In attendance at the Advisory Council meeting on March 30, 2000 were council members Anthony Stanziani, Howard Goldsmith, Victor Tosi, Mike Hatten, Vincent Ferrara, Jim Devaney, and Rabbi Barash. Bill Cann of Apex Technical School welcomed those in attendance and offered a tour after the meeting. He shared the history of how his father established the school 40 years ago to teach trades that he had learned in the Navy.

Mr. Goldsmith introduced the new Bureau staff members, Vickie Drake, EPA I, and Cathy Hanczaryk, Licensing Clerk. A new investigator, Marina Pena, started with the Bureau that morning. Future plans include the hiring of an additional assistant and investigator in New York, a keyboard specialist back fill in New York, and an assistant counsel following waiver approval.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

The changes to the Commissioner’s Regulations were posted on the State registry for 45 days of public comment; expiration of that period is April 17. Public hearings on the regs were held in October. They were reviewed by the Board of Regents in February, with the final vote on May 3 at the Board’s Utica meeting.

The new informational Policy Guidelines (PGs) are posted on the website. These will only be available in electronic form, with no mailings to the schools. The first two posted are on nationally recognized vendors and entrance requirements. IPMs are currently being reviewed; some will be eliminated and others will be replaced by PGs.

The Directors’ Course has been revamped with two days in Albany and a final day in New York. The Director’s Manual has been revised and will soon be available electronically.

There are now 169 e-mail members in the BPSS e-mail group. Chubb Institute, LIBS, and Apex have formed links to the Bureau website. In turn schools having a link on the BPSS website must link our website to their page. Those that would like to get added to the BPSS e-mail group must forward their address to Barbara Fabi at the BPSS Albany office. She can be contacted at bfabi@mail.nysed.gov.

The Legislative Task Force has sent letters on behalf of the Council to every legislator with the list of reasons to attend a licensed proprietary school. It is important to let them know that we are grateful to them for their efforts and that we will continue to depend on them in the future. The letters were well received. Follow-up letters are planned as an introduction to individual school directors. Vic Tosi will be happy to personalize these letters. It is possible that one could meet with the legislator if the district office is visited. It would be good to have sample school literature and students who reside in the district. The legislator should be invited to visit the school. Schools need to be active and visible, not just when legislation is needed.

Issues raised by the audience for the Task Force included problem of foreign-speaking students’ inability to pass the nurse aide certification exam; similar problems with ATB exams; TAP for trade schools; cosmetology language issue (no longer allow translators; will not translate new versions on exams); director acting as agent; and using the TRA as an alternative to the USDOE letter of credit requirement. It was mentioned that there might be a change in refund procedures for USDOE where a refund check for Pell will be sent to the student and the student will be expected to return it to the federal government. It may be necessary to revisit refund policies with regard to funding type.

The Committee on Benchmarking and Streamlining addressed mission clusters (business, computer technology, ESL, hospitality management, allied health, beauty enhancement, and trade/technical). Peer groups by clusters will have more influence. Outcomes assessment/measurement will follow the establishment of the mission clusters. The Commissioner’s Task Force on Outcomes Assessment is starting with the measurements then backing into the clusters. Other suggested topics for this committee include teacher licensing, use of outside curriculum experts, alignment of reporting requirements with USDOE and accrediting agencies, computerized attendance, nationally recognized vendors beyond high technology areas, nationally recognized vendor teachers teaching similar courses that are not nationally recognized, and use and implementation of curriculum library. The teacher licensing issue deals with teaching experience being considered as work experience. Next meeting—4/12.