Meeting Minutes

Operations Working Group

of the Education Council of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission

November 8, 1999 Videoconference Meeting

1:30-3:30PM

Members Present: B.J. Peters (Scottsbluff); John Horvath, Shirley Schall (Kearney); Nigel Buss, Dennis Linster (Norfolk); Neal Henning, Ross Udey (Beatrice), Craig Carlson, Norman Herzog, Reba Benschoter, Rick Koch, Leif Rasmussen (Omaha); Liaisons: Bob Huber, Max Thacker; Brenda Decker, Carna Pfeil (Lincoln); Guests: Phyllis Brunken, Kristi Peters (Columbus); Wayne Fisher, Gerry Hurley, Brad Weekly (Lincoln); Jim Copley (Scottsbluff); Alan Wibbels, Ron Cone, Barbara Audley (Kearney); Members Absent: Chris Petroff, Al Schneider, Chuck Lenosky.

The meeting was called to order at 1:30PM by Tom Rolfes, Education I.T. Manager of the CIO-NITC.

1. Member introductions were shared from the various locations.

2. Changes to the 10-6-99 Challenges/Actions document included Challenge #6 to read, "The State of Nebraska needs to work harder to bring more e-rate, Federal SLD funds into the hands of schools, libraries, and health care institutions to complement the early investments made by the Rule 88 and Excellence in Education (lottery) funds". Action #1 should read "SLD reimbursement" instead of "SLC Reimbursement".

3. Alan Wibbels and Ron Cone of ESU 10 presented a Request for Proposal from ESU 6 on behalf of the ESU's of Nebraska to negotiate a minimum 3 megabits of bandwidth between Grand Island Public Schools Administration Building and ESU 3 in Omaha. This proposal includes Section A for a data backbone and Section B for Internet access and transport. The provider may bid A and/or B with rates on a 12-month, 24-month, and 36-month basis with month-by-month pricing. Members asked many excellent questions and made suggestions on how to modify the RFP prior to release.

4. Shirley Schall, ESU 15, and Craig Carlson, Metro Community College, became the new Co-Chairpersons of the Operations Working Group by voice vote. They will serve for a period of one year and will work with Tom Rolfes on future agendas and the strategic role of the Group.

5. Wayne Fisher, Nebraska Department of Education, provided an update of the distance learning survey. The December status report will be a cooperative effort between NDE, NET, CCPE, DOC, and the NITC.

6. Max Thacker provided a narrative on the NEB*SAT policy section that was mailed out to all theOperations Working Group members. A Task Group composed of Nigel Buss, John Horvath, Dennis Linster, and Neal Henning will work with the staff of NET and the NITC to make scheduling priority recommendations to the Education Council for satellite and terrestrial transmission. He asked that members read the section thoroughly and forward comments to Thacker or Rolfes via e-mail. First priority will be to review the NET 2 and NET 3 policies followed by terrestrial considerations. Finally, the Task Group will begin early work on scheduling, priority and policy needs of the future statewide voice, video, data network.

7. The Group decided that before discussion on a statewide ATM network could begin, efforts must bemade to document the infrastructure that is in place now and couple this with what must be done to coordinate the resources and services.

8. The Operations Working Group objectives currently appear as phrases or terms as initially written. Tom Rolfes volunteered to provide more detail in the duties and responsibilities and to e-mail them out to the members for comment and review prior to the December meeting.

9. B.J. Peters informed the group that the Public Service Commission will be reviewing the NebraskaUniversal Service Fund at a hearing on Wednesday, November 17 at 10AM in Lincoln. Mr. Peters shared that the ESU's and Distance Learning Consortia have been facing new charges of $10,000-$70,000 on their annual communications bill due to a 7% surcharge.

10. The next meeting of the Operations Working Group will be Monday, December 13, 1999 in the afternoon at an Eastern Nebraska location with NVCN capabilities. Information will be sent out via e-mail.

11. The meeting was adjourned at 3:30PM.

Proceedings recorded by Tom Rolfes, Education I.T. Manager, Office of the CIO-NITC.