November 13, 2024 at 2:00 PM - Executive Committee Committee Meeting

Discussion:  Executive Committee President-Elect, Bill Heimann, called the Executive Committee meeting to order 2:09pm.

Discussion:  Board Treasurer, Geraldine Erickson, reviewed the Budget Summary September 2024 document.

Discussion:  The attached ESUCC audit draft was added for review. Priscilla Quintana, Business Manager, and Deb Hericks, the previous Executive Secretary, started pulling information for the audit on September 12, 2024, and the audit has just finished. Pulling the information was a lot of work and CEO Polk would like to express her gratitude to Priscilla Quintana and Deb Hericks for all of their hard work.  

Discussion:  Past President Dan Schnoes would like to thank all who attended the Central Region Symposium. Iowa is working on hosting the Central Region Symposium next year. Dates and times are still in the works. The AESA Annual Conference is up to 935 attendees, which is a record for AESA! There will be a strong AI focus at the annual conference.

There has been a request from Sheila King, Chief Strategy Officer, from AESA, looking at offering a new workshop hosted by a state. The workshop would take a deeper dive into sharing stories. There are a lot of ESAs trying to promote their value in their state. Would the Executive Committee be in favor of hosting the workshop in the Omaha area? It would need to be determined if it would just be available to Nebraska or if it should be opened up to everyone. Board Secretary Barrett likes the idea and thinks opening it up to everyone would be fine. She thinks it would be good for the state. AESA would charge a registration fee per participant and ESU 3 would work out the expenses with them. The request just said a venue to host 40+ people and did not mention any specific job titles. 

Discussion:  CEO Polk reviewed the linked CEO Report to the Board document.

• Affiliate Budget Requests - The Board will meet on February 6, 2025. Do we review the budget requests at the February 6th meeting and have no committee review or do we have a committee review on February 26, 2025, and approve at the March 6, 2025, board meeting? After discussion, it was determined to review at the committee meetings on February 26, 2025, and approve at the March 6, 2025, board meeting.  
• Bills - Credit card bill is due before the board meeting. Priscilla Quintana, Business Manager, will pay the credit card bill before the board meeting. 
• Schedule - For efficiency, the committee meetings were moved a week before the board meetings. As a result, the business office may have bills that are due prior to the ESUCC board meeting when they need to get approved. Options were discussed as to how to address this issue. CEO Polk will reach out to Justin Knight, Perry Law Firm, for suggested policy changes.
• Organizational Chart - CEO Polk reviewed the attached Organizational Chart draft. There were questions regarding the CLO title, responsibilities related to that position, and other general structural questions. CEO Polk was requested to contact Justin Knight to confirm there is no need to have formal board action to approve the organizational chart. Discussion of the chart was thorough and President-Elect Heimann requested to keep the organizational chart on the ESUCC board meeting agenda for discussion.
• ESUCC Visits - ESU visits need to be scheduled. Visits are with whatever audience you want.
• Mentor Update - Reviewed draft
• ESU Boundaries - There is a current gentleman's agreement that ESUs who receive support from ESUs would be charged 140% per diem or provide a traded service day. There was discussion about whether this should be a formalized process. It is recommended that the ESUCC board not formalize the process, rather regularly inform ESU Administrators of this agreement. Ultimately, it is up to the ESU Administrators to determine how this arrangement is managed.
• NDE Commissioner and AESA - Some states take their commissioner to the AESA conference. Board Secretary Barrett is concerned about the optics and asks who would be responsible for paying the expenses. Board President-Elect Heimann does not see how it would further the relationship between the ESUs and the commissioner. 
• Reminder for Rule 84 meeting - January 13, 2025, at 10am at ESU 10 in Kearney.
• New ESU Board Member Orientation - CEO Polk asked if there was any objection to the ESUCC being involved in the new ESU Board Member orientation. Past President Schnoes suggested following up with the new board members who attend the school board orientation, since there are major differences. 
• ESUCC retreat - CEO Polk asked for feedback regarding the need for a retreat in the summer of 2025. At this point, a retreat is not necessary and Bold Step review will occur in 2025-2026. 

Discussion:  Board President-Elect Heimann and Past President Schnoes will meet with CEO Polk next week. Feedback overall has been positive. There is no shortage of work and CEO Polk is not afraid of hard work. 
 

Discussion: 

Executive Committee President-Elect, Bill Heimann, excused members outside the committee at 3:53pm. The Executive Committee Meeting adjourned at 4:05pm.
 
Minutes respectfully submitted by Mindy Reed, Executive Secretary.