2009 Regional Monitoring Workshops

The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) will host Regional CTE Monitoring Workshops this spring at Trinidad State Junior College, Morgan Community College and the Community College of Aurora.  The purpose of the workshops is to provide an opportunity for secondary and post-secondary CTE administrators, school administers and school fiscal and procurement management staff to learn about the monitoring process, procedures, guidelines and expectations for federal compliance with the Carl D. Perkins Act and Title VI, IX and Section 504 (MOA) – Civil Rights.

Preliminary agendas for the workshops can be found at http://www.coloradostateplan.com/index.htm.  If you’d like to attend, please register online at http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?492796.  Registration is free of charge, but space is limited so register early!

Workshop Schedule: (10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.)

Trinidad, Trinidad State Junior College	Friday, March 20, 2009
Fort Morgan, Morgan Community College	Friday, April 17, 2009
Aurora, Community College of Aurora	Friday, May 15, 2009

ACC’s Auto Tech Program Named One of Top 21 in Nation

…by “Tomorrow’s Technician” magazine.  Arapahoe Community College will be able to compete for top spot in a contest to be held later this year. Smokey Hill High School in Aurora is also in the top 21.  An excellent short video is available to view or to access the article on this stellar program, please visit the Rocky Mountain News.

 

Healing a Sick Economy with Health Careers

See the slide show and read the related story on Front Range Community Colleges’ Nursing Program which was highlighted on 9News recently.

The Career Development Centers’ Nursing Assistant program in Longmont has a new interactive mannequin to assist students in learning the finer points of patient care. Visit the Times Call online to read more.

Northeastern Junior College and Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) opened eyes to Medical Careers at an open house held last fall at the campus. The Sterling Fire Department was there creating simulated situations including the safe way to remove an accident victim from a wrecked vehicle and how to respond to a “person down” in an environment similar to a night club. The evening provided lots of hands on introductions to the myriad aspects of a health occupations career.

Above: While other students watch,  a ninth grader from Sterling High School (second from right) takes a good listen to the breathing sounds and heart beat of one of the many simulated-humans that are used as teaching tools in the nursing lab at Northeastern Junior College. NJC nursing instructor Rachelle Maker (left) was controlling the computerized patient.

 

New Multi-Industry Systems Technician (MIST) at Aims Community College

The process technology program is only offered through Aims and is hosted at the Ft Lupton campus.

MIST is a two-tier program, requiring 16 credit hours (a semester) to earn level-one or level-two certification. Regional work force departments used a federal Workforce Innovation and Regional Economic Development grant to develop the worker certificates for growing fields such as energy, manufacturing, information technology and aerospace. Businesses were consulted about the skills they seek in workers.

Energy and manufacturing firms are prominent in Weld County so the MIST curriculum is geared toward those sectors. The program was launched last fall and now has 70 students who represent a wide range of ages. The complete story can be found on the Greeley Tribune website.

 

PPCC Wins Grand Prize from Zunesis Extreme Data Center Makeover Challenge

Pikes Peak Community College is making the jump to Virtual Desktop Technology at its Centennial Campus in Colorado Springs. The conversion is made possible through the Zunesis Extreme Data Center Makeover Challenge. PPCC was chosen as the $300,000 Grand Prize Winner.

The funds will be used to create a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI, on the administrative side of the house, which will free up a host of computing resources for student and academic use.

VDI is an upcoming trend in desktop computing. Virtual Desktops have many advantages over the use of standard PCs as it consolidates processing power and memory in the server room, where it can be dynamically allocated on demand. The customers connect to their desktop via “thin clients” or repurposed older PCs. The system shuts some of its components down when not in use and directs computing resources on demand where and when needed, thus saving on power and cooling consumption. An additional benefit is users will be able to log in directly to their “virtual desktop” from any location.

Pikes Peak Community College will serve as a model and lead the way for its 13 sister community colleges in the state.

 

Suncor Energy Foundation commits $300,000 to RRCC

The gift will go toward expanding training facilities that will include customized education programs. With this award, a partnership has been created with the Center for Business and Industry Training (CBIT) at Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, Texas, to provide industry validated curriculum for process operators and crafts at the college. The gift will provide scholarship opportunities for students seeking process operator degrees or certificates from Red Rocks Community College.

According to RRCC President Dr. Michele Haney, "This grant award from Suncor Energy will significantly advance the ability of the college to replicate the technology found in today's energy and process industries in our laboratories and classrooms."

 

February 12 Proclaimed Career and Technical Students’ Day

These State Officers did a fantastic job at the Capitol of representing Colorado’s Career and Technical Student Organizations on Thursday, February 12 – officially proclaimed as “Career and Technical Students’ Day” by Governor Ritter: DECA - Ryan Dyck, Marissa Flores and Fahad Iqbal; FBLA - Jordan Jackson and Dani Chelin; FCCLA - Sasha Haarberg, Leilani Mullins, Jose Gurule, Jr. and Jonathan Tramp; FFA - Andy Bartlett, Jase Powell, Guy Kuntz and Michelle Koroshetz; HOSA - Allison Degner; TSA - Brenden Burns, Hannah Bludnick, Hayley Davis and Sara Beth Pearl; and SkillsUSA - Hazel Wirth, Kyle Brown and Dominic Rubino.

 

JUDGES NEEDED for upcoming State Conferences

2009 FCCLA State Leadership Conference and Food Events Competition

Want a positive shot in the arm? Be a competitive event judge on April 3, 2009.  FCCLA State Conference competitive events will be held at the Denver Tech Marriott and the Food Events Competition is hosted at Johnson & Wales, both on Friday, April 3, 2009. Students from chapters across Colorado will compete in 30 different events, ranging from Job Interview and Career Investigation to Culinary Arts and Interior Design. To see the list of events and to sign up, go to:
http://www.fccla.cccs.edu/08-09_documents/Jan30judges_form_only.doc

2009 SkillsUSA State Leadership Conference

The Skills USA Leadership Conference is less than two months away--April 16.  There will be an informational breakfast in March on what the judging will consist of. Date and place still to be determined.

Twenty more judges are still needed to select the best SkillsUSA students to represent Colorado at the National SkillsUSA Leadership competitions in Kansas City in June.  If you would like to volunteer as a judge for the Colorado Skills USA Leadership Competition on April 16, 2009 at the Warren Tech Campus in Lakewood, Colorado, please contact Bob Jager at 719-634-1805 or drj736@msn.com.

 

Colorado FCCLA State Leadership Conference and Food Events Competition

You are invited to join Colorado FCCLA members, advisers and guests at State Conference where “Heroes Happen” Thursday, April 2, through Saturday, April 4, 2009, at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Occupational students will perform Heroic fetes at their Food Events Competition in the Culinary Arts Building on the Johnson & Wales University campus, Friday, April 3, 2009.

Websites for getting advisers, students and guests registered are:
State Leadership Conference www.registermychapter.com/fccla/co
Food Events Competition www.registermychapter.com/fccla/co-foods

Note the following deadlines:
On-time Electronic Registrations must be completed and submitted by 10 p.m. February 20, 2009. Late Registrations – those submitted after 10 p.m. February 20 and up until 10 p.m. February 27 must pay a $20 per person late fee. No registrations will be accepted after 10 p.m. February 27. Payment must be postmarked no later than Friday, March 6, 2009.

 

2009 CTA Training Schedule

CCCS staff will conduct interactive trainings for teachers and administrators across the state this spring to address CTA Final Financial Reporting. The three-hour trainings will be held in March, April and May (see below). Online registration is required. To register, go to http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?443041. Please refer questions to Pat Sagrillo at 303-595-1568.

2009 Date	Time	City	Location
March 12	9 am-Noon	Denver	Colorado Community College System, 9101 E. Lowry Blvd, Denver
March 20	9 am-Noon	Ft. Collins	Front Range Community College, 4616 S. Shields St., Fort Collins
March 27	10 am-1 pm	Sterling	Northeastern Junior College, 100 College Ave., Sterling
April 2	9 am-Noon	La Junta	Otero Junior College, 1802 Colorado Ave., La Junta
April 3	9 am-Noon	Pueblo	Pueblo Community College, 900 W. Orman Ave., Pueblo
April 16	9 am-Noon	Craig	Colorado Northwestern Community College, 50 College Drive, Craig
April 17	9 am-Noon	Grand Junction	Western Colorado Community College, 2508 Blichmann Ave., Grand Junction
May 6	9 am-Noon	Alamosa	Trinidad State Junior College, 1011 Main Street, Alamosa
May 7	9 am-Noon	Mancos	San Juan Basin Technical College, 33057 Highway 16, Mancos

 

2008-2009 VE-135/VE-130 Reporting Announcements

There are significant reporting changes for the 2008-2009 year that will affect how you are required to collect and submit the VE-135 enrollment and follow-up.  

You are strongly encouraged to review the VE-135 and VE-130 collection and submission procedures for 2008-2009 in the PDF document listed under “Section VI - Data Reporting” of the CCCS Administrators’ Handbook on the state plan website at http://www.coloradostateplan.com/admin_handbook.htm.  We also recommend that you watch the CTE Trends e-newsletter for VE-135 announcements throughout the reporting year.

CCCS is required by law to collect the VE-135 follow-up and enrollment data each year in order to comply with the accountability requirements set forth by both the state-funded Career Technical Act (CTA) and the federally-funded Carl D. Perkins
Act.  You must report the VE-135 data even if you do NOT receive state or federal funding for your approved CTE programs because the data is used in the program renewal process.

The VE-135 submission deadlines have changed for the 2008-2009 academic year and are as follows:

• Follow-up deadline-March 15, 2009
• Enrollment deadline-July 30, 2009

The VE-135 data will NOT be accepted after the deadline has passed unless your institution has been granted an official extension for extenuating circumstances from CCCS for either the enrollment or the follow-up.

Important changes to the follow-up for this year include:

• Follow-up surveys should not begin until December 15, 2008.
• Placement questions now are specific to student outcomes between the time period of October 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008 only.
• Follow-up questions have changed for this year.  Questions for secondary and postsecondary are now the same. Placement criteria have been redefined and there are now new questions pertaining to apprenticeships and technical skills assessments.

Important changes to the enrollment for this year include:

• There are both new and redefined secondary and postsecondary fields in the enrollment for 2008-2009 that are critical to defining CTE student populations.
• Definitions regarding enrollment and completion have changed.  You will also be reporting concentration status for all students.

The VE-130 active teacher data is still required from all institutions with active CTE programs.  CCCS program directors’ strongly encourage all institutions to report this data completely so that important CTE correspondence reaches all instructors.

The VE-135/VE-130 data collection site at https://ve135.cccs.edu/login.aspx will be undergoing extensive redesign this year in order to meet the changing reporting requirements for 08-09.  Sections of the website will be launched in phases as they are developed.  Phase I and II have been launched and when you go to the website you will be able to update your VE-130 Active Teachers, retrieve your VE-135 Follow-up completer lists, and submit your follow-up survey data either by data file upload or by single student entry.

Contact Julie Eddy, CTE Accountability Director by email at julie.eddy@cccs.edu or by phone at 303-595-1527 with any CTE data reporting questions or comments.

Thank you for your continued cooperation as we work toward documenting our successes in career and technical education in Colorado.