A meeting of the NSF-LSC Project Management Team (PMT) convened at 1:10 PM. This meeting was originally scheduled for 1 April and was rescheduled due to inclement weather.

Present:

Name Organization

Bindel, Rosalie Rapid City School District

Farrington, Dan Black Hills State University

Gaspar, Sandy Spearfish School District

Hale, Becky Wall School District

Hensley, Janet Douglas School District

Hillberry, Joe Douglas School District

Lamb, Charles Black Hills State University

Lavoie, Derrick Black Hills State University

Roggenthen, Bill South Dakota School of Mines & Technology

Slough, Steven Black Hills State University

Swanson, John Belle Fourche School District

Not Present:

Chapel, Mitch Lead-Deadwood Schools

Creal, Tim New Underwood Schools

Hartman, Jo Kadoka Schools

VanHorn, Kathleen Meade County School District

1. The following documents were handed out to attendees at the meeting:

Meeting Agenda

National LASER K-8 Science Education Strategic Planning Institute Brochure

First Step Institute Brochure

Badlands Visit Summer Workshop Brochure

National Curriculum Material Summer Workshop Brochure, June 7-10

National Curriculum Material K-5 Summer Content Workshop Brochure, August 16-19

Professional Development Schedule for 99-00

Spread sheet of teacher applicants for the June 7-10 workshop.

Five year plans

Copy of NSF Award letter

Draft News Release

Prospective New Awardee Guide

2. The meeting was brought to order by Dr Lavoie. Dr. Lavoie announced that the LSC project had received official award letter from NSF. Dr Lavoie reviewed the outcomes of his discussion with the program officer at NSF and others at NSTA and NARST in Boston. The requirements for project evaluation were briefly discussed. Classroom observations will begin in the near future upon receipt of notification from Horizon Research, Inc. Dr. Lavoie shared the sampling frame and asked each co-pi to verify who were the lead teachers. Several CO-PI's asked that they be notified well in advance of any observations so they could better prepare the targeted teachers. Dr. Lavoie pointed out that Horizon expected contact with the teacher well in advance of going on site and that every effort would be made to provide adequate lead time.

3. Dr. Lavoie outlined the decision making nature of the project management team. While decisions for the project must ultimately be made by the PI, Dr. Lavoie explained that it was his intent to make major decisions concerning management of the project based on consensus of the project management team (PMT). Dr. Lavoie indicated he would develop a list of expectations for the PMT members.

4. A review of the contract obligations was conducted by Dr. Farrington and Dr. Lavoie. Dr. Farrington pointed out that cost share was to be documented and that he would obtain the necessary forms for the districts to report their expenditures throughout the year. Dr. Lavoie noted that while the NSF Budget was reduced, cost share from the schools should not be substantially changed as the expectations for over 100 hours of professional development at the end of a 5 year period would be achieved for all teachers from all involved districts. Discussion focused on the inclusion of Eisenhower Grant moneys as part of a school's cost share. It was pointed out that, under the contract terms, federal grant money cannot be used as part of the calculated portion of the cost share so Eisenhower Grant money cannot be counted as part of a schools cost share. Cost share accounting was discussed later in the meeting and the use of the Bi-Monthly Time Record found in the Prospective New Awardee Guide was reviewed. The guide can be found on the internet at the following address: http://nsf.gov/bfa/cpo/oversite/guide/start.htm. The project requirements include reporting cost share expenditures twice a year to the NSF program office.

5. Dr. Lavoie reviewed the budget status of the program. Currently the program has 213 targeted teachers (i.e., teachers who can be observed in a self-contained classroom and who can be interviewed). Since the original budget of $1.4 million was targeted at serving 480 teachers, the budget expenditures must be reduced pending outcomes of decisions about Meade and Rapid City Districts joining the LSC project. The basic formula allows three thousand dollars for each participating teacher.

Ron Senne has recommend we look carefully at our reduced budget to be sure that we are able to meet the goals of the project. Current budget reduction, that will still enable us to deliver quality professional development in excess of 100 hours is based on 267 teachers or about $800,000 over the five years of the project. This assumes that over the next five years we will add 55 new teachers to the current 213 teachers. This was acceptable to the group.

6. The involvement of Rapid City School District with the LSC project was discussed. Dr. Rosalie Bindel, Curriculum Director of R.C. made it clear that R.C. is aggressively pursuing systemic reform and is devoting one full-time teacher to science curriculum revision. Several Eisenhower grants are underway in the R.C. District. Dr. Bindel requested that some R.C. science curriculum review committee members be allowed to audit this summer's LSC workshops to better understand the LSC project. Dr. Lavoie reported that NSF funds should not be used for non-targeted teachers, but that doesn't mean we can not service a larger audience. It was agreed to allow RC teachers to attend this summer's workshops assuming space was available. Dr. Bindel indicated she would be sending a team from RC to the NSRC LASER K-8 Science Education Strategic Planning Institute conference to be held in July as well as a team to Next Step Institute to be held in October.

Both Rapid and Meade school districts appear to be poised for K-8 science reform but would need to show capacity and commitment to be added to the project. Dr. Lavoie pointed out that Meade School District is also moving ahead with reform and is planning to work together with BLAHST next year to begin piloting national curriculum materials throughout their district. Dr. Lavoie further pointed out that adding 140 teachers from Meade is well within our existing budget and capacities. Adding RC to the project will require approval from NSF beyond the program officer. An extensive plan would need to be submitted to NSF next year demonstrating we can scale up to accommodate RC's additional 500 teachers. There is no guarantee that additional money will be provided from NSF to handle RC.

7. Dr. Lavoie handed out brochures on the LASER K-8 Science Education Strategic Planning Institute and the Next Step Institute. He explained that the purpose of these institutes was to prepare the participating team with the necessary knowledge, tools, and strategic plans to return to their districts and facilitate effective systemic reform for K-8 science. He noted that these institutes are tailor-made for LSC projects. He noted that while at NSTA in Boston he had been strongly encouraged by directors of the LASER institute and others to send a team from the SD LSC project to this institute as soon as possible. Sending a sister team along with the Rapid City team was recognized as a powerful way to develop an effective plan for involving RC with the LSC projects professional development efforts. It was agreed that a LSC project team should attend the next LASER institute in Washington, D.C. Dr. Lavoie will identify this LASER team from our LSC project and prepare the application as soon as possible. Funding for our team will be a combined effort of all seven districts, SDSMT, and BHSU.

8. The status of sign-ups for the summer Professional Development workshops was reviewed by Dr. Lavoie. Based on the need to cut back the NSF budget in year one, the NSF funds available this summer will cover $60/day stipends for 50 participants. There will only be one material focused workshop to be offered June 7-10. There will be two content focused workshop offered Aug. 2-5 (geology - SDSMT) and Aug. 16-19 (life science - BHSU). Several alternatives were considered to save money including the possibility of shortening the workshops to three days instead of four. No decisions were made to change from the current planned four day workshops, but is was agreed that we should run them from 9:00 - 4:00 instead of 8:30 - 4:30.

9. Purchase of science kits for next year was discussed with several CO-PI's expressing an interest in making this decision after the June workshop to allow more planning and consideration of such issues. One factor that must be considered is how the National curriculum materials will correlate with state mandated standards which are currently being drafted.

10. Dr. Lavoie led the team through a page by page review of two 5 year plans for the BLAHST project. This information is contained in the Meeting Agenda and should be reviewed by each member of the PMT. This information responds to the requests of many CO-PI's made during our last meeting.

11. Discussion considered the stipends and credit allowed for summer workshops. The summer workshops are currently projected to include a $60 per day stipend and two hours of graduate credit to be awarded by BHSU at reduced cost (approx. $40/credit). Participants in the workshops will need to obtain lunch on their own.

12. The need to increase involvement and support of district principals and superintendents in the program was discussed. CO-PI's agreed to invite their superintendents to participate in or visit the summer workshops and to have at least one principal from their districts attend the summer workshops for at least one full day. Dr. Farrington asked the team if superintendents should be invited to a meeting with Dr. Flickema during which the projects advantages would be reviewed. It was agreed that such a meeting was a good idea.

13. Dr. Farrington reviewed several matters of publicity including the draft of a press release. The proposed draft of the announcement of the programs award distributed to all present for review and comments. This draft is intended to be released in the near future.

14. The summer workshops were further discussed. Dr. Roggenthen reviewed the proposed workshop to the Badlands. This 4 day workshop is proposed to start August 2, and will be offered for 2 graduate credits. Joe Hillberry passed out a flyer which was reviewed by the group. Dr. Lamb shared a 4-day schedule for the life-science content focused K-5 workshop, to be offered August 16-19 at BHSU. This workshop will start with content in selected national curriculum kits and explore content that goes beyond the kits. More information on both of these workshops will be forthcoming.

15. The need to utilize some of our lead teachers as Professional Development Facilitators (PDFs) in the summer workshops was discussed as we will be running concurrent grade span groupings of K-3, 3-5, and 6-8. Duties of the PDFs are outlined in a handout that was passed out to the CO-PI's. Seven PDFs have been identified from Belle Fourche and Spearfish schools. Two all-day planning/training sessions for these PDFs have been set for April 23 and May 7th.

16. Dr. Lavoie provided a spread sheet showing teachers who were currently signed up for the June 7-10 workshop (approximately 13 teachers). No teachers are currently signed up for the Aug. 16-19 life science content based workshop or the Aug. 2-5 geology content workshop. Dr. Lavoie noted that we can pay $60/day stipends to 25 teachers attending the June 7-10 and to 25 teachers in the Aug. 16-19th workshop. The CO-PI's felt they would have additional number of teachers attending the June 7-10 workshop as follows:

Belle Fourche - 6 teachers

Douglas- 5 teachers

Spearfish - 3 teachers

Wall - 3 teachers

Kadoka - 3 teachers

It was pointed out that more than 25 teachers could be accommodated in the June 7-10 workshop. However, if the number of teachers exceeds 25 for this workshop, those teachers will need to receive the $60/day stipend from their districts and not from NSF money. A decision of what 25 will be selected for stipends will be made by the PMT at the next meeting. It was pointed out that teachers both experienced and inexperienced with national curriculum materials (e.g.., FOSS) should be allowed to attend the content workshops. However, Dr. Lavoie made it clear that if a teacher was new to national curriculum materials then they must attend the June 7-10 workshop to be considered part of the cohort that would be teaching one module next year (i.e., Cohort A1).

17. Joe Hillberry felt confident that he could get together at least 25 teachers from Douglas for the Aug. 2-5 geology content workshop, but that the workshop would be open to teachers from all seven districts and beyond assuming space was available. It was agreed that Sandi Gaspar and Joe Hillberry will send the applications (names and background information) for their teachers wishing to attend the content workshops (Aug. 2-5) or (Aug. 16-19) to Dr. Lavoie via email. This application should include the following:

- last name

- first name

- school

- school address

- school phone #

- home phone #

- email

- grade level taught

- lead teacher status (yes or no)

- interest in taking workshop for 2 graduate credits (yes or no)

- interest in beginning the MSCI in science education (yes or no)

- experience with national curriculum (modules used per year, # of years teaching with the modules)

The meeting was dismissed at 3:30 PM. Prior to dismissal the next meeting date was set for the 29th of April, 1999, 1-4 PM in the Surbeck Center at SDSM&T. The exact location will be forthcoming.

Disclaimer: These minutes summarize the content of the discussions and are not intended to be a verbatim transcript.

Steve Slough, Recorder