March 17, 1997 Park Inn, Urbana, IL

Report prepared by Beloo Mehra

Representatives from the member schools of the Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools met on March 17, 1997 at the Park Inn in Urbana to work toward the official organization of the Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools (IAES) as a regional center for the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES).

People present at the meeting were:

Cynthia Clark, Candace Walrath (Broadmoor Jr. High School)

Richard Buxton, Mark St. Ivany (Cahokia High School)

Cathy Beres, Kent Charlesworth, Mike Conver (Elmwood Jr./Sr. High School)

Richard Beck, Bruce Carlson, Cathy Hoffman, Charlie Hollerith (Hononegah High School)

Chuck Smith, Sue Stoller, Dave Victor (Lake Park High School)

Sue Augustine, Amy Jo Clemens (Malta Jr./Sr. High School)

Bill Geurin, Mike Mandrell (Mt. Carmel High School)

Tom Gunning, Janet Heinz, Dorie Sebold (North Middle School)

Tom McGreal, Cathy Thurston, Sandy Levin, Nona Prestine, and Beloo Mehra (College of Education, U of I)

Dr. Patricia Anderson, Director of the Chicago Academy for School Leadership was the facilitator for the meeting.

Following introductions, Tom McGreal gave a brief overview of the organizational changes that are being done at the CES and how these are affecting the organization of the regional centers. The IAES Regional Center at UIUC has been recognized as a regional center of the CES, and has 10 downstate schools as its members.

The structure of the Center should reflect the future of the CES, though the member schools have a lot of flexibility in shaping the Center. The organization of the Center, however, needs to be done with an understanding that there are certain initial givens that must be taken into consideration for the next several years. These givens are:

Name and Location of the Center (IAES- Regional Center at the UIUC).

Funding (the Center is driven mainly by Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) at present; there is a need to solicit external funds to expand; and the Center is currently in the process of looking for potential sources of funding and writing grants and proposals especially focused on technology).

Staff (continuity in present staff at the Center is expected for at least some time in future; with better sense of external funding sources, staff positions can be linked to grant money; less money will mean shrinkage in staff leading to shrinkage of services).

Technology Focus (as leaders in promoting the use of technology in schools, the Center will continue to have technology as a major focus; will include other aspects depending upon the needs of continuing and new member schools).

Tom McGreal gave an update on the funding situation of the IAES Center which covers the salaries of the Center staff and other administrative expenses plus the expenses for organizing workshops, conferences and meetings, inviting guest speakers, and acquiring the required hardware and software as a part of the Microsoft Partnership. In addition, this year small grants were given to the member schools.

During the earlier developmental years of the IAES, there was some additional funding from MacArthur Foundation and Southwestern Bell, but there is no such funding available now. The ISBE grant will most likely continue for the next year, but there is definitely a need to look for outside sources of funding instead of relying on state funds.

Once the IAES is formally organized as a regional center and the new governance is in place, the member schools and the Board of Directors will have the major voice in allocating the funds.

Identifying the Tasks

Pat Anderson listed the activities the group was supposed to do: first identifying the tasks for the day and classifying them in broad categories, followed by small group discussions where each group worked on one category of tasks. She reviewed the list of roles and responsibilities of a CES Center as given in the Futures Committee Report of the CES.

The five key areas of tasks identified by the group were:

• Funding
• Membership
• Mission and Focus
• Communication
• By-laws and governance
  

Formulating an Outline: Work in five small groups

The group was divided into five small groups to work on formulating a skeleton around the five key areas they identified earlier. They attacked each of the five areas, came up with some ideas on how to organize the structure of the Center, and presented their ideas to the whole group afterwards.

The following is a compilation of the main ideas presented by all the groups:

• Funding:
  • Continue ISBE support
  • Look for outside sources of funding
  • Hire grant writer for center (member schools)
  • Keep track of expenses - staff salary and travel
  • Tie grants with Chicago Forum
  • Conference Registration Fees for schools
  • Membership fees
  • Tie grants with the technology focus
• Membership:
  • Continue existing members
  • Recruit new members
  • Criteria for new and continuing membership
  • Accountability of commitment from everybody
  • Encourage lead schools to bring in new schools
  • Advertise services of the center
  • Responsibilities of members
  • Procedures for new membership and renewal of membership
    
• Communication:
  • Need for two-way communication
  • On-line services
  • Pooled resources for use of Internet
  • Lead schools host conferences
  • "Critical Friends Group"
  • Eclectic approach (newsletters, e-mail, meetings and conferences, spring and fall forum)
  • Networking: Center to School, Center to Center, School to School
  • Site-visits
• Mission and Focus:
  • Encourage, support, facilitate, and implement the Common Principles
  • Resource, facilitator, and an advocate for meaningful educational change and the schools working to achieve it
  • Restructuring
  • Service to member schools
  • Provide framework for collaborative educational change
  • Use goals/objectives/outcomes to focus MISSION
    
• By-laws and Governance:
  • Small representative board of directors
  • 50% of the board must be teachers
  • Size of the board determined by budget
  • Regular meetings of the board and reporting to members - quarterly meetings in the developmental stages, regular get together at Fall Forum
  • Structure of the board: Chair, Vice-chair, and Secretary/Treasurer
  • Each member school to have one administrator/principal and one teacher on the board, possibly a parent/community person as well
  • One vote per school on the board
  • Quorum - more than 50%
  • Non-voting members - Center staff, ISBE, Chicago Forum
  • Working committees
  • Identify roles and responsibilities of the center staff
  • Draft articles and amendments
    
    

Establishing the Specifics: Work in two groups

Given the time constraint that afternoon, it was decided to work on two key areas:

• Mission and Focus
• By-laws and Governance
  

The group was divided into two sub-groups and each worked to establish the specifics in one of these areas. These two groups afterwards presented the results of their discussions and deliberations to the entire group.

The final draft of the mission statement and the governance of the IAES Center that resulted from this exercise is currently under review by the member schools.

Final Comments and Queries by Tom McGreal

It was decided that the specific structure established at the meeting needs to be approved by the steering committees of all the member schools. The notes of the organizational meeting, along with the details on the proposed mission and focus of the IAES Center and its governance structure will be sent to all the principals and coordinators for in-school review and discussion. Schools will provide the feedback on this draft and nominate two representatives for the Board of Directors of the IAES Center.

It was also decided that an organizational meeting of the Board of Directors of the Center should be held at the Spring Conference (May 7-8, 1997) to continue the discussions on formalization of the structure of the IAES Center.

The next meeting of the CES Congress is scheduled to be held in Chicago on April 25-26, 1997. Tom Gunning from North Middle School and Sue Augustine from Malta Jr.-Sr. High School will represent the IAES at the Congress.