Board Members Present: Yusuf Quidwai (President); Mike Shephard (Past President); Gerald Apple (Coordinating Secretary); Skeet Gaul (Treasurer); David Slipp (ESD #113); Fred Kellogg (ESD #112); Mike Heinlen ( ESD #121); Mike Hahn ( ESD #189); Chuck Filippini (ESD #101); John Clark (ESD #105); Gale Wilson (ESD #171)
Guests: Alex Hansen, JC Fawcett, and Sheryl Vanderwalker
1.) MEETING CALLED TO ORDER by Yusuf Quidwai. 2.) CONSENT AGENDA:
a) July board minutes- There were a few minor changes made to the minutes b) Senior Driving Report-Gerry c) Coordinating Secretary’s Report-Gerry d) Treasurer’s report-Skeet e) Webmaster report-Teri Gaul f) Webmaster, Treasurer and Coordinating Secretary hours worked
A motion was made by Chuck and seconded by John to approve the consent agenda. The motion passed.
3.) OLD BUSINESS a) Fall Conference update-Skeet and Gerry
As of September 10th, $9450 made on the conference and 65 people are registered for the conference. There are 6 sponsors and 4 exhibitors.So far in the registration process, David Slip’s workshop on insurance has the most conference attendees. On the name tags, it will state what workshops the conference attendees will go to on Saturday afternoon.The reason why our conference registrations are low is that PDSA is offering a workshop the week before our conference and 4 throughout the year.
It is imperative that we get the notice out to ESD #189 and #113 to remind their teachers about the hotel deadline to get a discount and that September 30th is the deadline for early registration. Our WTSEA list serve has a counter that let’s know how many people are looking at our notices.
On our conference agenda and registration materials we will state this is our 53rd WTSEA annual conference. It is important that we list the past presidents of WTSEA and the recipients of the Distinguished Service and Cliff Boyce awards.
Gerry will be in charge of registration for those that have registered for the conference. He will have a group help him on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Skeet and Teri will take care of the walk-ins.
We passed a board responsibility sheet around for the board members to sign if they wanted to be a facilitator for a workshop or general session. Plus, they could sign up for other duties at the conference. A reminder will be sent out a week before the fall conference of the duties of each of the board members.
Skeet ordered 200 hats for the conference and Gale was responsible for providing the information that Skeet needed in this ordering process. Gerry has ordered two hundred t-shirts from State Farm insurance that address the topic of “texting and driving.” The polo shirts for the board members are done.
David mentioned that a number will be put on the back of the name tags for the door prize drawings. Plus, we will have several grand prizes.
b) CWU Scholarships This item on the agenda was tabled until the next board meeting.
4.) NEW BUSINESS a) Fall conference elections According to the constitution the elections need to be held at the TSE conference.The ballots will be handed out early in the morning at the conference and the ballots will be due by lunch and put in the ballot box made by Skeet. The results will be given out at the end of the day at the business meeting. We will have elections for the following positions: President, President-elect, ESD #189, ESD #112, ESD #105, and ESD #123. According to the by-laws, you only need one person to run for a position. Mike Shephard mentioned that if a person is running for a position, they need to let him know so their name can be put on the ballot. Commercial school teachers can vote, but they can NOT serve on the board. Board members must be certified to teach in the public schools thru OSPI.
b) Budget suggestion The more expenses we put on the WTSEA credit cards, the more money we make for our association.
c) Legislative update This summer at the ADTSEA conference, Yusuf, Mike, Dan Steward and Gerry suggested to Alex that we needed someone to work with the legislature and OSPI to obtain funding for administrative oversight at OSPI for public school TSE programs.
It was mentioned by Yusuf that it is imperative that we be represented this year in Olympia. Skeet mentioned that WTSEA members want us to do something in Olympia. Alex agreed that he could serve WTSEA in this role. He was appointed as the legislative liaison at the July Board meeting.
Alex has been very busy in August meeting with legislators and policymakers, reviewing proposed bill and WAC language, writing letters/e-mails, and drawing up reports. Alex sent many preliminary documents to the Board members to review. They are rough drafts. Information for our membership and action plans will be ready to post on our website and announced at the fall conference.
Based on Yusuf’s recommendation, the Board discussed the need to compensate Alex for his time. He will not teach Traffic Safety Ed at Eatonville this fall because of the time he will spend on this project.Mike Shephard stated that we should pay Alex $1,500 now, and $4,000 after the legislative session for the time he puts in as our legislative liaison. Yusuf mentioned that this would hopefully compensate Alex for his time. A motion was made by Gerry and seconded by Mike Heinlen to put this project into our 2016-2017 budget after we look at the total hours that Alex puts in as our legislative liaison.
Alex gave us a report on what he has accomplished so far as our legislative liaison: He has created a list of NHTSA’s top 12 proposals from the Assessment of Washington’s Driver Education program last May. He requests the Board to review the policy recommendations, and asks the Board if they should be approved as our own policy recommendations.
He talked about HB 2770, which addresses the issue of lack of oversight of public school TSE programs. The bill was introduced last session. DOL, OSPI and Deb Grenier were the only people who testified on the bill last year, all in favor. Alex has great reservations about the bill, and discussed two main concerns with the sponsor, Representative Hayes: a) he did NOT feel that public school TSE programs should be under DOL. They are not an education-minded agency and have nobody on staff with experience in teaching. We should remain under the direction of OSPI. If public schools go under DOL, the DOL would have to hire more auditors. Why not budget for OSPI to have these auditors? Regional Coordinators did much more than simply carry the big stick of oversight. They were educators who inspired teachers to do a better job in their programs. They should be restored. b) Certified public school TSE teachers should NOT have to be licensed under DOL to continue to teach in the public schools. This requirement would nullify their teaching certificates. Alex has notified the WEA about this concern; Lucinda Young, their chief lobbyist is preparing to back us up.
Alex has been invited to a stakeholder’s meeting by Rep. Hayes in October to discuss making improvements to HB 2770. WTSEA should take positions on the proposed DOL WAC changes in the event that HB 2770 passes and public schools find themselves under DOL oversight. Alex is reviewing the DOL WACs and is preparing recommendations for the Board to consider in December.
Yusuf brought up the concern that when something concerns public school TSE programs, both PDSA and WTSEA need to be invited to the meetings sponsored by DOL. Yusuf presented a great argument for this to always occur.
4.) ITEMS DISCUSSED WITH PDSA at 1:00 PM. Two representatives from the PDSA (JC Fawcett, president, and Sheryl Vanderwalker) requested an informal meeting with the WTSEA Board. They were interested in having us review their responses to the DOL on the proposed WAC changes. They hope there could be common ground and agreement between the two professional associations. We had a very cordial and respectful 2-hour discussion.
One of the questions asked by the WTSEA board was why does PDSA schedule their conference one week before our conference? We respectfully asked the PDSA to reconsider scheduling their workshops so as not to conflict with our traditional fall conference. JC and Sheryl acknowledged our concern and stated they will bring it up with their Board. There were many things that JC, Sheryl and the board members agreed on during this two-hour discussion.
JC and Sheryl mentioned the term “contiguous,” and stated that is was NOT explained carefully in the DOL WACS. They explained why it was hard to get the six drives in before the end of the class. They recommend that at least two of the drives needed to be done before the 15 classroom sessions are completed. The DOL WACS say 3 drives need to be completed before the end of the class.
Alex brought up the concern of the practice of using AAA’s Driver Zed program as “simulation.” JC mentioned that not all commercial school programs use or approve of this program being used for “simulation.” A concern brought up by JC was the distance delivery of classroom instruction. He said the practice is a dangerous slope that could lead to on-line-only instruction. Gerry clarified that the practice is limited to only 5 rural programs that have no instructors and no available driving school within reasonable distance. WTSEA admitted that distance delivery is not a preferred method, but that until the state addresses the need of the lack of access in rural areas created by funding cuts, the practice is better than no program at all. Gerry also clarified that there is direct instruction and interaction between the instructor and the students, unlike online programs. WTSEA will be reviewing the proposed WAC changes made by the PDSA and will give them our feedback by December.
The next meeting will be held on December 3rd at CWU.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Gerald Apple Coordinating Secretary