Executive (KACC) Board Meeting

Thursday, November 12, 2009

8:00 a.m.

KACC Board Room

 

Minutes

 

Members Present

 

Grant Park:      Mike Nicholson, Chairperson             Bradley:          Michael Hogan, Vice Chair

Peotone:          Kevin Carey, Secretary                       Beecher:          Denise Brands

Central:           Tonya Evans                                       Herscher:         Ruth Schneider

Kankakee:       Colleen Legge                                    Manteno:         Dawn Russert

St. Anne:         John Palan (8:40 a.m.)                             Reg. Office:    Greg Murphy                                     

 

The regular meeting of the Kankakee Area Career Center Executive Committee, Kankakee County, State of Illinois was called to order on November 12, 2009 at 8:04 a.m.

 

PUBLIC COMMENT

A written note of appreciation from Habitat for Humanity was received thanking the construction technology students for volunteering on the weekends.

 

KACC/KARVES AUDIT REVIEW

Ms. Marcie Kolberg reviewed the 2008-2009 audit report with everyone present.  Although the reports were marked “draft” they are complete, only waiting to insert management’s response.  The final report will be ready for signature this evening or tomorrow at the latest.  The items highlighted for the board’s information include: 

  • Cash has been balanced through June 30th
  • IMRF rates were incorrect on the software.  IMRF was properly paid, but with the rate incorrect on the GL side the postings did not match the actual payments.  This has all been corrected. 
  • Two payrolls in July and one in August show as obligations in June, 2009, creating the potential for looking like the 941’s, TRS and IMRF payments were not correct.  (Note: Payroll was posted by June 30th so the amounts would be included in expenses for year ending June 30th, yet the payrolls were not paid to employees until July/August.
  • Payments to TRS and IMRF were not made timely on a regular basis.
  • Payments to MasterCard, Car Quest and Staples, while made monthly, were difficult for auditors to discern a pattern for payment.  Sometimes payments were made based upon statement amount, and other times, payments were made not taking into consideration a payment which had crossed in the mail.  All are paid in full and have balanced.
  • KARVES continues to owe KACC money for having covered payroll, including taxes and insurance.  These funds will need to be transferred as soon as available.
  • When new software was installed, the previous year’s audit had not been completed and incorrect account balances were inputted.  Again, this has been corrected and cash accounts have been balanced.
  • As far as internal controls are concerned, a statement of Management’s response to findings has been prepared and will be inserted into the final audit.

 

CONSENT AGENDA

1-3.            A motion was made by Mrs. Evans, seconded by Ms. Brands, at 8:26 a.m. to approve the consent agenda, minutes of the regular and closed meetings held in October and financial reports.  Motion carried by unanimous roll-call vote. 

 

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS

  1. Reconciliation Reports: Mr. Fay updated the members as to the current status of account reconciliation.  Mr. Fay has temporarily reassigned some responsibilities from Mr. Kolberg in order to lighten his load and afford the opportunity to have all accounts and fund balances complete by the December meeting.
  2. Teacher Certification Update:  Mr. Fay reported certifications have been completed for all new teachers and we are now just awaiting receipt of the actual certificate which should be any day now.
  3. Executive Sub-Committee Update:  Mr. Fay stated he held the first Curriculum Committee meeting this past month.  Mr. Fay reported there was quite a bit of information disseminated to the committee members and discussions took place in regard to future planning, specifically in the area of what to do with pre-engineering, possibly changing and incorporating Electrical Maintenance as a dual-credit course with KCC and looking closely at continued interest in Precision Metalworking.  A survey of freshman and sophomore students in the home schools will be completed to determine interest.  Dr. Schneider questioned the job potential for precision metalworking, etc.  Mr. Fay stated there are some small shops left and a new phenomena of foreign workers who have been trained and then come to US and enter our workforce.  Dr. Schneider stated when you look out 10 or 20 years, you don’t see machinists on the list.  Dr. Nicholson questioned the possibility of changing the name of Precision Metalworking to something more commonly known.  Mr. Fay stated depending on the curriculum and need to update equipment, this can be extremely expensive.
  4. Director’s Goals:  Mr. Fay stated he is currently preparing a set of goals to present at the December meeting.  He is designing them to be both target-oriented and measurable.
  5. Joint Agreement:  Mr. Fay informed everyone of his intention to work with the Executive Officers to review/revamp the Joint Agreement, and then present it to the full board.  Mr. Hogan suggested including Dr. Pangle.  Mr. Fay concurred and will certainly include Dr. Pangle in all meetings/discussions.

 

DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS:

  1. Fiscal 2009 Audit Report:  The board acknowledged receipt of Audit as presented by Marcie Meents Kolberg of Smith, Koelling, Dykstra and Ohm, PC.
  2. Approve Board Policy Changes as Presented at September Meeting:  A motion was made by Mr. Hogan, seconded by Mrs. Russert at 8:37 a.m. accepting the following policies which were presented for first reading at the previous meeting:  2:260 Governing Bodies: Uniform Grievance Procedure, Update 1 and Update 2 and 5:220 Substitute Teachers and 5:50 General Personnel/Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace.  Motion carried by unanimous roll-call vote.
  3. First Reading of Proposed Policy Changes:  The following policies  were presented for a first reading this morning: 3:40 Administration/Director; 4:30 Operational Services/Revenue and Investments; 4:100 Operational Services/Insurance Management; 5:30 General Personnel/Hiring Process and Criteria; 5:90 General Personnel/Abused and Neglected Child Reporting; 5:100 General Personnel/Staff Development Program; 5:120 Ethics; 5:250 Leaves of Absense5:280 Duties and Qualifications; 5:330 sick Days, Vacation, Holidays and Leaves; 7:190 Student Discipline; and 8:100 Relations with Other Organizations and Agencies.  They will be brought back to the committee for final approval at the December meeting.  All policy revisions are as suggested by Policy Reference Education Subscription Service, to which, most schools also subscribe.
  4. 2010-2011 Tentative School Calendar:  Mr. Fay called everyone’s attention to the tentative school calendar which was crafted based upon the BBCHS tentative calendar for next year.  Discussion ensued concerning beginning the school year before 8/23/2010; honoring Veterans’ Day on 11/11, or 11/12, potential for making TI days ½ days instead of full days in order to create furlough days because of budgetary concerns by going to a 178 days and issue a RIF in March for the reduction in days to help the budget; taking a full two weeks for Winter Break and handling Casmir Pulaski and Columbus day holidays.  There was discussion about taking parent-teacher conferences to 2 nights and then allowing instructors the day before Thanksgiving as a scheduled day off.  Dr. Schneider shared concerns about starting in August considering many of her buildings lack central air conditioning.  If she decides to begin her school year later, she will have a first quarter which will be 10 days shorter than the second in an attempt to finish second semester prior to Winter Break.  Ms. Evans suggested consideration be given to determining a specific week every year for Spring Break and not tying it to Easter weekend.  Many districts up north do it that way. Mr. Hogan stated there are so many people controlling the issue so county-wide agreement is the only way to address many of these issues. Everyone concurred since there is plenty of time to firm up the calendar, that it should be brought up at the next Superintendent’s roundtable meeting on December 9th.  As Dr. Schneider pointed out, when some of the days off don’t coincide, it makes it difficult on her staff when they are teaching and yet their children’s districts have a day off.  Everyone agreed it will be good to get a consensus across the county.  Discussion was held about the need for a waiver depending on a change in holidays and the effect it may have on non-certified staff who count on certain holidays as a paid day off.  Dr. Nicholson mentioned Scott Goselin and potentially State Sen. Toi Hutchinson will also be on the agenda at the next Roundtable.   Dr. Nicholson also reminded everyone of the upcoming Education Funding Forum hosted by Manteno High School.

 

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:

  1. Principal’s Report: Mrs. Goodale reported attendance at the Career Center was at 93% even though we are in the midst of an active flue season.  Ms. Goodale distributed a report which indicated percent of students for each grade earned, for each program.  Dr. Nicholson questioned why the “A” and “B” percentages were so high.  Mrs. Goodale explained there are many activities in the first semester taking place which do not yet get into the nitty-gritty of the curriculum and hands-on work.  Mrs. Goodale expects this report will look a bit different following end of second quarter.  Ms. Evans stated the good grades also reflect the fact that the students are glad to be at the Career Center and are happy to be actively involved in a class in which they are interested.  Ms. Goodale informed the members there have been questions/issues in regard to internship attendance.  Ms. Goodale stressed the fact the students who have been accepted to an internship MUST attend on their regularly scheduled days, even if their home school is not in attendance.  This is especially important for students involved in a clinical setting as there are very specific requirements for how many clinical sessions a student attends in order to sit for a certification.
  2. Special Populations Report:  Mr. Kelley reported students in the learning center for reading will take their WorkKeys post-test the first week of December.  Students who were identified as needing math services from the learning center will begin after Winter Break.  Mr. Kelley informed the group he attended the System Directors’ Meeting in Springfield with Mr. Fay last week. In speaking with Dora Welker at the meeting, he discerned we should have our performance data by December.  Sophomore Day will be Tuesday, November 17th.  Mr. Kelley stated he was happy to report there are 200 more students attending this year than last, mostly due to Crete-Monee and Kankakee High School.  In regard to curriculum, Mr. Kelley explained he is looking into NCCER, a national certification for building trades.  Mr. Kelley will be meeting with CTE teachers from throughout the member districts to go over curriculum.  If all goes as planned, a construction teacher from the Career Center will train to earn a Master Instructor Certification and then do some train-the-trainer work creating a much more defined scope and sequence for CTE.  Mr. Kelley shared his intention to expand and do the same with Childcare, Business, etc. and create advisory boards with member school CTE instructors.

CLOSED SESSION:

A motion was made by Dr. Legge, seconded by Ms. Russert at 8:45 a.m., to move to closed session to consider information regarding Employment, and Contract negotiating matters between KACC and its employees or their representatives, or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees, [5 ILCS 120/2(c)(2)].

 

Re-Open Session: 

The meeting was called back into session at 9:00 a.m.

 

Adjourn:

There being no further business, a motion to adjourn was made by Dr. Legge, seconded by Mrs. Russert at 9:23 a.m.  Motion carried by voice vote.

 

 

 

 

                                                            As Recorded By:_______________________________

                                                                                                Kevin Carey, Secretary