Meeting Minutes June 3, 2022

Yavapai County Educational Technology Consortium (YCETC)
Board of Directors  Meeting Minutes

Friday, June 3, 2022 – 10am

YCESA – training room – Zoom
2970 Centerpointe E Dr, Prescott 86301

Board Members and the Public May Attend by Telephonic or Electronic Means.  Call 928-442-5692. No Code is Needed. or via zoom

Also present were:  Frank Vander Horst – YCESA e-Rate, Karina Jones – Department of Education, Kelly Krusee- Department of Education, Ron Freeman – Menlo

MINUTES

Call to Order (President Epperson)

President Epperson  called the meeting to order at 10:00 AM.

Welcome and Establishment of Quorum (President Epperson)

A quorum was established.

Pledge of Allegiance (President Epperson)

Limited Call to the Public

• The public is invited to speak about any agenda items
• There is a limit of three (3) minutes per speaker and 20 minutes total
• Request to speak must be in writing and provided to the Clerk at the beginning of the meeting or prior to any agenda item
• The President has absolute direction over procedural matters
• The board may waive their “Public Participation Policy” as it applies to all speakers
• Members of the public may indicate their support or opposition to a topic, in writing that will be noted and entered into the record
• The board may not respond to comments from the public but may ask the facilitator to respond or place the item on a future agenda

There was no limited calls from the public

Discussion and Action Items of the Consent Agenda: All items on the consent agenda may be adopted as a whole with one motion, unless a member of the Board wishes to consider it separately

1. Approval of the Regular Meeting Minutes of March 4, 2022
2. Approval of the Agenda for June 3, 2022

Corey Christians made a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented; Matthew Schumacher seconded the motion; it was unanimously approved 5/0 by Bill Sakelarios, Kathy Epperson, Matthew Schumacher, Mike Westcott, and Corey Christians

Presentation and Discussion Item: 

1. Arizona Department of Revenue (Karina Jones) – Kelly Krusse and Karina Jones gave a presentation from the Office of Digital Teaching & Learning. The presentation is available upon request.
2. K12 itc, a Menlo Company (Ron Freeman and Dan Mason) – Ron Freeman & Dan Mason gave a presentation, regarding Outsourcing K-12 Technology. Technology is ever changing, and outsourcing is nothing new to districts. K12 itc provides the support to outsource technology providing, network monitoring, hosted servers, cloud storage identity management and live help desk. The service is available for districts, charters and consortiums.

Presentation, Discussion and Action Item: Legislative Update, Secure Rural Schools Act / Forest Fee Management Association Report

Mr. Carter discussed with the board that currently Arizona legislature is trying to establish a budget with not a lot of success, meetings continue to be held. There is a bill requiring all staff to post any item they will use for instruction online. Secure Rural Schools Act has been passed. The payments were approved for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023. FFMA will be meeting June 14^th but as of today funds have still not been received. Currently FFMA has no extra funding at this time and the distribution will likely primarily be encumbered for elections.

Presentation, Discussion and Action Item – Treasurer’s Report

1. Finance Accounts – No Report 

Presentation, Discussion and Action Item – Request the Yavapai County Education Service Agency (YCESA) to Seek Nominations and Subsequently Call for an Election of the Group One Schools to Elect Their Representative for a New Term Ending June 30, 2025

Marvy McNeese is the current representative. Superintendent Carter was requested to seek nominations and hold an electronic election. That vote will be ratified at the next meeting.

Bill Sakelarios made a motion for YCESA to call for an election for the Group one representative and Charter Schools representative as an electronic vote; Mike Wescott seconded the motion; it was approved 5/0 by Bill Sakelarios, Kathy Epperson, Matthew Schumacher, Mike Westcott, and Corey Christians

Presentation, Discussion and Action Item – Request the Yavapai County Education Service Agency (YCESA) to Seek Nominations and Subsequently Call for an Election of the Charter Schools to Elect Their Representative for a New Term Ending June 30, 2025

Bill Sakelarios is the current representative. This item was voted for in item 9

Presentation, Discussion and Action Item -Technology and E-Rate Report

1. Final Mile Update and $20 Million Yavapai County Broadband Initiative – Yavapai County is using ARPA funds for RFPs identify vendors and contractors for up to $20 million to bring broadband to unserved and underserved homes and businesses in the unincorporated areas of Yavapai County. 3 bids were received. Two contracts were awarded, one to Cox for Congress and Black Canyon City, the other to Altice for Paulden, Beaver Creek, Lake Montezuma/Beaver Creek, Cornville and Mayer/Cordes Junction Area. Group and community meetings will continue to be held, estimation of project will be complete by mid-2024. Altice has already begun engineering and planning. Corey advised the board he is working closely with the cities and towns (Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Sedona, Clarkdale, Dewey Humboldt, Prescott, Chino Valley) to possibly partner with the Yavapai County Broadband Initiative but completing their own ARPA reporting. Yavapai County has made it clear they want county funds to only be used for unincorporated areas, cities and towns will have to use their own funds. Altice has a section in their contract that would allow them to use $500,000 for community involvement for broadband, in which YCETC could possibly assist with ideas. Discussion for community involvement will be ongoing and on future agendas
2. Yavapai County Broadband Coordinator – After posting the position it was found that no one would be able to fill the position as well as the previous employee, Stan Goligoski. YCESA will not refill the position at this point in time. YCESA staff directors will be compensated for taking on additional tasks to maintain the positions duties. Mr. Carter has been assigned as the broadband manager. YCETC and FFMA will need to decide what they will do with the fulfillment of the position. The board asked how much time the position spent on YCETC and FFMA. Mr. Carter advised that it is not able to be calculated because the position worked on all projects at the same time, and time spent with YCETC and FFMA would vary with different projects. Corey advised the Libraries are creating a consortium and a new employee could possibly work with all three boards, Copper, FFMA and YCETC. Mr. Carter advised it would need to be an agreement between the boards and YCESA is willing to help. The board discussed it is not imperative to refill the position at this point, but it is open to discussion with FFMA. Mr. Carter will present the discussion between YCETC and FFMA at the next FFMA meeting on June 14^th.
3. E-Rate – YCETC gets a new E-Rate discount each year, this year’s funding letter has not yet been received, currently members are paying 80 cents a meg. It appears school bus WIFI will be approved by FCC for E-Rate eligibility. Emergency Connectivity 3^rd window has closed, and the requests were larger than the available amount, the priority will go rural schools. Frank requested to add to the next agenda item to discuss the YCETC contract with Sparklight, 43 contracts will be expiring June 30, 2023, 14 of the clients are not on Sparklight and Sparklight will not renew the contract, 7 of the 14 are libraries, 3 of the 14 are on govnet, Bagdad will have limited options.
4.  

Presentation, Discussion and Action Item: Due to the Success of the YCESA as the Largest E-Rate Consulting Provider in Arizona, and Due to the Fact that the Forest Fee Management Association (FFMA) Has Not Been Routinely Funded in a Timely Manner by the Congress and the US Forest Service, YCETC Will Now be Accepting E-Rate Services Without Charge for Group Purchases. 

Due to the success of the YCESA E-Rate program, there will no longer be fees for YCETC or FFMA for E-Rate services or group purchases made by the consortium. E-Rate services will be complimentary, saving the boards around $16,000 a year.

Discussion and Action Item: The Following Meeting Dates have been Established by the Board. The Board may add Future Meeting Dates

The board had an open discussion about the presentations. Frank advised the board that of his 132 clients only 4 of them have managed IT services and change servers frequently due to not being satisfied with service. The board discussed that most districts do not want to let go of control and give it to managed IT (Menlo).  E-Rate services would be billed separately and can cause confusion with managed IT. Mr. Carter is going to invite ADE to the Countywide Meeting in August for the same presentation and open discussion with administrators.

September 9, 2022 10 am
December 9, 2022 10 am
March 2, 2023 10 am
June 1, 2023 10 am
September 7, 2023 10 am
December 7, 2023 10 am

Action Item: Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm