Edith welcomed Jennifer Nash to the Career Connections Board. Jennifer is from the Accident Fund, and is chair of the Lansing Chamber of Commerce Technology Council.

Minutes to the March meeting were approved.

a.Career/Technical Education

• Chris Laverty reported the CTE committee met April 11. They are focusing on 3 areas: recruiting, determining openings/opportunities versus enrollment, barriers to enrollment (geography, funding, politics.) Ralph Hansen reported at the end of the school year last year data was gathered on openings in CTE programs and the number of students enrolled. Kathy Tomlanovich reported on recruiting of Ingham’s CTE, LAMP and STRA programs to all students. Several methods were used to provide data, and they found several students did not know what was available to them. CTE is working on Ingham/Eaton/Clinton collaboration next year.
• LAMP interviewed 104 outstanding candidates for 60 slots for the 2002-03 school year.

b.Marketing
Patricia Cook reported the Marketing Committee’s main focus is the April 30th Awards dinner. A script has been developed, the awards are here. Social hour starts at 5:30, dinner at 6:30, and we hope to conclude by 8:15. Career Connections Board members will be ambassadors for the group. We are looking at attendance to be around 350. The four regional goals will be addressed. Edith encouraged members to contact local school districts to see how many plan to attend. This will be a chance to celebrate our accomplishments.

c.Regional Implementation Group
Edith reported the last of the planned workshops is taking place today (Steven Barkley). Attendance has grown. A full committee report will be provided at the May meeting.

Program Evaluation
Jerry Stinnett reported the Evaluation committee met last week. Attendance has been good at their meetings with good opportunity for input. He introduced Tamara Bashore-Berg, Kathy Humphrey and Bill Brown who shared results of the lighthouse district self-assessments.

Kathy Humphrey reviewed the key components of evaluation:

• 6-12 building self-assessments
• District profile (impact survey with the nine lighthouse districts) will be mailed out
• Goal area implementation interviews with administrators, counselors, teachers, students
• Regional professional development activities (feedback forms)
• K-12 linkages to post-secondary education (there will be a focus group in June regarding connections)
• Employer survey (what are critical skills and how well are students prepared)

Bill Brown reported baseline data indicates a lot of activity in career preparation. Lighthouse buildings are further along than non-lighthouse buildings. They have data from 28 non-lighthouse buildings.

Self-assessment will be evaluated over time to measure progress. One quarter to one half of the buildings are implementing at least one of the four goal areas.

Future focus should be on challenges to districts:

• Need to increase staff awareness
• Need for more professional development for more staff
• Not enough district level support
• Need to find workable examples of the four goals
• No internal evaluation in place in districts
• More activities for Career Contextual Learning
• More teacher externships
• More info on exploring electronic EDPs

Let the Evaluation committee know if you would like a copy of the report. The board requested to see the data by district. In response to questions regarding parent outreach, parents are being surveyed and will ask about parent involvement during school assessment. Informing parents is part of the survey.

Edith thanked Dr. Stinnett and the IISD and LCC staff who worked on this. We have a good foundation for knowing where we’ve been and how far we’ve come.

d.English-as-a-Second Language
Cindy Bowen reported ESL met on Monday and reviewed the final draft of the provider directory for employers. They are pleased with the directory. It will be published in four languages. They are now discussing their future focus. Doug Stites complimented LCC on their support.

Action Item 4.a:
To adopt the recommendation of the executive committee to approve the 2002-03 Career Initiative Alignment Career Prep plan for $952,208.

Laverty moved, Stites seconded and (following discussion) motion carried after the board voted to approve.

Action Item 4.b:
To adopt the recommendation of the executive committee to approve the 2002-03 Career Initiative Alignment Secondary Carl Perkins for $895,504.

Lund moved, Johnston seconded and (following discussion) motion carried after the board voted to approve.

Action Item 4.c:
To adopt the recommendations of the executive committee to approve the 2002-03 Career Initiative Alignment Tech Prep for $186,334.

Laverty moved, Stites seconded and (following discussion) motion carried after the board voted to approve.

Action Item 4.d:
To adopt the recommendation of the executive committee to identify to the State of Michigan that they have reviewed the Post-Secondary Perkins application and have agreed to sign-off on it with recommendation for approval.

Stites moved, Laverty supported. Motion carried by the board.

Edith thanked Jim Predko, Ralph Hansen and Bob Thelen for putting the information together in such a readable format.

• On May 16th at the Lansing Center, STRA employer interviews are taking place. Doug urged board members to stop in.
• First hearings on the Michigan Works! legislation are scheduled for Tuesday, April 23rd.
• Paula Cunningham announced the STAR institute is in trouble, attendance is falling off and they are in danger of closing.
• Paula also reported she should know something by April 29th on the status of MTEC.
• Jennifer Nash reported on “Convergence 2000,” a meeting held recently for MSU students to meet IT employers in the area. The purpose of the meeting was to establish relationships between students and employers with the hopes of getting the students to stay in the area.
• Chris Laverty reviewed the progress of the manufacturing skills training. He complimented Shawn Quinn, Cindy Leyrer and Stephanie Marin on their work.
• He also complimented the board members on their attendance, and thanked Edith for her hard work.
• Owen Johnston would like to respond to/follow-up Angela Lamphere’s letter to Dr. Banks and asked if it would be appropriate to invite her and her parents to the April 30th celebration or recognize her at a school board meeting.
• Edith and Bob met with the Lansing School District administration. The meeting was organized by Dr. Joyce Jay and Kathi Rypkema. She thanked them for the opportunity to carry the message to LSD administration.
• Lighthouse district application presentations will be taking place April 22.
• Patricia Cook was featured in the latest edition of the Lansing Business Monthly.
• Dr. Banks reported Lansing has two females signed up for their construction trades program, their cosmetology students will be featured at a hair show as part of a transition event on May 10th for 8th graders going into high school.

Respectfully Submitted,
Sandi Carter