ADAMS COUNTY EDUCATION CONSORTIUM
Monthly Meeting Minutes
March 15, 2006
In attendance: Jenny Alber, Laura Barribo, Bill Bates, Bill Becker, Robin Bozella, Steve
Callahan, Doris Candelarie, David Cessna, Phil Corn, Jay Demore, Barbara
DesMarteau,
Heather Fox, Sheila Fox, Gary Goode, Janie Goodwin Booker Graves, Janet Gullickson,
Curt Hawley, David Holland, Kim Howell, Amy Johnson, Anne Keaten, Michele Kelley,
Terry Kish, Nita Laramie-Eaton, Josh McDaniel, Greg McDonald, Jim Neubecker,
Elizabeth Parmelee, Craig Piernot, Barbara Plaven, Alice Potter, Gary Price, Stacey
Renz, Dwaine Schmidt, Lee Searcy, Janice Sinden, Danny Sisneros, Jamie Skaronea
Sandy Steiner, Marisa Valeras, Debbie Woodward, Wei Zhou,
Sandy Steiner opened the meeting with the introduction of our new ACEC intern,
Barbara Keaten.
Sandy then requested that individuals sign up for the ACEC speaker’s bureau. There
has been a request for an ACEC representative to make a presentation to an
organization in Colorado Springs on April 14th. Anyone willing to do so should see
Sandy after the meeting.
Jane Froman spoke on the status of WorkforceConnect, a program scheduled for the
week of June 19 – 23 for teachers to visit business and industry sites in the metro area
in order to develop a great understanding of business skills needed for students to enter
their industries. Any business that would be interested in hosting 10-12 teachers for a
few hours should contact Jane at jane.froman@frontrange.edu. Consortium members
are invited to participate in the June 21 breakfast forum at the Doubletree Hotel where
they will be able to network with teachers and offer their support and resources for the
classrooms. Cost for the breakfast session is $16 per person. RSVP to
jgoodwin@adamscountyed.com.
Debbie Woodward gave a status report on the Community Services team projects.
They are completing the Community Resource Guide that is a compilation of many
resource guides already available across Adams County. They are working on creating
a web ready version. From that version, a brochure will be designed to distribute
county-wide. At the next meeting on April 20th, they will discuss strategies for
communicating these resources to the general population. It was suggested that a way
be established to document the number of ‘hits’ the website gets when the resource
guide loaded. This will enable ACEC to assess the value of such a tool.
In response to concerns that the social services agencies of the county are already on
overload, the team will seek additional support of industry personnel and/or contributions
to help address the most pressing issues of the county population.
Development of the community center concepts following the ideas presented by Dan
Vallez of the VOICES program are being researched and discussed.
Therese Brown described the progress being made by the Experiential Learning team.
They are finalizing standards they have designed that will infuse specific study skills and
workforce development lesson plans into classroom curriculum. A ‘white paper’ is also
being created to present to school boards along with the standards. The next step will
be a meeting with district superintendents to present these standards for their
consideration. If approved, the committee will then work on a communication plan
design to implement the standards across Adams County.
Individuals from the business community are encouraged to participate in this process to
help teachers, schools and/or programs to design classroom lesson plans that will aid in
the infusion of work specific relevancy in to the curriculum in all subject matter.
Meetings of the team meet the first Tuesday of every month, 3:30 – 5:00 at Front Range
Community College. It was suggested by Alice Potter that there is a Jeffco website that
has sample lesson plans available.
Doris Candelarie gave a report on the status of the academy plans. Prairie View High
School will open in August with a construction academy that will teach framing, wiring
and plumbing of walls. The curriculum will include workplace competencies and will,
hopefully, become a model design for other academies – or small learning communities -
- within Prairie View and across Adams County. The core academies will include the
areas of math, science, English and technology.
Currently the Principal of PVHS is trying to find the right teacher for the academy design,
someone who will motivate and engage the students. A career advisory sub-committee
will be selected to guide and enhance the learning experience for students.
Brighton 27J is also working with Channel 7 to fund a health-sciences academy. There
is also discussion of a landscape design and horticulture academy. A masonry
academy is under consideration at the previous United Power site.
Sandy Steiner reported that there will be a tour on March 22 to do a feasibility study for a
construction/manufacturing academy for Adams School Districts 12 & 50. Anyone
interested in attending should e-mail jgoodwin@adamscountyed.com.
Josh McDaniel of the Workforce Development and Business office reported on a change
of perspective regarding a logistics industry academy. The North Carolina academy that
was thought would be a credible example for us to follow did not work. We were not
encouraged to view that as a solution to the logistics industry current issues. Other
ideas are being discussed with those involved in the industry. The logistics committee
will continue to discuss trends and current hiring practices, new ways to market the
industry to the community and the schools, and how to overcome legal and insurance
obstacles for training of drivers. The next logistics meeting will be on March 30, 3:00 –
4:30 p.m. at the ACED offices.
Sandy Steiner presented a brochure prototype for the business community. Once this
one is complete, additional brochures will be designed for the educational institutions
and community families. Sandy also presented a scale of fundraising levels and
requested input from everyone. Debbie Woodward suggested we request a
presentation by the GITA group who currently are offering an 18-month grant available
for enabling technology that seems to fit the profile of the ACEC.
Representatives from Pinnacle, Andrea Hough and Janice Sinden, are working on
fundraising issues. Sandy and team leader, Lori Corless-Kennedy, will be meeting with
businesses during March to encourage their financial support of ACEC.
As ‘open issues’:
Dwaine Schmidt requested an electronic flyer for the Workforce Connect be e-mailed to
him. Janie Goodwin will follow up.
Greg McDonald, counselor at Niver Creek Middle School, announced an April 26th
career fair from 8:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Any business interested in participating should
be in touch with Greg. He will send an electronic e-mail flyer to Janie to distribute to
consortium members.
Terry Kish announced the construction industry is holding a Job Fair at Red Rocks
Community College on April 19th. Anyone interested in participating should contact him
directly. He will send an electronic flyer to Janie for posting.
There was an announcement regarding a program being initiated by Colorado
Partnerships for preparing students for citizenship responsibilities. Additional
information will be forthcoming.
Sandra Steiner, Director, ssteiner@adamscountyed.com
Janie Goodwin, Administrative Assistant, jgoodwin@adamscountyed.com
12050 Pecos Street, Suite 200
Westminster, CO 80234-3493
303-450-5106 * 303-252-8230 (F)