ICASE Business Meeting September 28, 2007
French Lick Resort

(These minutes are considered a draft until approved at the next scheduled general membership meeting.)

Executive Committee/Past Presidents' Dinner (9-26-07): Tom Adams hosted the after-dinner meeting and called on Brett Bollinger to brief the group on current activities and future directions of the Indiana State Improvement Grant (INSIG).

Awards (9-27-07) ­ During the luncheon session, recognition and awards were presented to Senator Becker and Kelli Waggoner for their legislative efforts in restoring provisions for emergency permits in the area of communication disorders. Sara Maze (IU Southeast) and Kathryn Pierce (IUSB) were present to receive the Porter Scholarship with tuition support. Honorary Memberships were granted to Mary Jo Beauchamp (Gibson-Pike-Warrick), Jackie Gruesbeck (Southwest Allen), and Mike Horvath (Monroe County) and contributions were made in their behalf to the Porter Scholarship Fund.

OFFICERS PRESENT AT BUSINESS MEETING: Pam Wright (President), Lynn Gosser (President-elect), Tom Adams (Past-President), Vendetta Gutshall (Treasurer), Gary Collings (Secretary)

1. Call to Order ­ Pam Wright called the business meeting to order at 8:30 AM and welcomed new directors and members; she introduced officers and roundtable representatives. Pam reviewed the agenda and meeting procedures including the use of a floor microphone.

2. Review of Voting Procedures ­ As parliamentarian, Gary Collings was called upon to outline procedures related to the pending constitutional revision. Gary reported that the changes are so extensive that the revision represents a new set of by-laws. In adopting a constitution, consideration of the revision by paragraphs is the normal and advisable procedure. The revision can be "perfected" by amendments that are not limited to just the "points of change" in the proposal. Gary commented that voting (unified) members would be given an envelope to raise by hand vote as appropriate throughout the business meeting.

As presiding officer, Pam Wright would first seek a motion to adopt the revision, which opens the document for debate. Pam will next present the revision by sections and call for any debate or amendment to each in order. Once all sections are considered, she will declare the entire document open to amendment. After such action, she would then call for a motion to accept the revised constitution with the adopted amendments as the final action. Before returning the podium to Pam Wright, Gary asked to establish a quorum of 25% of the 90 eligible voting members by the "raising of the envelopes". A quorum was confirmed.

3. Approval of Minutes: Pam Wright called for approval of the February 16, 2007 minutes. MOTION: After a motion for approval by Ann Schnepf and a second by Mary Beth Hamilton, the minutes were approved as presented by the raising of the envelopes.

4. Treasurer's Report - Vendetta Gutshall presented the Financial Statement noting the new budget amount of $242,900 plus a protected $30,000 cash reserve with $15,820.31 cash on hand. The Porter Scholarship Fund has a current account balance of $2,929.44 plus the $10,600 balance invested in the CASE Indiana scholarship account. Pam Wright called for a motion to accept the September 24, 2007 financial statement. MOTION: After a motion for approval by Dave Chastain and a second by Connie DeLong, the financial statement was approved by the raising of the envelopes.

5. ICASE Reports:

a. Membership ­ Vendetta Gutshall reported 116 total members including 60 directors of special education. New directors include Tracey Shriver (Boone-Clinton-Madison), Amy Royse (MSD Warren), Roxanne May (Southwest Allen), Kelly Walsh (Forest Hills), Lisa Brewer (Gibson-Pike-Warrick), Angela Balsley (Bremen). The Membership Committee is in place with a roundtable representative from each region. The chairpersons or members of the subcommittees are being filled for Products, Website, Newsletter, and Patron.

b. Legislative ­ Joan McCormick, chairperson, reported on the CASE Summer Institute in Washington D.C., which she, Tom Adams, Lynn Gosser, Cheryl Harshman, and John Hill attended on July 15-1S, 2007. Attendees from Indiana visited three Senators' offices and spoke with Representative Joe Donnelly about the growth model. He forwarded Joan the growth model draft and 17 pages of ESEA amendments. Dr. Reed will be meeting with the Congressman in the future to discuss the proposed growth model. Senator Becker has also expressed interest in the subject and has proposed a panel of State and Federal legislators to discuss the topic.

They also met with interim OSEP director, Patty Guard, about Medicaid issues. Joan noted the APA proposal to eliminate the title of school psychologists. She encouraged members to respond to the Article 7 survey and distributed the new Legislative pamphlet. Tammy Ummel commented that members need to first review the underlying language before completing the survey.

Tom Adams reported that the Children's Health Insurance Bill adds a moratorium on the CMS agency to reduce school Medicaid reimbursement. Although the bill passed the Senate and not the House, it will likely be vetoed by the President. Tom named the Representatives and how they voted. He will post the Congressmen's phone numbers on the listserv.

c. SLP Shortage Committee ­ Pam Wright reviewed the work of this task force, which includes representatives from ICASE, ISHA, and DEL. She reported that members are in agreement that more SLPs are needed to work in schools. The task force has developed an action plan with sub-groups. Connections are to be made with university training programs.

d. Article 7 Work Group ­ Lynn Gosser reported that there have been sub-groups working on various proposed rules. The documents presented today will also be available on the ICASE website <www.icase.org>.

e. February 2008 Conference Update ­ Lynn Gosser commented that the conference will be at the downtown Indianapolis Radisson and the program will include Article 7 presentations as well as a panel of legislators to discuss Medicaid and other issues.

6. ISEAS Report ­ Gary Collings commented on the new 2007-08 Directory available in an unbound format (shrink wrap master). He announced that the 2007 Salary Survey will be released in an electronic format through the Survey Monkey tool. Gary presented highlights of the upcoming Support Staff Seminar (October 16) and the two RtI seminars on November 15 for curriculum directors and March 19, 2008 for building administrators. The DOE/Division of Professional Standards will offer five mentor trainings at the regional Educational Service Centers for interested administrators. The ISEAS job board <http://iseasjob.indstate.edu> has been purged so any pending vacancies will need to be re-posted.

7. Strategic Plan Adoption ­ Pam Wright explained the plan as summarized on a handout and asked for approval of the plan. MOTION: Margie Labelle moved to accept the Strategic Plan 2007 with the date amended in the first paragraph to read "June 13 ­ 14, 2006". After a second by Mary Beth Hamilton the motion was approved by the raising of the envelopes.

8. Constitution Adoption ­ As presiding officer, Pam Wright requested a motion to adopt the revised constitution as timely presented to the membership. MOTION: Bill Dreibelbis moved to adopt the revised constitution. After a second by Connie Griffith, the motion was unanimously approved by the raising of the envelopes. The document was now open for debate.

Pam next presented the revision by sections and called for any debate or amendment to each in the following order and groupings: Articles I, II, and new III (none), Article IV (none), Articles V and VI (none), Article VII, Section 1 (MOTION: Patti Kem moved to strike "attends CASE Board of Director meetings" from the duties of the President-elect, Secretary, and Treasurer." After a second by Mary Beth Hamilton, the motion was unanimously approved by the raising of the envelopes.)

Pam continued the review by sections by calling for any debate or amendments to Article VII, Section 2 (none), new Article VIII (none with typo corrected from IX), Article IX (none with typo corrected from X), Article X (typo corrected from XI) Subsection 1.3. Joan McCormick questioned whether the appointed chairperson would be an additional member for any given roundtable. Pam referred to the introductory sentence in this subsection stating "the chair can also serve as the roundtable representative". No amendment was offered.

Pam completed the review by sections by calling for any debate or amendments to Articles XI to XVI (none with typo corrections from XII to XVII).

Once all sections were considered, Pam declared the entire document open for further amendment. Joan McCormick asked for clarification of the term "legislative liaison" as used in Article X (corrected from XI), Subsection 1.3. Pam responded that we had been advised against using the term lobbyist due to our IRS status. No amendment was offered.

Pam then called for a motion to accept the revised constitution with the adopted amendments as the final action. MOTION: Mary Beth Hamilton moved to accept the revised constitution with the adopted amendments. After a second by Margie Labelle, the motion was unanimously approved by the raising of the envelopes.

9. Other Business ­
a. ISTAR/ICAN Report ­ Jill Slavins briefed members on the advantages of the ISTAR/ICAN Project as a paperless, secure system for compliance documents. It provides a seamless connection to the state STN network as endorsed by DOE.

b. CASE Connections ­ Tom Adams reviewed the benefits of CASE membership including the institutes, board of director representation, website, and e-mails. Last year ICASE received the CASE membership development award and is seeking the CASE legislative award this year.

c. Scholarship/Golf Fundraiser/Prizes ­ Trace Benedict reported that the good news from the rained out golf outing was that all the fees had been donated to the Scholarship Fund in the amount of $1,475. Al Kosinski announced names of prize winners.

10. Awards/Recognitions

a. Past President's Award ­ Pam Wright presented the Past Presidents' Plaque to Tom Adams.

b. Vendor Raffle ­ Tammy Ummel concluded the session with the drawing for vendor prizes.

Division Report ­ At his morning presentation following the ICASE Business meeting, Bob Marra reported that the USDOE cited IDOE for its Part B determinations with a "needs intervention" sanction. The USDOE citation on June 15, 2007 noted the determination was based on the totality of the State's data in its Annual Performance Report and revised State Performance Plan. Bob reviewed the twenty compliance indicators and the implications of the federal citation for the Continuous Improvement Focused Monitoring. Significant disproportionality is a compliance indicator for which Indiana must provide baseline data for FFY 2006. Districts identified as out of compliance in disproportionality will be required to use 15% of Part B funds to be designated for early intervening services.

Bob also explained the problems caused by the conflicts in the local data reported to the DOE Student Application Center and CODA, which will require DOE verification visits. The State Advisory Council continues its work on the revision of Article 7 with an initial draft to be available in early 2008. The DOE website <http://doe.state.in.us/exceptional/advisory/welcome.html> is a point of reference.

NEXT MEETING: February 29, 2008 at the downtown Indianapolis Sheraton