropriate for FCMAT to take the lead and to chair the Ed Data Partnership meetings. Pat reemphasized the importance of the "in kind" contribution from each member, thus allowing the $380,000 appropriated to go much further than it otherwise would. Pat also indicated that the CDE would be looking at how best to use the data, and felt that all of the partners needed to focus on making sure that the data has value to the users.
Staff from Ed Source commented that Ed Source is a nonprofit, private organization and has been in existence for the last 20 years. Trish Williams, Executive Director of Ed Source, indicated that its role is to provide a review of complex issues that is accurate and timely. Ed Source provides an impartial role; it does not take sides on educational issues. Ed Source does not support candidates, but rather provides clarification on complex issues to the educational community. Ed Source identifies important data/issues and provides an understanding of that data to the broader educational community. Barbara Miller indicated that the Ed Data partnership fits their agency's mission perfectly, in that it is allowed to keep true to its reputation of being impartial, while looking at the data, and offering thoughts and input regarding the partnership's objectives.
Scott Hannan from CDE indicated that the $380,000 was ongoing. Scott indicated that we would always know about six months in advance whether that ongoing funding would be in jeopardy.
Pat Keegan felt that this was a good opportunity to test the virtual office. It's important having a web site to provide useful information. It doesn't matter to CDE where the system is, but it must be compatible. CDE does not care where the hardware is located. They may have a different perspective as it relates to the software. CDE is interested in examining data and turning it into useful information. Ed Source can take the conceptual point of view and provide an analysis of the data. Redundancy is very important to the project and we need to look at that very carefully. Some members felt that the redundancy needs to be at a separate geographic location.
CDE indicated that IBM had notified the department that it may stop servicing the RISC 6000. Consequently, it appears that in the future they will have no support for this system. CDE is contemplating looking at upgrading with additional components versus a new system altogether.
Pat Keegan also stated that the system needs to be rebuilt at some time. And, that decision needs to be made by January 1, 1998. Our problem (CDE) is maintaining the data base, the tools and time to think conceptually.
Ron Basich asked the following question: Does the boundary include software information systems? If you're going to add to your system, you will want to look at systems in the background so that they are uniform.
Trish Williams and her staff made the following comments regarding the Ed Data Partnership:
- The data must be consistent.
- We need to continue to discuss the public relations/marketing aspect of our product.
- We need to be able to say what value this has to the educational community.
- We need to ask ourselves what presentation of the same data goes on both sides, i.e., Goldmine versus the Ed Data side?
Pat Keegan felt the staff of Kern, Alameda and CDE needed to meet to address the long-term issues.
The next item on the agenda was a discussion by the partners regarding identification of information to go on the web. Barbara Miller from Ed Source indicated that we need to update this information often and to create a calendar of what we need and when we need it. Pat Keegan indicated that we need to have a notion of what we are trying to release, then discuss what are the data sets we are interested in and what do we have up now? He also indicated that all of us need to come back with a list for Ed Source.
Trish Williams discussed marketing strategies and raising the visibility of sight and interest. Trish indicated that Ed Source contacted a public relations firm that they often use. The public relations firm does work for them in regards to their web site. It is not a California group. Ed Data partnership could look at a newsletter, various uses, and what's new in regards to Ed Data. The question was raised regarding down time and multiple audiences and how to deliver the information. KSA, which is the private group helping Ed Source, suggested a postcard, perhaps. They would need some data to look at. KSA is very familiar with education, knows the media, and has educational writers on its staff.
Tom Henry indicated that in his office in Kern, these types of agencies (KSA) are referred to as public information agencies versus public relations agencies.
KSA is good and has national links as well. It can develop camera ready copies, newsletter articles that the partnership could drop into our own letters. Trish felt that there is more communication needed by this group regarding the Ed Data partnership and the Ed Data web site.
The partnership discussed the report card for each school agency and perhaps downloading the report cards on our web site for review by the educational community. It was mentioned that AB 568 discusses the requirements for electronically posting report cards to the net. Martin Harris discussed various profiles, including proposals for SAT data and teachers' salaries and benefits. He indicated that he knew this was sensitive data and that we would have to discuss this sensitivity in regards to its political ramifications. It was suggested that we look into the numbers of teachers on emergency credentials by school as this might be useful and helpful information to the community.
Sandra Williams discussed the addition of audio dynamics, where we have individuals talking on either the web site or CD and adding some audio dynamics to our marketing.
In regards to change orders, it was suggested that individual partners send the change orders to Barbara Miller, who then would send them to Martin and/or Ed. Ed Source is a central collection of this information and would interact again with Martin from CDE.
Sandra Williams talked about the monthly AT&T bills for the T-1 line and the Internet access. She mentioned that cost is anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500 a month for the AT&T line, and $666 monthly for the Internet access. Alameda COE was looking for some type of decision within the next four to six weeks as it related to these costs, and wondered whether there could be some compensation to Alameda through the partnership. It was agreed that the partnership would utilize a portion of the $380,000 to assist Alameda with one quarter of the salary of their web master project person.
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