Attendees: Mike Shaughnessy, Peter Adamy, Kyle Davie, Lee Rabbitt, Jonathan Gallishaw, Bill Fiske, Jim Halley, Jim Monti, Pam Christman, Sharon Hussey Guests: Linda Savastano, Katie Miller, Mark Lamson, Steve Foehr

Discussion

SIS Pilot Project - what next?

Because of the district interest in the SIS Pilot Project discussion, the steering committee members listed above attended the meeting for the purpose of stating their position on the pilot project. The order of the agenda was revised to accommodate those who might want to leave at the start of the business meeting.

Linda Savastano spoke first and described Middletown's need to move off the system they use currently and their desire to adopt the School Max solution from Maximus. She stated that the experience of the steering committee was very positive and productive and should be considered the first phase in the project to move to a centrally managed student information system. She requests that RINET move to a second phase that includes a pilot.

Katie Miller reviewed the level of involvement and teamwork of the steering committee. She stressed the importance of timing for pilot districts and the continued collaboration on this project. She stated that endorsement or rejection of the recommendation of the steering committee by RINET is necessary at this time.

Mark Lamson extended thanks to Pam and Kathy for their expert guidance. He explained the choice of MAXIMUS and the bidding process demanded by Westerly. He stated that RINET endorsement is critical to the town's RFP requirement. He described the current system as outdated, building based, inadequate for district reporting.

Steve Foehr described the multiple advantages of School Max over StarBase: web-based, state IEP standards matching, multiple levels of scheduling, standards based report card, Medicaid, transportation, and food services modules, support for multiple hardware platforms, etc.

Bill posed the question, 'What if time is against us and there is not a product that many districts could adopt thus making it feasible for RINET to implement?'

Katie reiterated the need for accepting or rejecting the recommendation.

Mike noted that this is very much a 'chicken and egg' decision. Steve noted that economies of scale may not be monetary - myriad state requirements, ability to compare data, consolidate disparate data, etc.

Lee described district-wide participation at multiple levels and cited reference checking done by committee. She referred to other localities who charge for information services as 'billable service' and point to migration success.

Mark stated that he believes 'if you build it, they will come.'

Jim Halley stated that this reminds him of 10 years ago and the adoption of hi-speed lines and how that should allow us to have an expectation of statewide participation. He feels this a sound business opportunity for RINET with the NCLB reporting requirements, the collaboration of the superintendents in the SLC, the new governor and his task force recommendation for a common student identifier, etc. North Kingstown is committed to coming on a year from now. If RINET doesn't do this, independent deals will be made with the vendors and RINET will miss out on an opportunity. He supports making a committment to the recommendation of the steering committee and feels that RINET should establish a roadmap for implementation. He credits RINET for providing the impetus for the superintendents to begin working together.

Bill stated that the decision would have to be deferred until after next week's working session.

Linda reiterated that she doesn't want to see the process compromised. Steve stressed that the 3 districts must make a decision about implementation.

Mike supports the establishment of a statewide system and is 99% sure he would accept the recommendation of the committee. However, he is committed to moving ahead only when it is economically feasible. He asked Katie if there is something specific that is being requested of RINET at this point.

Katie repeated that she needs endorsement for SchoolMax and that MAXIMUS will not impede the migration from their hosted site to RINET's. She doesn't see there is any risk for RINET. The value for the pilot districts will still be there if RINET doesn't implement a statewide system over time. But she favors the value in collaboration that a statewide implementation would bring.

Jonathan described the steering committee members as a quality group of technologists, but stated the difficulty for him of migrating away from a system they have just adopted.

Mark asked if there would be a decision and when they could expect it. He stated that he needs a formal decision. Linda added that she needs to be able to append RINET decision to any district RFP process. Mark added that he would be able to use a formal recommendation because of the charge from the SLC.

Jim Halley suggests using the results of the process to make recommendation to districts. Mike asked Lee to draft a request to the BOD to be shared electronically prior to Friday's meeting.

Jim Halley said the chances are good that this would be the product and that endorsement from RINET is reasonable.

Pam and Bill stress the importance of examining the specific features of the proposed model.

Bill end the discussion by stating that there is a direction for the Friday meeting and it will be to examine the proposed implementation and business model in detail with the goal of meeting the request for endorsement or rejection.

Approval of March 21st minutes - Minutes were reviewed and approved

New Business --

Unfinished Business

Proposed Revision to Quorum Requirement for RINET BOD Meetings

Sharon presented the following proposal from the Governance Committee that revises the quorum requirement in RINET's Bylaws as follows:

Current wording:

SECTION 3.4 Quorum

A quorum shall consist of the number of RINET Board members present for a meeting, providing that a minimum of one (1) state agency member, one (1) university member and one (1) school (collaborative) member are included in this number. The members present at a duly noticed meeting at which a quorum is present may continue to do business until adjourned notwithstanding the withdrawal of enough members to leave less than a quorum. Attendance and voting at meetings shall be in person only, and not by proxy.

Proposed wording:

SECTION 3.4 Quorum

A quorum shall consist of a minimum of four RINET Board members present for a meeting, providing that one member of the Executive Committee is included in this number. The members present at a duly noticed meeting at which a quorum is present may continue to do business until adjourned notwithstanding the withdrawal of enough members to leave less than a quorum. Attendance and voting at meetings shall be in person only, and not by proxy.

A motion to approve was seconded and passed.

Reports

Preview of 2001 Audit results - tabled for June business meeting

Performance Review - Pam Christman - members are invited to share input with Sharon, Pam during the next week.

Municipal network kickoff -

Sharon described the following developments:

Signed contract with RIDH and OLIS on April 28 RIDH providing $520,000 to support headend router and 1 year of Internet access to RINET.

RINET working in partnership with RIDH and OLIS.

North Kingstown is connected.

Planning a kickoff with OLIS, RIDH, RINET

Invite League of Towns and Cities
Lori Fox of NK will be presenting a technical overview of why RINET is preferred network for NK.