Missouri State Inter-Office

Memorandum

Date: July 19, 2001

To: Members of the GLS Parents’ Advisory Committee

From: Dr. David Hough, Acting Dean COE

RE: My notes, per our meeting 7/17/01

Members present: Mark Gann, Debbie Yocum, Kathi Beasley, Mary Byrne, Emily Carlile, Sarah Muegge

Members absent: Art Spisak, Gerald Masterson, David Minert, Jane Doelling

Guest: Debra Barnhart attended for Chris Barnhart.

I explained the purpose of the GLS Parents’ Advisory Committee: 1) to help ensure that accurate information is communicated from COE to GLS community, 2) to obtain suggestions for improving GLS as it becomes a laboratory setting over time.

We discussed certain aspects of the evaluation reports that have not yet been made public. I explained that the report and its recommendations will be shared with the GLS faculty and administration and then the GLS parents and entire community as soon as President Keiser’s task force completes its review.

Parents noted that too many substitute teachers are used at GLS; teachers are frequently not in the classroom, and parents wonder where they are, what they’re doing, and how those activities contribute to classroom practice.

More high quality student teachers should be placed at GLS, and faculty should be receptive to this. Job analyses should be conducted and teachers’ job descriptions should be consistent with the GLS mission.

Parents did not agree with the idea of placing GLS in academic departments, noting that it is important for the teachers’ immediate supervisor to be in the building, and that students need consistency in classroom personnel. Rotating instructors should not become a general practice resulting from any distribution of faculty across academic departments across campus. Joint appointments were discussed as a viable alternative.

Parents agreed that teachers should take advantage of the University’s laboratories and other facilities as well as the expertise of professors in the academic departments.

GLS should be an integral component of teacher education; therefore, a better connection between the school and COE should be made.

I notified the Committee that the University was discussing the feasibility of making GLS self-supporting by raising tuition, perhaps to $4,500. Concern was voiced that this would be counter productive in our attempts to create a more valid laboratory school. Not all parents can afford this rate of tuition.

Post Script. We did not discuss the following, but as of 7/19/01:

The GLS director has recommended to me and I have recommended to the vice president of academic affairs that the principal’s position at GLS be eliminated. The COE Administrative Council is discussing possible alternatives.

Discussions surrounding any proposed increase in GLS tuition may produce a recommendation that any tuition increases be phased in over time. I expect President Keiser to allude to this when he presents the University’s plan for budget cuts to the Board of Governors tomorrow morning.

Respectfully Submitted,

David Hough, acting dean