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Wenatchee Valley CollegeWorker Retraining Advisory CommitteeMeeting MinutesJune 5, 2015 (working lunch)Wenatchi Hall 2310Meeting was called to order at 11:40am by chairperson, Marcia Henkle.Members Present:Marcia Henkle – Employment Security Department; Eric Sundby – MacDonald Miller; Paul Parmley – Teamsters 760; Steve King – City of Wenatchee; Deb Purcell – Local Tel; Heidi Lamers – SkillSource; Lee Hendrickson – SkillSource; Susan Peterson – US Forest Service; James Wright – Stemilt Growers; James Davidson – ATS Automation; Diana Haglund – Wenatchee School District; Dennis Conger – Wenatchee School District; Ginger Williams – Chelan-Douglas Child Service Association; Vicki Turner – WVC, Omak; Bob Acklin – WVC; Jan Clark – WVC; Riva Morgan – WVC; Anita Janis – WVCI.Welcome/Introductions (Marcia Henkle/All)Marcia welcomed members and introductions were made. Dennis Conger and Diana Haglund from Wenatchee School District are today’s guest speakers and will present information about Wenatchee Learns.II.Old Business (Marcia Henkle)Meeting minutes from the February 27, 2015 meeting were reviewed.Marcia noted that the item regarding childcare expenses under Item IV “Local Policies & Procedures” in the February 27, 2015 meeting notes is not yet ready for discussion at today’s meeting. Prior to the next scheduled meeting in November, Marcia and the Workforce Ed grants team will meet to discuss and report back to the committee members at the next scheduled meeting. Marcia entertained motion to approve the minutes; Paul Parmley motioned to approve the minutes as written; Diana Haglund seconded. Minutes were approved as written.III.New Business – see supplement to today’s agenda (Anita Janis)Personnel Announcement As reported at the February 27th meeting, Kristi Hills accepted a position with Chelan Douglas Community Action and is no longer the Workforce Ed Grants Coordinator. Jan Clark has been promoted to Workforce Ed Grants Coordinator and will handle intake of all WRT students. Beginning October 1, 2015, Riva Morgan, Director of Workforce Ed Pathways, will provide part-time support with the WRT budgets. Rosalba Gonzalez, former Americorp volunteer, will be promoted to Student Support and Retention Specialist and will provide part-time assistance to Jan. Beginning in September 2015, two new AmeriCorps volunteers will provide tutoring services to WRT students. One of the volunteers will be shared between the WRT and Work First offices.Professional & Technical Program Up-Dates (see supplement to today’s agenda)We are in the process of hiring a full-time machinist instructor who will begin Fall Quarter.We have revised our certificate and degree options for Business Computer Technology students in order to better prepare them for employment. We will offer two BCT certificates: Administrative Management Certificate of Completion and Computer Applications Certificate of Completion.WVC will be submitting a statement of need to the SBCTC for a Baccalaureate of Applied Science in Engineering Technology. The initial deadline is July 17th for the first component of the degree application process. In conjunction with local fire stations, beginning Fall Quarter, WVC will offer a Fire Science Associate of Technical Science Degree. The degree includes classes in general education and technical studies. Industry certifications will be issued according to national standards. Core fire science courses will be taught at Chelan County Fire District, or other District. Affiliation with a fire district is a prerequisite to completion of the degree. Training will be held at local fire stations, and then those credits will then be transferred to WVC through a Prior Learning Degree Contract. The program has been approved by WVC’s Instruction Council and then will be forwarded to SBCTS for a brief review and will be set to go Fall Quarter.In addition to the short certificate, WVC now offers a one-year welding certificate. The certificate includes classes in pipe welding, sheet metal fabrication, welding print reading, exotic metals as well as general ed courses. The Air Washington Grant that was awarded to WVC three years ago for aerospace education and training will conclude September 30, 2015. Special thanks to Riva Morgan for all of her work and leadership on this project.Lee Hendrickson asked if the early Childhood Education program will be listed on the ETPL (eligible training provider list) again. Jan said if the program doesn’t meet the minimum performance standards for employment, earnings and completion rates, unfortunately, it won’t be eligible to be on the list again. A large factor to determine eligibility is based on wage.FTE Up-Date (Anita Janis)FTE’s (full-time equivalent student) are down 7% from last year (2,473 to 2,297). Vocational FTE’s were down 5% (Wenatchee down 4%, Omak up 9%). Due to concerns regarding low enrollment, WVC has held a series of Enrollment Strategy Summit meetings to formulate ideas and strategies for recruitment and retention.WRT FTE’s: We were assigned a target goal of 140 FTE’s in 2014-15. In March 2015, SBCTC projected we would reach 104 FTE’s. This deficit is multiplied by .75 and equals 27 FTE’s. This is the number of FTE’s we will lose funding for in 2015-2016 school year. The tentative amount we will lose is approximately $149,000. Allied Health remains the largest generator of WRT FTE’s, followed by INDT and Aerospace Electronics. Please refer to hand-out distributed at meeting “WVC 2014-15 WRT State Funded FTE’s as of 6/4/15” for complete information about the FTE’s in each program for both the Wenatchee and Omak campuses.Status of 2015-16 WRT Grant (Anita Janis)The proposal itself did not change much. WRT is not designed for perpetual reliance of funding by programs; therefore, Anita felt it was appropriate to reduce certain areas of the budget accordingly. At this time, we don’t know final allocation amount from the State because the FTE’s could change with Summer Quarter enrollment. Anita submitted grant with most recent FTE’s available and in July we will be notified of final FTE count and will revise proposal accordingly. Grant Budget (Anita Janis)As of May 29th, there is $39,638.58 in G&S funds and $4,629.87 in travel on the WRT grant. (Purchase card expenses in May are not included.) Marcia asked if these funds would be fully expended, Jan commented it would be unlikely to spend the full amount, but she is working towards that goal. IBEST cohort in ECE in Brewster is being offered this summer. Each student will complete approximately 12 credits. We need to use all sources of funding other than PELL grants to pay student’s tuition in order to qualify for WRT and ultimately, BFET funds.Financial Aid Prioritization (Anita Janis & Riva Morgan)The State has mandated that we provide a priority list and descriptions for WRT Attend Codes. Please see attached list distributed at today’s meeting. As a group, we need to review, discuss and vote to approve the list as presented. Discussion ensued regarding clarification of codes. Code 83 Displaced Homemaker: An individual who has been providing unpaid services to a family member(s) in the home and who has been dependent on the income of another family member but is no longer supported by that income; and is unemployed or underemployed and is experiencing difficulty in obtaining or upgrading employment.Code 81+ W! Stop Gap Employment: Stop-gap employment is temporary work an individual accepts only because they have been laid off of work or otherwise terminated from employment due to no fault of their own from the customary work for which they are training; experience or work history qualifies them. Must be temporary in nature with the intent to end employment upon the completion of training, upon obtaining self-sufficient employment as specified in the individual education plan.Marcia entertained motion to approve and adopt the WRT Attend Codes and Descriptions as prioritized in the attachment dated May 19, 2015. Paul Parmley motioned to approve/adopt the codes; James Davidson seconded the motion. WRT Work Attend Codes and Descriptions dated May 19, 2015 were unanimously approved and adopted.Local Policy Review & Update (Riva Morgan)As per the 2015-16 State WRT Guidelines, Page 5 Code 80 Dislocated Worker Retraining: “All students eligible under the 80-attend code must meet one of the following residency-related requirements: a. The student is eligible for resident tuition and has either an active unemployment insurance claim from any state, including Washington, or has exhausted their claim within the past 48 months; or b. The student has an active Washington State unemployment insurance claim or has exhausted such claim within the past 48 months, regardless of state residency status.Jan recommended that we formulate a method to work with other States in order to obtain needed documentation of unemployment verification when students receive unemployment from another state.Riva distributed a revised WRT Policies and Procedures dated June 2, 2015. Due to changes enacted by the State, it was necessary to revise the policies/procedures as follows:Page 2, Item II Eligibility, A1 and B1: In order to be classified as a worker Retraining individual, the person must be currently drawing unemployment insurance or have exhausted unemployment insurance within the last 48 months (changed from 24 months).Page 3, Item II Eligibility, B7 Eligible Veterans: The individual can present a DD214 (discharge papers) showing separation date from the US armed services within the past 48 months (changed from 24 months) and strike the words “and honorable discharge”.Page 4, Item II Eligibility, B8: The service member can present an official separation order that identifies the individual and the date of separation from the military. Strike the following sentence: Individuals with separation orders indicating, at the time of enrollment, a dishonorable discharge are not eligible under this category.Page 6, Item III coding as a Worker Retraining Participant, Item B. Add the following codes:88 Displaced Veterans and 89 Active Duty MilitaryMarcia entertained motion to approve the changes to the WRT Policies as outlined above; Lee motioned to approve the changes outlined; Paul Parmley seconded. Revisions to the WRT Policies and Procedures as outlined above were approved.Program Operations (Anita Janis & Vicki Turner)We continue with our effort to reach out and better inform students, faculty and staff about available resources to students in the professional technical programs.IV.Demonstration of “Start Next Quarter” (Jan Clark)Start Next Quarter is a free online eligibility screener for eligibility of funds at community colleges across the state. Eligible students may then apply for funding and learn the steps to start a training program. The website is set up as a questionnaire and depending how a student answers the questions, the site is able to tell them funding sources they may be eligible for. If students qualify for funding, they are invited to register for an informational workshop. Workshops are held in Wenatchee, with ITV service to the Omak campus. Our staff is able to access records of students who have used the site so we can follow-up with the students and track if they have or have not attended the informational session. You do not need to be a current student to access the site; the site is a good tool for potential students so they are informed of the options available to them. Ginger asked if there was assistance for Spanish speaking individuals to use the site. Jan commented, yes – our grants office provides help for Spanish speaking people who want to use the site. Marcia requested Jan offer a Start Next Quarter workshop at the Employment Security office.V.Guest Speaker – Diana Haglund, Wenatchee LearnsDiana introduced herself and Dennis Conger, CTE Director at Wenatchee High School. Together, they presented a Power Point about a new Wenatchee School District resource called “Wenatchee Learns”, which is part of Wenatchee School District’s strategic plan for the future. Wenatchee Learns is based on a partnership between volunteers, parent support, businesses, community members, staff and students. It is an online and face-to-face resource which partners businesses, community members, volunteers, parents, staff and students by connecting resources to our schools through an online portal, downtown partnership center and school sign in system. It offers a web-based student career exploration system which blends online learning and personalized instruction with tools and learning activities. By becoming a Wenatchee Learns Connect partner, your group or business can play a role in making learning personal for students by creating accompany profile or offering experiential learning opportunities. Connect with students early in their career development and help them explore career pathways and possibilities. As an employer, it increases visibility to your company, promotes careers in your industry, helps students find relevance by connecting classroom learning with real world skill sets and bridges the skills gap. By setting up and maintaining a company profile, you can describe your business, offer job shadowing, internships, company tours, teacher externships, classroom speakers – all completely free! There are currently 150 companies participating. Diana is available to visit your business and help you build your profile. Diana announced an upcoming career event offered in partnership with Wenatchee Valley College called “Pizza, Pop and Power Tools which is scheduled for May 10, 2016. The event introduces eight grade girls to the opportunities available to women in the construction trades. It introduces girls to the high skill and high wage employment in the industry, working side by side with construction professionals. The event is structured around hands-on activities.VI.Regional Economic Outlook: Don Meseck, Regional Labor EconomistPlease refer to today’s handouts “Wenatchee MSA Labor Area summary, April 2015 and Okanogan County Labor Area summary, April 2015.VII.Open Discussion on Business & Industry (All)Ginger Williams with Chelan-Douglas Child Service Association noted they are having difficulty finding skilled people to fill ECEAP positions. She is excited to learn about WVC’s partnership with Heritage College to offer an Early Childhood Studies Bachelor of Arts degree. This will allow students the opportunity to receive a BA locally without the need to move away. Eric Sundby reported an increase in hiring at MacDonald Miller. Paul Parmley echoed the increase in employment opportunities but noted there was a continued problem of wage stagnation. He is working to include tuition reimbursement assistance in contracts --- better education equates to better paying jobs. Steve King was invited to take part in the Maker’s Roundtable Forum, in Washington, D.C. Save the date for the Wenatchee Mini Maker Faire at the Town Toyota Center on October 3, 2015. This is a family friendly event which is part science fair, and part county fair. It gathers tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, hobbyists, engineers, exhibitors, artists and students. Projects are displayed and performers showcase their talents. For more information, visit the website: . Deb Purcell reported that LocalTel is currently hiring people with technical experience. Susan Peterson reported the Forest Service is currently revamping their recruitment program for OR and WA. lists current jobs available in the Wenatchee area. James Wright reported that harvest has started at Stemilt. There are 200 jobs open for cherry season, with difficulty getting them filled. Cherry harvest scheduled to run through October. James Davidson reported that ATS Automation received a large Navy contract and continues to hire.VIII2015-2016 Meeting Dates/TimesThe dates for WRT Advisory Committee meetings for the 2015-16 school years are:Fall Quarter:Friday, November 20thWinter Quarter: Friday, February 26thSpring Quarter:Friday, May 20thIX.Good of the OrderDon Meseck will provide a good set of economic data at our fall meeting.X.AdjournmentMarcia Henkle adjourned today’s meeting at 1:30 pm. ................
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