The meeting was called to order by President Michelle Gadberry at 12:12 p.m. at Mulberry Helm Education Center in Elizabethtown.
Members in attendance included: Michelle Gadberry, Diann Shuffett, Dan Florell, Mary Twohig, Connie Adams, Courtney Bishop, Allison Hardin, Carl Myers, Amanda Crick, Stacie McCune, Kelly Houk, Kandy Stroup, and Duane Miller.
The Secretary's minutes were read and three corrections were made: Region 7/8 report wanting to look at redistricting regions not consolidating, Region 3 report that KDE contract is with EKU, and conference report regarding making profit. After the corrections were made, Diann made the motion to accept the minutes with Connie seconding. The minutes were then approved.
Brandon Huss was not in attendance but sent his Treasurer's report. Current assets were listed as $38,340.90 (checking account balance $34,164.48, Jennie Ewald fund $857.00, and certificate of deposit $3,319.42). Major expenditures total was $3,258.93 (Region 6 fall training $150.00, New Orleans conference for Dan Florell $711.17, KASA membership fee $290.75, Duane Miller reimbursement/pay $2,007.01, Region 2 Tsunami Relief gift $100.00). Major assets were listed as $2,930.00 in membership and conference fees however a total of $1,610.00 was still pending from school districts.
Michelle explained that there had been some problems with the bank account. Service charges had been taken out of the account but the account had been changed so this would no longer happen. Also deposits had been made to the account that had not differentiated what the deposits were. Accounts such as the Jennie Ewald fund may not reflect it's true balance. Duane asked about the line item of membership fee for KASA since he did not feel that KAPS would be paying fee to them. Michelle said she would check on it. Diann asked whether we needed to have a CPA audit our accounts because of all the confusion. It was decided that Duane would get with Brandon and go over the past year's bank statements and invoices to see if they could straighten out the accounts. After that, if there were still concerns, we would look into having an outside audit done.
Regional Reports
Region 1: Amanda Crick reported that their school psychologist support group had met three times with the Co-op coordinating. They are trying to alternate meetings so one meeting is training and the next meeting a round table. Their first training was on the KABC-2.
Region 2: Every year Region 2 completes a service project. This year Stacie reported that they donated $100.00 of their KAPS money to the Tsnami Relief Fund. She also said that they are looking at future trainings such as with the new Batelle. Asked if they had been any training yet on the Batelle, Kandy Stroup said that one was to be held in Anderson County some time in February or March.
Region 3: Susan McGurk was not in attendance but Mary Twohig brought up an ethical issue regarding administrator involvement in trying to influence the ARC process when not a part of the ARC membership. A discussion about the topic brought up several issues and concerns, so Carl said that he would address the issue in an article for the KAPS newsletter.
Region 4: Kelly Houk said that her region would be exploring the new LD regulations as well as structure for trainings.
Region 5: Kandy Stroup reported that their region was publishing their upcoming trainings. She asked if people knew of the UK list service; she will e-mail the link to the regional reps.
Region 6: Dan Florell reported in absence of Kevin Morris. He said that the region was active in trainings including one on play therapy and one on the Batelle. Kevin had provided an EXCEL program for the regression formula.
Region 7/8: No report.
Committee Reports
Conference: Dan reported that the fall conference would be held at the Holiday Inn in northern Kentucky near airport on September 28-30. He was considering the theme of "The Complete School Psychologist". Possible topics included: IDEA update, student NCSP, Batelle, Vineland II. He planned to contact Indiana and Ohio school psychology groups about the conference.
Membership: In David's absence, Michelle reported that the new membership directory had been mailed to all members and the database was up-to-date. A letter had been sent to people who had not renewed.
Legislative: Connie discussed several items related to the current state legislative session of Feb. 1 to Mar. 7; these included tax reform and budget, tuition hikes for colleges, reading and math goals. Connie asked that members contact legislative reps to support education issues. Regarding IDEA reauthorization, she said that the law would spend one or more years dealing with regulatory aspect of it before it would get to the state. She expressed concerns that without a state consultant, KAPS would need to make sure we are represented at the state level. Dan indicated that NASP had a statement on IDEA that could be found at nasponline.org/advocacy/IDEA finalsummary.pdf. It was also mentioned that the CEC had done a comparison of the new and old laws. Connie also reported that the state had approved NCSP for licensing. Dan said that it had gone through first review and was up for public comment. Lastly Connie reported that President Bush had signed into law a suicide prevention bill that allowed for possible grants to develop mental health outreach, etc. Kentucky was in the process of developing their response. Dan said that Kevin Lieberman from NASP hoped to put together a curriculum.
Duane Miller brought up a KASA issue regarding the Feb. 11 review of the budget. He also mentioned a bill that would remove portfolio pieces from the state-wide assessment that KASA was not supporting. He reported that the federal government was requiring programs for kids wellness and that a KDE committee was being formed to devise policy. KASA would lobby to have psychologist or social worker on committee. It was asked about restricting the use of psychological tests to PhD level; Duane said in past it had been introduced but not currently.
Public Relations: Courtney and Allison reported that they had sold around $820,00 worth of merchandise at the fall conference. School psychology month is in April and they e-mail all superintendents and principals to notify them. They asked when/how to do proclamation with governor and Diann was able to supply the information. Jim Batts is retiring from EKU and his present students want to set-up a school psychology scholarship and are asking for contributions; KAPS members are asked to spread the word.
NASP: Jim was not in attendance so Michelle reported on the Southeast Region Training. NASP is currently dealing with the issues of procedure for removing people from office and reciprocity.
Newsletter: The next newsletter deadline is Feb. 15th.
Ethics: Carl reported that he had written an article for the newsletter regarding private evaluations outside of school.
Website: Dan reported that EKU had been the archives for KAPS with boxes of information there. He has been going through the boxes and putting pertinent information on the website such as past minutes; list of past Presidents with photos, major initiatives, and theme of conference; newsletters; procedure manual. He asked that anyone who had materials or information for the archives to please forward to him. He would like to do a list of various awards including the Ewald scholarship. Once he has information, he plans to burn on to disks. Dan also reported that all links on the website are current and presentations are up-to-date.
Old Business
Fall Conference: Michelle said that 298 people had attended the conference. She reported on the results of the conference survey: high ratings were given for presentation and good location; suggestions were given such popular sessions more than once, session diversity, better accommodations, internet access; suggestions for future topics - counseling, suicide, eligibility, CDA, CDM.
Sponsorship Committee: Diann handed out a draft of proposal about how KAPS decides when to give sponsorship to a group. Questions and suggestions were made regarding how to reach agreement and what was a consensus. Diann will make revisions based on input and e-mail revision to KAPS EC.
Ewald Scholarship: Diann handed out a draft proposal about how to process in selecting recipient of scholarship. A discussion ensued regarding criteria for selection, what to submit, how to nominate, etc. After much back and forth discussion, it was decided to keep the criteria as presently stands but go to the student organizations to nominate. Michelle will ask Angie Chandler to chair committee.
Future Action Plan: It was felt that the next step would be to add a column to plan as to what was accomplished. It was decided to table this discussion to a future date.
NCLB Task Force: Connie reported on the task force response to a members question about KAPS taking a stand on NCLB. The task force felt that since NCLB was a national issue, it should be dealt with through NASP. NASP has a position on high stakes testing but won't develop position on legislature. It was felt that KAPS should support NASP position on high stakes testing and use it as a tool if need arises. NASP has banded with twenty other organizations to ask for changes in NCLB. The task force will put report in newsletter.
New Business
Spring Workshop: Michelle reported that the spring workshop will be held March 11th in Louisville. The speaker will cost $1,000.00 but has expanded his presentation topic to include children. The cost will be free to members but $40.00 to nonmembers.
Business Meeting: A business meeting will be held at the spring workshop; EC members should prepare committee reports.
Donations: The following donations were suggested: $250.00 to Children's Fund, $250.00 to Minority Scholarship Fund, and $50.00 to NASP 5K run. Connie made motion to make the donations with Allison seconded; vote passed.
Michelle mentioned the Courier Journal article that featured a front-page story on the shortage of school psychologists.
By-Laws: The by-laws have not been revised since 1996. Michelle suggested that we review the by-laws and update at a later meeting. Dan reported that the by-laws will be recording electronically so that changes can be made easily.
Stipend for NASP conference: A discussion was started about appropriate stipend for Kentucky School Psychologist of the Year for the NASP conference. After discussion, Dan made the motion to reimburse for two nights stay and meals, seconded by Amanda; the motion was approved. Michelle felt that we may need to look at setting a policy for stipends.
Research Committee: Dan would like to establish a standing research committee for KAPS that will collect basic data for school psychologists, like Kevin Morris has been doing for his region.
Doctoral Internship: Dan would like to look at internships for doctoral level people within the state such as at UK, Fayette County, and Jefferson County. Issues were brought regarding possible funding from the state and APA approved programs.
Logo Design Contest: Dan announced that he has started a logo design contest to come up with a new KAPS logo. Information will be sent to KAPS members regarding the rules and what information needs to be included. There will be a prize for the winner, perhaps free admittance to the fall conference.
Elections/Awards: Michelle asked that people forward any nominations for officers (president-elect, secretary, odd-numbered regional reps) to her as well as any nominations for awards.
Other new business:
Dan passed out literature regarding a program that allowed people who let their NCSP lapse to easily renew.
Staci McCune asked about student loan repayment and loan forgiveness. There was a discussion regarding the availability of this only when serving in rural areas. It was felt that KAPS may need to be an advocate of availability for school psychologists. Connie suggested putting information in the newsletter along with the website advocacy center so that people could contact with concerns about this issue.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted:
Mary Twohig, KAPS Secretary