November 2018 State Council Meeting Minutes

Interstate Compact
on Educational Opportunity for Military Children
California State Council General Business Meeting

November 6, 2018

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Videoconference Room 3102
Sacramento, CA 95814

Attendance

State Council Members Present:

Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner; Kelly Frisch, Department of Defense (DOD) Liaison Representative; Jacie Ragland, State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) Designee; Patricia Rucker, California State Board of Education (SBE); Sylvia Crowder, Military Family Education Liaison; and Jesse Najera, School District Superintendent Silver Valley Unified School District

State Council Members Absent:

John Burns, Task Force Chairperson; Assembly Member Todd Gloria or designee; and Senator Josh Newman or designee.

Invited Participants:

Ida Humphrey, School Liaison Officer (SLO), Los Angeles Air Force Base (AFB); Ryan Goodman, Command Master Chief United States Coast Guard (USCG) Base Alameda; Jose Pena, Commanding Officer USCG Base Alameda; Christian Mendoza, SLO, Travis Airman and Family Readiness Center

Welcome and Introductions

• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Opened the meeting of the California State Council (State Council) for the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children (Interstate Compact) at 1:01 p.m. at the California Department of Education (CDE). She welcomed State Council members and asked that introductions be made from all.

Opening Remarks

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Provided and overview of the October 17, 2018, Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission (MIC3) Annual Business Meeting (ABM), held in Cleveland, Ohio.
  • Rule changes were discussed, and one change included increasing dues from $0.15 per active duty military child per year to $1.15. Further discussion will take place to determine if the increase will take place in fiscal year 2018 or 2019.
  • The increase in dues will allow the MIC3 to move forward with sufficient funding versus proceeding with a deficit budget.
  • California dues were received about a week ago and we are in compliance.
  • The second rule change was a requirement for states to hold annual State Council meetings. For California this is not’t an issue because we host two meetings annually; however, other states have not been having annual meetings. This rule change will ensure that states are actually holding annual meetings.
  • Last year, the Executive Committee approved sponsored training across the nation. A Military Impacted Schools Association (MISA) training was scheduled for December 2018 in Texas.
  • MISA representatives contacts a district in the state that receives impact aid, and asks the district to sponsor the MISA training in order to bring as many districts together to attend the training.
  • Washington, Mississippi, Georgia, and Illinois have requested MISA training. Training sessions run roughly two and a half hours.
  • Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Shared that she is in favor of the training and asked if it could be expanded. Kate Wren Gavlak informed that this is a MISA sponsored training; however, the State Council can request the CDE to organize a state sponsored training on the Interstate Compact. Jacie suggested combining a half day training with the State Council General Business Meetings.
  • Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Agreed with the idea, and offered to assist with hosting the training at a specific school district.
  • Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Recapped the election that occurred at the MIC3 ABM. The Leadership Development Committee discussed the annual election process. Previously it was a voiced vote, but this year it was a secret ballot election. The Interstate Compact, Compact Rules Training book is available, and downloadable online since not many copies are printed. The schedule for future MIC3 ABMs is as follows: October 23-24, 2019, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Arkansas 2020, and Nevada 2021.

Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Jesse Najera, State Council Member: Made a motion to approve the minutes from the May 4, 2018, State Council General Business Meeting; the motion was seconded by Patricia Rucker, SBE. Sylvia Crowder, Military Family Education Liaison: Requested a correction to the spelling of her name. The State Council voted unanimously to approve the minutes from the May 4, 2018, meeting with requested correction so noted.

Commissioner’s Update

Topic: Immunization Issue Regarding the Tdap Vaccine

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Informed of the immunization issue, and asked Kelly Frisch to provide additional information on the immunization issue.
• Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Informed that the Interstate Compact addresses the 30 day issue, but the Tdap vaccine is not included in the 30 day rule in the Interstate Compact. This issue was submitted to the National Office, and they produced an official correspondence that states that the Tdap vaccine is actually included in the Interstate Compact.
  • The July 2019 state law states that the Tdap vaccine does not meet the 30 day grace period; while not a compact issue per-say, the question is if the Interstate Compact supersedes state law in this situation.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Stated that the Interstate Compact does supersede state law in this situation.
• Patricia Rucker, SBE: Requested Kate Wren Gavlak to confirm with MIC3 on this matter to clarify in writing that the Interstate Compact supersedes state law on this issue.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Informed that she can influence the language and assist with clarifying this issue.
• Christian Mendoza, School Liaison Officer: Asked when the 30 days begin. Kate Wren Gavlak confirmed that the 30 days begins 30 days from the date of registration.

Topic: Purple Star Program

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Provided information on the Purple Star Program.
  • The Program is in Ohio, Arkansas, and Virginia. It recognizes schools that are doing the right thing for military kids and families. Jesse Najera, State Council Member, confirmed that this is how it is characterized.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Read the Purple Star Award duty statement and results from Arkansas’ program.
  • This is an online application.
  • Each school gets a certificate and they list current Purple Star Schools.  The designation period is for two years. Their State Council verifies compliance the first year, and in the second year schools must reapply for continued designation.
• Jesse Najera, State Council Member: Added that there may be a way to look at a whole district as a Purple Star district, going beyond just individual school designations.
• Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Informed that the Student to Student Program is an example of a program similar to the Purple Star Program.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Believes that this would be a positive thing, but added that it would require participation from all of the State Council members.
• Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Informed that a lot of schools in San Diego County are performing several of these actions to become a Purple Star district.
• Jesse Najera, State Council Member: Suggested starting with particular districts where the entire district is impacted. Kate Wren Gavlak confirmed that a districtwide implementation would be excellent.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Expressed concern over who would be responsible for administering the program, and doing the leg work in regards to going through applications and reviewing required narratives.
  • She used the Model Continuation High School Recognition Program as an example and the in-depth process that is involved. She agreed that the Purple Star Program is a great idea. However, she shared her concern that the infrastructure might be an issue since staffing and funding could be a challenge, and the State Council should be thorough on the approach.
  • She informed that starting at the district or county level would reduce the amount of applications in comparison to each individual school applying. She shared that sending a Letter of Interest to Apply or a survey to districts would be a way to determine the level of interest for the program.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Acknowledged that California is different in comparison to the states that do this program. However, she does think that the timing is more appropriate due to the election. She added that there are not going to be an overwhelming number of districts that would apply, just areas like San Diego, California that are heavy in military students.
  • The minimum number of military students’ needs to be 40 percent, and having a minimum would also cut down on an overload of applications.
• Patricia Rucker, SBE: Discussed other infrastructure elements in place such as school site councils that might be able to be part of the program implementation discussion. She nominated Jesse Najera as the Purple State Program Chair.
• Jesse Najera, State Council Member: Accepted the nomination and voiced great enthusiasm.
• Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Stated that she would be willing to assist Jesse Najera in this new position.
• Ida Humphrey, Los Angeles AFB SLO: Expressed her interest in assessing who would apply since Los Angeles, California in particular is so large and only certain areas have a high concentration of military students, but not particularly in the district as a whole.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Suggested to Ida Humphrey that she may want to assist Jesse Najera on the Purple State Program; and Ida Humphrey agreed to work with Jesse Najera on the program.

Topic: Southern California Parent Concern

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Spoke about an issue with a parent in Southern California and informed that the parent has brought the issue to higher escalations. The parent started by contacting the school liaison regarding the placement of her child in an Integrated Math 3 class, which is not an Interstate Compact issue.
  • The parent claimed her child was not placed in Advanced Placement (AP) classes when her child should have been placed in AP classes. The district did confirm that student was placed in said classes, to which parent disputed.
  • The situation escalated and the parent withdrew her child from that school and sent the child to a charter school in the San Diego area.
• Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Informed that the student was put in two AP classes and one honors class, additionally enrolled in an Integrated Math 3 class, which was the equivalent course of the previous state.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Stated that because the classes were offered, the school was compliant with the Interstate Compact. She added that this is definitely not an Interstate Compact issue, but it is a parental choice issue since the school offered everything that was available to the student. Kate acknowledged that districts can uphold their own rules as long as the districts’ rules do not interfere with the Interstate Compact; and this situation is not interfering with compliance provisions of the Interstate Compact.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Asked how the State Council could formulate more of a professional response in regards to issues such as this since it is apparent that the email correspondence is being overlooked because the parent claimed that there has been no State Council contact, when there indeed had been.
• Patricia Rucker, SBE: Stated that when responding to a parent in a case such as this, the State Council needs to be careful to not get in front of the response that the school or district might still be trying to formulate.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Stated that this matter has been finished and the response from the parent was to withdrawal the student. Kate is thinking that the State Council should not get involved unless the State Council wants to get involved legally.

Topic: Intake Form

• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Suggested using the Intake Form the State Council developed to clarify definitively if an issue being expressed falls under the provision of the Interstate Compact.
• Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Stated that using an Intake Form would be a good idea; however, a letter from the SSPI would be more useful for this type of situation.
• Jose A. Pena, Command Officer, USCG Base Alameda: Voiced that there will always be random incidences and it seems that it might be unnecessary to try and change a process that is working over this one case.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Clarified that this would not be used for day-to-day issues, but only if an issue escalated to the State Council level. She suggested that perhaps making a case study form or unique case form would be useful to have.

Topic: Case Study Form

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Informed that she has an example that could be used. This case study form would help when dealing with issues that come about throughout the year.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Requested clarification on if this is just for discussion, or if this is something that the State Council is wanting to implement. She suggested that the school liaison officers could give the case study form to the region liaison officer and the regional liaison officer could collect and review the case study forms to see if there are any that require discussed. She suggested that the State Council should have a point of contact to keep the information for future reference.
• Kelly Frisch, DOD Liaison Representative: Shared that the case studies would be for the California State Council and would not be submitted to the MIC3.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Reviewed the mechanism that will be used for processing the case studies, and requested clarification on who is responsible for reviewing the case study forms.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Informed that this would be under the responsibility of the Commissioner, herself, since she is dealing with these situations already. Kate added that she would prepare the case study form, and present the case to the State Council during the meeting for training and development.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Stated that she would include a case study review topic to future State Council agendas.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Agreed to complete the case study form to be brought up to the State Council. She added that it would also be her responsibility to determine if a situation should be submitted to the State Council as a case study.

Appointments and Resignations

• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Communicated the resignation of DOD Liaison Officer Kelli May due to her promotion. She then acknowledged that Ida Humphrey had expressed interest in serving as an official member on the State Council.
• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Reviewed the DOD policy and how the DOD appoints one person per State Council. She informed that the official person is Kelly Frisch who serves as an official DOD representative and is an ex-officio, non-voting member on the State Council.

Non- Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children
Topics of Discussion

• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Opened discussion for Non- Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children (ICEOMC) topic of discussion.
  • There were no topics of discussion.

Public Comments

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Asked for Public Comments.
  • There were no public comments.

State Council Member Comments

• Patricia Rucker, SBE: Informed that she was appointed for a third term on the SBE, and will continue to be a member of the State Council.
• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Recapped action items as follows:
  • Northern and Southern Training on Provisions of Interstate Compact: Kelly Frisch is the lead. This is something the State Council has agreed to conduct to foster better communication to the field. Kate Wren Gavlak will deliver the training.
  • Purple Star Program: Jesse Najera is the lead. Kelly Frisch and Ida Humphrey also agreed to assist.
  • Case Study Form: Kate Wren Gavlak is the lead.
  • SSPI Letter: Jacie Ragland is the lead.
  • Web page Updates: Kelly Frisch is the lead. Patricia Rucker agreed to assist.

Quarterly Meeting Schedule

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Reviewed the list of upcoming meetings and asked for any questions or comments.
  • There were no questions or comments.

Closing Remarks

• Jacie Ragland, SSPI Designee: Thanked the State Council members and participants for their attendance.

Adjournment

• Kate Wren Gavlak, Commissioner: Adjourned the meeting at 2:58 p.m.