WASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
September 12, 2014
Vancouver, Washington
Board Members Participating: Denise Colley, Yang-su
Cho, Cindy Bennett, Jim Kemp, Lorna Walsh, John Glenn and Ed Snook.
Board Members Absent: Nancy McDaniel and
Dennis Mathews.
Ex-Officio Members Participating: Berl Colley (Washington Council of the Blind), Betty
Watson (National Federation of the Blind of Washington) and Doug Trimble
(Teachers Association).
Ex-Officio Members Absent: Scott Hone (Washington Federation of State Employees Local
#1225).
WSSB Staff Members Participating: Dr. Dean Stenehjem (Superintendent), Mary Sarate (Director
of Business and Finance), Craig Meador (Director of Outreach), Rob Tracey (Facility
Manager), Anne Baker (Human Resources Manager), Hans Michielsen (Principal), Colleen
Lines (Program Manager, Ogden Resource Center (ORC)), Lori Pulliam (Director of
Transition Services), Mike Bicknell (Digital Research/ Development
Coordinator), DeEtte Snyder (Coordinator, BVI Birth-3), and Janet Kurz
(recording secretary).
September 12 – 11:00am-3:00pm
Ed called the meeting to order at 11:00am.
Department Updates:
Lori Pulliam, Director of Transition Services
o
Ed asked if the Learning Independence
for Today and Tomorrow (LIFTT) program was at max capacity. Lori stated there is one bed open at this
time (8 students plus one Residential Advisor who is a former LIFTT participant
who takes on additional responsibilities).
o
Lori stated that one Residential Life
Counselor (RLC) is starting the Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) program at
the University of Northern Colorado this fall and another RLC is in the process
of applying. WSSB offers staff the option to apply for reimbursement for these
programs; $34,000 has been set aside each year through private local funds. Dr.
Stenehjem stated WSSB has not put rigid stipulations regarding where staff are
employed after they complete their program, we would like them to stay in
Washington. There is a huge national
shortage of TVI’s and O&M Instructors and many unfilled positions in our
state.
o
All RLC’s are working on obtaining
their braille certification; one staff got her NLS and another RLC got his BLUE
certification.
Rob Tracey, Facility Manager
o
During the summer, the capital roofing project
which included efis work on the exterior of Old Main was completed. Errors were corrected from the original
installation.
o
The modular unit arrived on site on September
8. WSSB intends to utilize this unit for
student practicum teachers. [This building was purchased with private local
funds, and will hopefully be used to home grow and recruit TVIs and O&M
Instructors to Washington.]
o
The Department of Enterprise Services
(DES) is working with WSSB to get the Kennedy pool repaired. The estimated
timeframe is August, 2015. [WSSB may request some carry forward funds from this
year’s capital funds since resolution and repair to the pool is taking longer
than anticipated.]
o
Rob is currently working on correcting
issues involving the Old Main fire smoke dampers, and air handler. Issues
include some smoker dampers being inaccessible for repair, etc. WSSB and DES will be working with an electrical
engineer to obtain a bid for replacement.
Colleen Lines, Program Manager, Ogden Resource Center (ORC)
o
Colleen brought the new American
Printing House for the Blind (APH) smart brailler to the meeting (cost is $1,895
in APH quota dollars). Currently, WSSB
receives $319 in APH quota funds per student. The ORC purchased 10 of these Braillers
to be checked out by school districts.
Schools can apply to loan these items with stipulations attached.
o
The ORC reorganized their department
after the retirement of their administrative assistant, Donna Martino. Justin Raner was promoted to the
Administrative Assistant 3 position; and a shipper/receiver was hired; this has
greatly increased shipping and receiving times.
o
Colleen reviewed the statistics
included in her report below.
o
Colleen has established a Unified English
Braille (UEB) committee. They have met once in person and also held a
conference call. The UEB is an international braille code which everyone will
transition to. Mike Sivill from the ORC attended
a UEB workshop with additional ORC staff planning to attend trainings and will
then establish statewide trainings (on line and in person). Denise asked when the training will be
available. Colleen will post the trainings on EVE and will send notifications
out.
o
Dr. Stenehjem discussed the cost
savings of being able to provide textbooks to other districts that have been Brailled
at the ORC. ORC staff, Kandi and Angela handle those
textbook orders, working with the WCCW braille inmate program, in making sure
all orders are out on time. Colleen stated that colleges and universities have
used the ORC to produce textbooks. Those
textbooks are then put on a list which has generated even more orders. Some orders are $35,000 to $40,000 per
textbook (transcriber, proofreaders), etc.
Dr. Stenehjem invited the Board to see the WCCW braille program. Colleen reported that one former inmate in
the WCCW braille program has been hired by the ESD 114 for braille services. The
person has the business set up in her home.
Craig Meador, Director of Outreach
o
Requests for evaluations and services
continue. Over the summer, Craig hired one additional staff to cover for a TVI
who is on maternity leave. This year, Outreach has 18 staff (includes a braillist,
teacher aides and TVI/O&M).
o
This year, the Outreach department increased
the cost of service contracts by 10%; WSSB hadn’t adjusted the price of contracts
in six years. Craig did a six year review to determine how much the state
contributes to the operation of the Outreach department. Currently, 17% of
costs are covered by other private local funds. An additional 7% would have to
be added to school districts contracts in order to cover all of the expenses
(salaries, benefits, travel, etc.). Denise
asked if the number of districts served is the same. Craig stated at the end of
last school year, 56 districts were being served; however, this year several
districts have increased the number of days of service.
o
In mid-October, the statewide TVI
roster will be updated.
o
Smarter Balance Test:
§
Craig has been working with the Office
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) regarding testing
accommodations for blind and visually impaired (BVI) students. Last January,
recommendations were made with a list of equipment that would be required for
these accommodations (approximately $15,000 per student) and the state is now mulling
this over.
§
Craig sent out a survey to districts
regarding accommodations; OSPI has to make the decision if they will purchase the
equipment or if districts will be required to.
§
Cindy asked if there is a reason why a hard copy braille wouldn’t work. Craig stated the Smarter
Balance test is set up similar to the GRE, i.e. if you answer a certain way, the
questions ratchet up and down; if the test was provided in a braille format,
every prompt would need to be available and the Procter would have to be
efficient in being able to provide specific answers. Smarter Balance does allow
districts to purchase print copies of the test for a small fee. Oregon did a
similar test the past three years; and it is time consuming for the student. Some
districts are moving back to apple products, which further complicates the
testing aspect.
§
Cindy asked if anyone has thought about
this testing environment and the fairness of it. Craig said these things are being considered. This test replaces the HSPE and also the
middle school tests, however, state legislation needs to be passed to replace
the HSPE. Hans stated that only 9th
graders do not take tests. Lorna asked how SAT’s are handled; Craig stated they
are provided in braille.
§
Hans feels litigation will come up and
this will force a set of technology standards for students. This could also impact school districts in
the area of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements.
o
John asked if there is a TVI college
program established yet. Craig said
everything is still on track at Central Washington University and he will be meeting
with them in the next couple of weeks to be sure things are moving forward. WSSB
could be ready to roll in January, 2015 if everything moves forward. Dr.
Stenehjem feels faculty senate needs to be on board. Dr. Stenehjem felt it may be beneficial to
have Paul Francis, Executive Director for the Council of University Presidents
to attend a meeting and be brought up to speed.
Hans Michielsen, Principal
o
Hans stated WSSB currently has 66
students enrolled. Online offerings have been expanded to four classes. Currently,
there are nine digital learning students taking classes at WSSB from Alaska
Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.
o
Two new TVI’s were hired this year, both are former WSSB students; Mai Nguyen (Language
Arts), and Sonja Steinbach (Math).
o
Ed asked how many new students WSSB has
this year. Hans stated there are eight with an additional four in the
application process.
o
Ed asked how many Oregon students are
enrolled. Hans responded WSSB has seven in the on-campus program. Hans also
stated WSSB had seven students participate in our summer program (Youth
Employment Solutions) from Idaho.
o
Yang-su asked if there were plans to
bring the elementary program. Hans stated, not at this time. WSSB does have one
fifth grader this year and three sixth graders.
Anne Baker, Human Resources Manager
o
Anne has been participating in contract
negotiations as both union contracts (WFSE and WPEA) are expiring in June 2015. Anne feels negotiations will be wrapping up
in the next two weeks.
o
Denise asked what the status is with
hiring a School Psychologist. Anne
stated there is a shortage for these positions.
Dr. Stenehjem feels that WSSB is not able to offer salary commensurate
with school districts due to the TRI funds. However, WSSB offers additional
days through private local funds. Jim
stated a lot of districts are having to cut back on
TRI funds due to budget restraints. Dr.
Stenehjem stated WSSB has an intern this year who is finishing
his bachelor’s degree. Ed asked if WSSB
could contract with another organization for school psychologist services. Dr. Stenehjem stated WSSB has looked into
this option. Dr. Stenehjem said WSSB school psychologists often times become a resource
for school districts in the area of testing, etc. Hans also has a Ph.D. in psychology so he can
provide oversight for interns.
Mary Sarate, Director of Business and Finance
o
Ed asked for clarification regarding
Mary’s report. This related to a technical correction, whereby Olympia
incorrectly appropriated funds (fiscal year vs. biennium).
o
Mary reviewed her report (listed
below).
o
Mary stated that even though Outreach
contract fees increased this year, from this point forward, the state does not
fund our Outreach department (funded totally by 19B funds). Dr. Stenehjem stated out of state students,
in essence, could help fund outreach.
o
Jim asked about the 15% budget
reduction drill. Mary stated the
reductions would start 2015-2017. Mary stated all state agencies had to submit
15% reduction and in addition, have to submit a plan explaining what items they
would buy back.
o
Mary feels very good about closing and
current financial standing.
o
Dr. Stenehjem stated for the first time
in three years, he feels comfortable with our financial reports and status.
DeEtte Snyder, Coordinator, BVI Birth-3
o
DeEtte grew up in Oregon, attended Portland
State University where she obtained her bachelors, and obtained her master’s degree
in education for TVI. DeEtte obtained a second
degree in early childhood which is the age of students she wanted to focus on. DeEtte
moved to Phoenix, AZ in 1998 and worked at the Foundation for Blind Children as
a classroom teacher. DeEtte then moved to providing services infant and
families, serving approximately 300 babies in the Phoenix metropolitan area. She
is currently a doctoral student at University of N. Colorado, and wants to
further her education in training teachers to work in B-3.
o
DeEtte is researching how state
agencies work together to provide services in the state of Washington. DeEtte
feels the collaborations and partnerships in Washington are very impressive.
o
DeEtte did a survey for TVI’s (88 total
in WA) and received 42 responses. 75% of respondents serve babies and everyone but
2 were interested in providing services to babies. DeEtte is creating a B-3
consortium with 16 people signed up and she will be meeting with WSSB Outreach TVI’s
on September 15 to determine how they receive referrals, provide evaluations,
etc.
o
DeEtte is also exploring funding issues
relating to Medicaid.
o
Currently, 77 babies are registered
with the ORC. Dr. Stenehjem states he feels this number should be around 540
which would greatly increase APH quota funds. APH has great early intervention
materials for babies and families.
o
Dr. Stenehjem stated WSSB is hoping to
generate private, state, and federal funds in the B-3 area. Kim Curry, WSSB’s counselor, researched
funding mechanisms for other states, i.e. how many states are able to bill
Medicaid for vision and O&M services. Washington is funded in an
educational model, through school districts (Part C). This makes it difficult
to bill insurance companies including Medicaid.
o
Dr. Stenehjem stated the Pacific
Foundation for Blind Children (PFBC) wants to get involved and WSSB would also
like to get Lions Clubs involved. Jim feels the number of BVI B-3 age children
could double or triple. Dr. Stenehjem stated there should be 500-600 B-3
identified. DeEtte would like to build a
strong referral system to include pediatric ophthalmologists and build a strong
connection with Early Intervention (EI) programs.
o
Dr. Stenehjem said Washington does have
a strong cooperative venture and good collaborative efforts going on. Dr. Stenehjem stated OFM encouraged WSSB to
submit a decision package for funding this position.
o
Doug asked how the state of Oregon
works. DeEtte stated their system is more organized with strong cooperatives
that have TVI’s and O&M that work with babies only. Dr. Stenehjem stated
Washington has more emphasis on local control.
o
Ed stated this has been a long time
coming. Ed praised Dr. Stenehjem for
getting this effort moving. [WSSB is an
active partner with many other organizations in our state that want the best
for BVI infants/toddlers and their families.]
Mike Bicknell, Digital Research/Development Coordinator
o
Mike started his career by working in
group homes, while he was attending college. His back-ground includes working
as a teacher’s aide, and worked with a deaf/blind medically fragile student;
Mike then went back to grad school and focused on photo journalism and design. Mike
worked at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) as a media
specialist where he created professional development instructional videos,
distance learning materials, etc. As his
job evolved, he developed social media, YouTube accounts, created a distance
learning website to organize materials, etc. Mike also developed webinar
trainings with adobe connect, to train statewide. DeEtte has an interest in
doing webinars as does Bruce McClanahan in the area of Assistive Technology.
o
This year, three TVI’s are teaching
math digital learning courses; Lisa Hodge, JJ Isaacson and Sonja Steinbach (who
is mentoring with JJ). Dr. Stenehjem stated Sonja is a new TVI who is visually
impaired and this will be a new experience to make sure that our digital
delivery system works as well on the sending end as the receiving end. It’s great to have Sonja as a new teacher at
WSSB. Mike has received several inquiries from other states who would like
their students to use our distance learning courses in the future. Mike stated he would like to encourage other
schools to develop their own distance learning courses providing more
opportunities for BVI students.
o
Mike stated students make an effort to
attend classes, i.e. if they are sick or on school breaks (i.e. Spring Break) they
will still join in.
o
Berl asked if the technology is leaning
more towards touch screens. Mike stated he hasn’t seen that at WSSB. Mike reported
that a mom from India created an app for spelling that is completely
accessible. Janet will forward the information regarding the app to the
Board.
o
Denise asked what Mike would like to
see, long-term, in the area of distance learning. Mike would like to help other
schools build similar programs. Mike stated it would be great to have a full
scale program, i.e. math and science however the issue would be finding staff
to teach the courses.
o
Doug asked how Mike feels about WSSB’s
website and asked if it can be interactive. Mike and Dr. Stenehjem had this conversation
several days ago. Mike feels it is a solid website but needs an update and
redesign and options are being discussed. Dr. Stenehjem asked if people have
ideas to forward them to Mike.
Business Meeting:
Old Business:
o
Approval of Minutes for June 6, 2014
Board of Trustees Meeting. Jim moved to
approve the minutes, Lorna seconded the motion.
The minutes passed unanimously.
Superintendent’s Report
Dr. Stenehjem reported the following:
The Strategic Plan was updated and sent
to the Board of Trustees for review. When WSSB reviewed the potential budget
reduction plan (15%), it would have a negative impact on 83-85% of our
strategic plan goals.
In the spring 2015, WSSB will be going
through re-accreditation through NAAC. This will be a busy year, with an
on-site visit planned for the spring of 2016. During the process, WSSB will
bring people in from throughout the country.
The normal accreditation process focuses on school programs only; however,
WSSB expands ours to health center, residential component, etc.
WSSB has two openings on the Board of
Trustees (Congressional District 9 and 10).
Denise has agreed to stay on until that position is filled. The Governor’s office is actively pursuing
filling those positions. Dr. Stenehjem stated if the Board knows if anyone is
interested to let him know.
Budget:
o
WSSB submitted at 15% budget reduction plan.
If this moves forward, this would put WSSB at 52% General State Funds/48%
private local funds ratio.
o
The option for the state of Oregon to
send students to WSSB has been a win/win situation for both states. Oregon is
able to provide a full continuum of services for its students and financially
this has provide Washington with some flexibility to
do more for all students and staff.
o
Lorna asked why WSSB is not exempt from
budget reductions under the McCleary decision.
Dr. Stenehjem sent a letter to OFM to request an exemption. Berl asked what would happen if the consumer
organizations expressed their concerns with this. Dr. Stenehjem reminded the
board that at this point in time this is an exercise that WSSB has been
required to fulfill, and that WSSB will keep the board posted.
o
The Governor will submit a balanced
budget, but will likely wait for the revenue forecast in November. Next both the House and Senate will submit a
budget. Dr. Stenehjem feels this will be
a very long legislative session.
o
Dr. Stenehjem met with Dennis Mathews
and Ed Snook to review the 15% budget reduction drill. Dr. Stenehjem also met with Paul Baldwin,
WSSB Teacher Rep. to review the information.
o
Dr. Stenehjem reviewed the 15% budget
reduction plan that was submitted. Another option that WSSB submitted was WSSB
could tuition back to local school districts for every child to attend WSSB;
the only way this could work is if the local school district could retain the
IEP so they could retain funding from OSPI.
The tuition rate would equate to approximately $17,000–$22,000 per
student. WSSB submitted three budgets; maintenance level, one with decision
packages for additional services that are needed, and the third is one with the
15% budget reduction. Yang-su felt WSSB
should be benefitting financially due to the Supreme Court decision regarding
McCleary. Jim asked if we will have more
information at the November meeting. Dr. Stenehjem will be meeting with
teachers and all staff regarding the proposed budget plan. Dr. Stenehjem stated if WSSB took a budget
reduction, WSSB would utilize private local funds to help pay for some of the
programs that would be eliminated, however, this would be a short stop gap
because we cannot continually count on the availability of private local funds.
o
This year, WSSB utilized private local
funds to provide more training days for staff to not only help staff gain
additional skills, but also in an attempt to try and level the playing field to
some degree with the salaries in local school districts, which has risen beyond
the LEAP (state teacher salary schedule) due to TRI Day pay, which districts
can pay from local mil levy dollars.
o
John asked if providing a full spectrum
of services is a federal mandate, how we justify not providing elementary
services. The elementary program we eliminated a few years ago and was done during the budget crisis because it was only a SW
Washington program and WSSB has not had elementary students in residence for
years. Dr. Stenehjem stated WSSB
supports local districts due to the age of the students. Dr. Stenehjem feels education of families is
a huge need. Berl stated throughout a
lot of laws in our state there is specific language relating to supplanting of state
obligated funding such as basic education.
Ex-Officio’s Reports
Washington Council of the Blind (WCB) – Berl Colley:
o
Berl stated this is state convention
time; the convention will be held in Tacoma at the Hotel Murano from October 30-November
1.
o
The WCB has a new program called ‘forum
calls’. These conference calls are open to anyone; whether you are a member,
sighted or blind, on different topics. Topics such as technology, employment,
aging and blindness; holiday seasons and how to get through it, etc. are being
offered.
National Federation of the Blind (NFB) – Betty Watson:
o
The NFB convention will be held in two
weeks in Vancouver at the Hilton Hotel and everyone is welcome to come. The NFB
has a coordinator whose focus is to start a group for parents of blind
children. This person is not from the Vancouver area. Cindy Bennett will be starting a group for
people who are school age through college student division.
o
Legislatively, Cindy is currently
working with the access board to create set of guidelines at universities for
purchasing technology; the aim is that it is already a law to provide
accessible materials but is not happening at the college or any level and hopes
this will assist universities. NFB
hitting up social media to amp TEACH ACT; similar but targets higher
education.
Teachers – Doug Trimble:
o
Teachers are excited for a new school
year. There are a lot of middle school aged students and they are very lively.
o
The O&M department chose a few
students who need intensive O&M training; they are providing extra time to
these students and will be tracking data to see if this is beneficial.
o
There are 14 students attending
Hudson’s Bay this year with WSSB’s Steve Lowry heading up that effort. There are also one or two students taking
classes at Clark College through the Running Start program.
o
Teachers are concerned about the budget
process; teachers would like to be making more money but this is the same as
all state employees. Teachers are also
concerned with rising health care premiums.
In SW Washington there are only two choices, Uniform or Kaiser.
o
Cindy asked at what point in our
student’s education they are required to obtain their materials in alternative
formats. Doug stated it is our job to
provide materials but with older students, they are taught how to obtain
materials and that WSSB teaches them to advocate.
o
John asked if there was any feedback
regarding the new TPEP process with 2/3 of the teachers undergoing that
evaluation system this year. Personally, Doug is excited however there is a
wide range of opinions regarding this. Dr. Stenehjem stated TPEP is designed
for staff development; one element that has been controversial is student
performance aspect; WSSB is unique due to our population so WSSB is taking the
lead to tailor the TPEP to our measures and needs.
o
Doug stated he is glad staff are going into TVI programs, i.e. RLC’s. Doug was an
RLC and TA and is glad to see this occurring. Doug is also glad to see stipends
provided for those who want to obtain their TVI.
Parent Representative – N/A:
o
Dr.
Stenehjem stated WSSB will be looking into filling this position on the Board.
Committee Reports
Buildings and Grounds Committee:
o
Berl stated the campus looks great. Dr.
Stenehjem stated if anyone wants to look at the new modular home, he will provide
a tour. Cindy asked when it will be
utilized; Dr. Stenehjem stated it could be the second quarter of this school
year.
Legislative Committee:
o
Denise reported the legislative
committee met twice during the summer; their primary focus was to talk about the
potential name change as WSSB is a service delivery model not a physical
facility only. The committee looked into
how the Washington School for the Deaf changed their name; they did not open
their enabling laws, they added a layer to their current laws. Dr. Stenehjem
sat down with Executive Policy office to see if they had concerns about moving
forward with this; at the time they did not; however due to the budget
situation throughout the state, it is not a good time to submit legislation,
however WSSB will move forward with looking at getting bill sponsors, and when the
timing is right, will be prepared and ready to move forward.
Miscellaneous
Jim stated he likes the Board meeting format
being held during one day.
There being no further business, the
meeting adjourned at 3pm. The next Board meeting will be held on WSSB’s campus
November 14, 2014.
Ed Snook, Chair Dean
O. Stenehjem, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Board Reports – September 2014
Combined Summer Institute Washington
Sensory Disability Services (WSDS)
This was the second year that WSSB was
directly involved with the Vision Strand for the Combined Summer Institute.
This year’s institute was held on the campus of Seattle University. Offerings were focused on the Unified English
Braille Code (UEB), tactile graphics, Orientation and Mobility (O&M), and
using technology for data keeping.
Presenters included WSSB staff, Zach Lattin, Angela Vargas, and Joe
Dlugo.
Summer Institute
This year we had 24 participants that
attended the Summer Institute. This week-long training is geared towards
educators that have had little or no exposure to working with students that
have a visual impairment. After several conversations with other entities that
provide summer trainings and a review of participant feedback from the last
four years, we have made the decision to shorten the Summer Institute from five
days to three days. We will be meeting with the team during the year to decide
which parts are the critical components of training and look for ways to
consolidate presentations.
Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) Mentor
Training with Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy (Part 1 and Part 2)
We were very pleased to have Dr. Roman
back for a second year of training. We
brought in 50 new participants for the part 1 training, which ran from
Monday-Wednesday. We then held a two-day
workshop as a follow up for participants from the summer of 2013.
CVI students represent the largest
number of visually impaired students on most caseloads and probably the least
understood. This three day workshop was
open to all and was attended by Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI’s),
parents, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech language
pathologists, and an optometrist. The goal was to create a community of trained
professionals that could develop and work with students that have CVI so that
students would receive on-going education and not just education when the TVI
was present.
We now have 32 individuals that have
completed both part 1 and 2 of the mentor training. We will be creating a web
presence for CVI with a listing of all the individuals that have completed the
training. This will help districts to
identify support sources throughout the state.
Digital/Distance Learning
On June 16, I started my new job as the
Digital Research and Development Coordinator for WSSB after moving from Austin,
Texas. (For the past seven years I had served with Texas School for the Blind
and Visually Impaired Outreach as a Designer for Media, Web, and Distance
Learning.) Once in Washington, I was fortunate to have two weeks of overlap
with the former coordinator, Sherry Hahn, who retired on June 30. Those two
weeks with her were a blur, but invaluable nonetheless. My job is broken into
three distinct but overlapping areas: Digital and Distance Learning, Digital Research
and Development, and Campus Information Technology (IT).
We begin the 2014-2015 school year with
students enrolled in synchronous distance learning classes: 7th
Grade Math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, and Algebra 2. Math teacher JJ Isaacson,
middle school math teacher Lisa Hodge, and high school math teacher Sonja
Steinbach each teach distance-learning students in their regular classes. We
are fortunate that Ms. Isaacson is returning to help guide us in this
transition year and also for Ms. Hodge’s years of experience as a classroom
teacher and for Ms. Steinbach’s fresh perspective as a new TVI math teacher and
as a former WSSB student herself.
We hope to expand our math and other subject matter
offerings next year. This year, we are serving students in Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, and Alaska. At the last minute, we also received calls from TVI’s and
principals from Wisconsin and Indiana who expressed interest in our classes. We
believe that there is great need for STEM classes for blind and visually
impaired (BVI) students in school districts and perhaps in blind schools around
the country, and we are exploring options to meet these demands or to help
other schools to meet these demands by using distance learning technology as
well.
The technology for these distance learning classes
are conducted using Microsoft Lync, a web/ videoconferencing client that is
accessible to BVI students. Ed Lukowski, WSSB’s Lync and network support
specialist, supports these classes from server to desktop. We continue to look
at other digital systems to support these classes, such as Yammer, Moodle, and
more.
We appreciate the strong foundation the WSSB
administration and board has provided the digital and distance learning
program. Superintendent Stenehjem, Principal Hans Michielsen and Associate
Principal Sean McCormick all provide leadership and support as we move forward.
This summer we completed another weeklong workshop
with Professor Andreas Stefik, Ph.D., Melissa Stefik, and computer science
graduate students who led the Experience Programming in Quorum (EPIQ) for
teachers, specialists, and a handful of computer programmers. Quorum is a fully accessible, evidence-oriented programming language developed
by Dr. Stefik. This year’s group of participants created a curriculum
development committee (composed largely of educators) that will look to make
teaching and learning Quorum a less painful process for all. Professor Derrick
Smith, ED.D. and COMS, from the University of Alabama
Huntsville co-coordinated the workshop and shaped curriculum discussions as
well. Planning for the workshop next summer starts soon.
Continuing projects include consulting with
CANnect.org to help develop their website into a stronger resource for BVI
students and adults as well as for professionals, educators, and specialists
working in the BVI fields.
There are other potential partnerships we will
explore in the coming year, including with Portland State University’s new VIL
Coordinator and Professor Holly Lawson, Ph.D., with Microsoft, and with others.
We will also seek out more grants, especially to fund our distance learning
programs.
Where possible, we will speak with teachers and other
interested parties about our distance learning program in hopes of generating
interest around the nation. For instance, I have been invited to speak in the
spring of 2015 at the AFB Leadership Conference in Phoenix.
Our two IT staff, Ed Lukowski and Danya Borowski, continue to support an ever changing, expanding, and
increasingly complicated IT backbone, desktop, and device support landscape.
Lately, they supported the summer camps, prepared the campus for the start of
another school year, replaced old systems with new ones, updated or added new
servers, organized the network wiring, added more wireless endpoints, provided
desktop and device support, and have gently broken in the new IT Manager.
On Campus
Enrollment
Current school enrollment is 66: 49 (grades 6-12), eight (8) students in the
LIFTT program (5th year program); nine (9) students participate in
the on-line program in four different mathematics classes. On-line students hail from Idaho, Oregon,
Alaska and Washington. Nineteen of our students attend one or more classes at
Hudson’s Bay High School. Once Clark Community College is in session, several
of our students will take classes there. There are nine students in line to be
evaluated for placement at the school. At this time, it looks like 11 students
will participate in one or more of four mathematics offerings on-line for the
2014-2015 school year.
Common Core and Course Catalog
We have now entered all appropriate course codes in
our catalog that match state course codes. This makes it easier for staff,
other than our own, to evaluate our transcripts. This year, we will use a
quarter-based system, which allows us to provide focused instruction in
ten-week increments. It also allows for more variety in elective offerings.
Several classes are now cross-credited. For example, a student who takes an
intensive ten-week O&M course can earn fitness credit in that time. To
date, pull outs did not allow a student to earn credit.
Job Placements
Our transition coordinator has done a tremendous
job developing job placements for our students in the community and on campus.
The student store will again be open regularly. We anticipate expanding the
amount of product offered to apparel, cane, cane tips, braille paper and the like.
TPEP (Teacher and Principal Evaluation system)
WSSB will expand implementation of the new TPEP
system. This coming school year, two-thirds of the teachers will be evaluated
using TPEP. Our legislature has to make several more decisions before the system
can be completely implemented. The really new part of TPEP is the emphasis on
continuous staff development, which is both positive and encouraging. As was the case last year, only volunteer
teachers and new hires are evaluated with TPEP. We will fully implement TPEP in
the 2015-2016 school year.
State requirement on 1080 instructional hours per
year
Washington State requires that school districts
offer students 1080 hours of direct instruction per school year. Many districts have difficulty achieving this
number. Because WSSB implements 24-hour IEPs, the required number of hours is
easily met. For our day students, the number of hours of instruction per year
averages 1,194. For residential
students, that number is 1,736.
Residential
Summer Programs
·
Summer Camp/YES: These two annual programs occurred
in early July, summer camp for one week, YES for two. Camp students
participated in recreational activities into the evening, while YES program
students engaged in a variety of activities daily.
·
YES students planned dinner menus, shopped and
cooked dinner nightly, made sack lunches daily, participated in a variety of
daily living skills (DLS) activities from first aid training to basic household
repair. There were many recreational activities as well. There were 8 students
from Idaho in the YES program this year, 19 total.
·
Learning Independence for Today and Tomorrow
(LIFTT): A pilot summer program was done in mid-July this year for incoming
students planning to attend Clark College in the fall. This two-day orientation
served to assist those students in getting ready to begin college by providing
guided support in completing all tasks in the preparation for college process.
Students attended Clark College orientation, toured the campus, met with DSS,
and registered for courses. LIFTT staff feel this will
allow students to begin the program in September ready to begin the program
with a full class load.
In-service Training
Residential staff participated in fall workshop
training. Along with the full staff, we participated in annual CPS training as
well as Lean training. Residential staff had requested training on working with
students with Autism, and Monica Meyer, an autism specialist did a 6-hour
training for residential and education staff. Residential staff felt it was a
very good training.
General
·
We have one Residential Life Counselor (RLC)
registered to begin her TVI training with the U of Northern Colorado beginning
in the fall. There is another RLC in the process of applying there also. There are two or three staff that are planning on returning to
college to do pre-requisites to enable them to pursue advanced training in the
field.
·
Braille: One RLC passed the BLUE exam this summer,
and one obtained NLS certification. All staff are progressing
on learning braille through either Hadley, or through WSSB courses.
·
The Team of the Year for 2013-14 was the
Residential Staff!! Congratulations to a wonderful group of dedicated staff.
Business Office
1.
2013-14 Budget
a.
Operating: Phase
2 closing of the books for the biennium was September 5. It has been a very
fast year with lots of work. We used to have another month before final phase 3
close. We now only have two phases which requires three months of work crunched
into two. Our disclosure reports are being prepared and will be submitted by
the due date of September 16. Of course, we closed the year with a zero balance
in General Fund State (GFS). The carry forward balance in 19B is approximately
$778,000. I would have liked closing to have gone smoother than it did,
however, given the circumstances, it went as well as
could be expected. It gave me the opportunity to be much more involved than
usual which brought forward areas that need process changes and training
needs.
b.
Capital: We
ended the biennium with a balance of $270,810 which will be used for swimming
pool restoration and telephone system purchase. Because of timing with the
swimming pool and as a precautionary measure, we will request $100,000 be
re-appropriated to the 2015-17 biennium. If we don’t request re-appropriation
now, we will lose whatever funds we may have left unspent at the end of the
biennium.
2.
2014-15 Operating Budget
We were able to get
allotments in on time to reflect changes as of July 1, so staff knows how much
they have allotted in their respective areas. Ordinarily we only allot every
two years but you may recall, allotments for this year
were hastily done due to Department of Enterprise Services (DES) time
constraints. Following is a recap of our
funding for the last 4 years.
2013-14 2014-15
GFS: $6,032,000 GFS: $5,805,000
GF-Pri/Loc $ 7,000 GF-Pri/Loc $ 8,000
19B $
983,000 19B $ 983,000
2015-16 2016-17
GFS: $5,966,000 GFS: $5,961,000
GF-Pri/Loc $ 11,000 GF-Pri/Loc $
23,000
19B $ 2,020,000 19B $
2,020,000
You see the trend—lower GFS
funding and increase our authority to secure private funding.
The books for August do not
close until September 15. Month ending
July, we were slightly over budget by approximately 2.5%
3.
2015-17 Operating Budget
Our budget is due 9/11/14.
Part of the budget instructions this year is for all agencies to submit a 15%
reduction budget with prioritization for buy backs. Dr. Stenehjem will provide
more detail at the meeting. We are
submitting the following decision packages: (all totals are biennial)
15% reduction ($1,789,050)
American Sign Language
Interpreter $ 131,000
Teacher’s Aide for
Medically Fragile Student $ 124,000
Technical Correction-Carry
Forward $ 131,000
Birth-Three Program $ 500,000
Merit System Increments $ 113,000
4.
2015-17 Capital Budget
We will be submitting the
following decision packages:
Independent Living
Cottage-Feasibility study, pre-design & design $ 517,120
Preservation projects $ 820,000
5.
Contracts
We have prepared and sent
out contracts for the various services we provide and contract for, i.e.
Facility rental, Tuition, Outreach, Therapists, coaching.
Human Resources
New Hires:
·
Birth – 3 Coordinator – DeEtte Snyder
·
TVI Math Teacher – Sonja Steinbach
·
Rehabilitation Teacher 1 – Libby Pitts
(current RLC)
·
RLC – Jessica Dickerson (current
on-call)
·
On-Call Registered Nurse – Shasta
Furiya-Johnson
Open Recruitments:
·
School Psychologist
·
TVI – Outreach Spokane
·
TVI – Outreach Seattle area
·
On-call Cook
·
On-call RLC
·
Part time Project Employee - RLC
Trainings Attended:
·
Performance and Development Plan,
sponsored by DES
·
HR Manager’s Meeting, facilitated by Lee
Strehlow, Department of Retirement Systems
·
WPEA GG Management Team Meetings
·
Archive Training, sponsored by OFM
Miscellaneous:
·
Results Washington – Employer of Choice
– strategies for increasing overall survey results
·
During Fall Workshop staff attended and
Introduction to Lean Workshop presented by Brian Willett, Performance Analyst,
from the Washington State Auditor’s Office and a Mandatory Reporting Training
presented by Jason Frost, Social Worker 4 Supervisor, from the Department of
Social and Health Services (DSHS).
Ogden Resource
Center (ORC)
The ORC staff has been busy not only doing our daily work, but serving the state in many additional ways. I’ll list some here:
· August 2013 – Kicked off the new school year by having an information table and demos of ORC products and services at the Statewide Resource Fair at WSSB. Zach Lattin and Angela Vargas attending.
· September–December 2013 – Zach Lattin taught Beginning Nemeth Code class to 15 participants.
· 2013-14 SY – Mike Sivill taught Literary Braille code class to 20 participants.
· October 2013 – Colleen Lines and Angela Vargas spoke at the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) Annual meeting.
· November 2013 – Sponsored an informational table at the annual Washington Council of the Blind (WCB) convention, where Zach Lattin answered questions and demonstrated the Graphing Talking Calculator.
· January 2014 – By invitation, Mike Sivill and Angela Vargas attended the Seattle School District’s Resource Fair for parents of children with BVI in the Puget Sound area, with an informational table and demonstrations of products.
· March 2014 – Colleen Lines and Jerry Connelly, Director of the Special Education Tech Center, co-sponsored a Train the Trainer BookShare Workshop in Federal Way for 25 participants.
· March 2014 – Zach Lattin presented at the CSUN Conference on the Graphing Talking Calculator.
· March 2014 – Kandi Lukowski and Angela Vargas attended the CTEBVI conference, bringing back information to share with the state. Kandi created two PowerPoints for use with statewide trainings.
· May 2014 – Mike Sivill attended an intensive UEB workshop at NBA in Ohio.
· May 2013 – Zach Lattin presented the coming UEB changes to 16 participants.
· May 2014 – Colleen Lines facilitated the first Statewide UEB Committee. Zach Lattin and Mike Sivill served as braille experts on the committee – an article will be in the next Lion’s Roar.
· July 2014 – Angela Vargas presented a Tactile Graphics workshop at Combined Summer Institute to 15 participants.
· Ongoing – Colleen Lines continues to serve as the statewide NIMAS Coordinator which requires participation in several webinars.
Reorganization
of staffing in the ORC warehouse with Justin Raner, Administrative Assistant,
in charge of warehouse operations and Mitch Hughes as warehouse worker has
proven to be a successful model. With shifts in duties, the old bottleneck of
incoming returns and outgoing orders is gone. All incoming returns were
processed and shelved almost as quickly as they came in the back door. Orders for materials were processed quickly
and with APH’s improved services, all accessible instructional materials (AIM)
were delivered to districts before school started.
Listed
below you will find the ORC statistical information.
Every
year the APH annual student census system changes somewhat and usually have
some glitches, which we work through. Justin Raner diligently worked on the
data entry of all qualified students. We just closed the final phase four and
have a total of 978 students that either Meet or Function at the Definition of
Blindness. We have an additional 625 students that don’t meet that standard,
but require our services.
Quota
Funds
APH
distributed federal quota funds in May 2014 based on our 2013 census to us.
Under the APH system, we spend in the deficit from October 2013 until they
release the funds, which is based on the amount Congress appropriates per
student ($316.49) and when. We received $15,824.55 for the WSSB (214) fund,
$17,090.52 for the preschool fund (217), and $263,004.07 for all other
districts and agencies serving qualified students with BVI.
By
prudent management of the funds, we have been able to purchase all braille and
large print textbooks, instructional materials ranging from special papers to
expensive kits requested by districts/agencies. Additionally, we purchased 10
APH Smart Braillers at $1895 each, supplied all requests for the SAMS kits for
the workshop sponsored by WSSB, and 10 Talking Graphing Calculators at $599
each and continue to purchase and give BookPorts to students at $329 each.
Braille Department
Colleen
facilitated the first Statewide UEB Committee meeting in May 2014. A follow-up conference call took place on
August 5, 2014. The committee is divided
into sub-committees: one to rewrite the WAC, second to create UEB proficiency
exams. The committee plans to offer statewide UEB trainings throughout 2015 in
preparation of the code becoming official in January 2016.
The
committee, per WAC 180-82-130 consists of the following members:
·
Mike
Freeman, National Federation of the Blind of Washington (NFB), President
·
Cindy
Van Winkle, Washington Council of the Blind, President
·
Tracey
Gaver, Association of Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually
Impaired (AKA – Pacific Northwest AER), President
·
Hans
Michielsen, WSSB, Director of Education
·
Colleen
Lines, ORC, Director
·
Craig
Meador, OSPI-WSDS, Statewide Vision Coordinator
·
Danielle
Miller, Washington Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL), Director
·
Holly
Lawson, Portland State University, Professor
·
Sean
McCormick, WSSB, Associate Principal
·
Mike
Sivill, ORC, Braille Expert
·
Zach
Lattin, ORC, Braille Expert
Legally Blind 978
Other 625
Total Students Registered 1603
Legally Blind 935
Other 642
Total Students Registered 1577
2013-14 Yearly
Totals
Items shipped: 5058
Districts/Agencies: 171
Students: 723
2012-13 Yearly
Totals
Items shipped: 5513
Districts/Agencies: 165
Students: 658
Acquisitions for 2013-14
Braille: 71
Large Print: 72
Books Reproduced from Masters
Braille: 242
Large Print: 177
Total Pages Produced
Braille: 663,592
(calendar year 2013)
Large Print: 94,875
Donations Processed:
Braille: 19
– Value $15,200
Large Print: 2 – Value $904
Books borrowed from other states for Washington
students saved school districts approximately $11,964.
Braille: 11
Large Print: 7
Books loaned to other states for BVI students
across the USA saved them approximately $18,328.
Braille: 15
Large Print: 14
Print pages transcribed: 37,045
Hours: 16,492
Braille Pages: 106,494
Tactile Pages: 15,733
Buildings and Grounds
Capital:
·
We missed the hoped for delivery and set up date
for the manufactured home of September 1 due to permit delays. We now hope to
have it on site the first week of September. Once it arrives, power, water and
data can be connected.
·
The drip edge work on Old Main uncovered some
initial poor installation which required more time to correct. The contractors doing
the work did an excellent job and recent rain showers have proven that it is
shedding the water as we hoped it would.
·
The salt cell for the pool has broken and parts are
expensive. Because of the cost and difficulty involved in maintenance, we are
looking at adding two smaller cells to achieve the same level of chlorine
generation. We are also looking at adding an ultra violet light purification
system.
·
Working with our project coordinator from DES, we
are submitting paperwork for capital budget approval to proceed with a
design/feasibility study for the LIFTT Cottage. We are also working to get the
necessary paperwork in order to rework the pool next summer.
Campus:
·
Tree trimming is complete and most major limbs
overhanging the cottages have been greatly reduced or eliminated. We also
removed three trees that had outgrown their environment. These trees will need
to be replaced in the near future to meet Vancouver city requirements.
·
We have received eight new vehicles through the
motor pool and are waiting for another four to replace aging Outreach cars. Two
of the vehicles are all wheel drive Ford Escapes which are to be used in the
Tri-cities and Spokane regions. The others are all Ford hybrid C-max cars.
Birth-Three
My name is DeEtte Snyder and I am the new state
coordinator for birth to 3 BVI services.
My first day was August 19 and since then I have been doing a variety of
activities to make connections with the vision and early intervention community. I am somewhat “new” to the state of
Washington.
Though I grew up in Oregon and lived in Seattle
between my bachelor’s and master’s degree, I have lived and worked for the past
16 ˝ years in Arizona. I am a certified TVI and have worked
primarily with children aged birth to 5 and their families, with the last 3
years as the director of infant and family services at a non-profit agency in
Phoenix called the Foundation for Blind Children. Currently I am a doctoral student at the
University of Northern Colorado in the dissertation phase, with a focus on
early childhood, VI, and educational leadership.
My approach to networking thus far has been
two-pronged with a focus on 1) connection to the vision field in the state (TVI
& O&M) and 2) connection to the EI system in the state (DEL/ESIT). I am learning a new system of providing, not
only EI services to children and families here in WA, but also vision services,
especially local control issues amongst school districts, counties, and LLAs. As someone who comes from the non-profit
world, I also am learning about coordination between state agencies, and so far
I am impressed by the level of collaboration and partnerships already in
existence here in the state of Washington.
Things I have been working on, in addition to
settling into the WSSB family:
·
Beginning connections with TVIs in the
state who provide services to Birth to 3.
Sent out a survey on the EVE list serve and have gotten 42
responses. Results include: 1) about
half see babies now, but all but 2 are interested in seeing babies, 2) FVAs for
babies is #1 professional development need with working with families and teams
as #2 and #3, and 3) 17 interested in participating in B-3 TVI Consortium, a
group of interested TVIs to work together to establish protocols and
standardization in services across state. These results are very encouraging!
·
Beginning connection with Tracey Gaver,
the only B-3 TVI in state in the Seattle area.
We have spoken face to face as well as a few phone conversations on our
direction together.
·
Babies Count, the national registry of
infants and toddlers with BVI. Tracey
looked over the data collection form and we had a great conversation regarding
implementation in WA as a great beginning to understanding the characteristics
and needs of our babies currently.
·
Fully explored the ESIT website
including research into the Policies and Procedure manual, their EI training
modules, and participated in financing webinars (through ECTA) to begin
exploration of 3rd party Medicaid billing potential.
·
Started networking with ESIT
community. Met face to face with Carol
Hall, the Birth to 3 program coordinator at ESD 112, here in Vancouver, as well
as emailed an introduction to ESIT program administrators and consultants.
·
Attended the first WSDS staff meeting
and met separately with Nancy Hatfield regarding WSSB grant and program
activities/evaluation requirements.
·
Established individual connections with
Janet George from Department of Services for the Blind (DSB) and have face to
face meeting set with her on 9/25 after the Blind Youth Consortium on 9/23.
Superintendent
Start of a new school year
After an extremely busy and productive summer many
students and teachers from throughout the Northwest, U.S. and Canada have
gained new and wonderful skills. Thanks to staff providing directions for
workshops and classes, approximately 250 students and teachers received new
skills. The cottages were full all summer and campus support staff did an
amazing job of getting in and cleaning facilities within less than a day to get
ready for the next group. What a great use of state facilities in maximizing
facilities for the advancement of educational training. Examples below:
·
Summer School – 2-week long programs
for students from Washington and other states on a tuition basis.
·
Computer Programming –
Research/development/training of teachers from throughout the U.S. and Canada.
“Sodbeans” is a NetBeans module
suite designed to enhance accessibility for the blind in modern programming
environments. It is currently being developed by students and researchers at
the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Sodbeans is a wrapper to Sappy in NetBeans, which adds on
custom compilers/debuggers that are designed to be blind accessible. The Quorum Programming Language: Quorum
is a custom programming language built for this project. It has been designed
in empirical studies on humans to be intuitive to use and include a narrated
(talking) omniscient debugger.
·
Summer Institute for
teachers who will have a BVI child in their classroom in the fall of the
year. Designed to help classroom
teacher’s work more effectively with BVI students.
·
CVI workshops (2 workshops) with Dr.
Christine Roman, Pittsburg, Penn. Second year of phase I cohort, and start of
cohort II.
·
Assistive technology class for Portland
State TVI training program.
All Staff Fall Workshops
WSSB was able to provide some additional days of
fall workshop training through private local funds, which have helped develop
new and innovative programs and services over the years. These funds have
allowed WSSB to work on a number of the Governor’s
Priorities for Education:
·
Create more innovative schools for
students around Washington (a few examples below):
o
Computer programming training.
o
Accessible online learning systems –
new for the country.
o
24-hour IEP process designed to make a
difference for children who are BVI in a relatively short-period of time.
o
Continued diversification of services
through the development of new partnerships which not only cross silos within
our state, but also cross state lines.
o
Development of new statewide BVI
coordination of B–3 Services and exploration on access to Medicaid (third party
reimbursement). This is just beginning.
·
Encourage continuous improvement of our
educators and administrators.
o
WSSB teaching staff
are onboard with the Danielson Model for the new TPEP process and are
into the second year or utilization of this model.
o
Principals and other admin. have also gone through the principal training component for
TPEP.
o
As evident from above, WSSB in partnership
with other organizations continues to facilitate workshops (most of which are
self-supporting and/or started with private pilot funds to help improve
educator’s skills throughout the Pacific Northwest).
·
End the unacceptable high number of
students who drop out of high school:
o
WSSB has also been in this business in
providing options mostly through intensive on-campus programs which help BVI
students from becoming part of this statistic.
o
The LIFTT program was also started to
help 5th year students gain additional skills that will help with
successful transition. This has been a joint program with DSB and the Oregon
Dept. of Education (on a space available basis).
·
Eliminate the persistent opportunity
gaps that have kept too many children from achieving their full potential:
o
This was one of the reasons, years ago,
that the school developed the 24-hour on-campus IEP process to make sure that
all BVI students receive the blindness related skills training on top of solid
academics along with good social/emotional skills necessary for success.
o
The research in the area of Online
Learning, which is accessible, was also added to help children both on-campus
and throughout the country to receive the types of classes needed in a manner
that is accessible and useable to help open the doors to opportunities.
·
Make sure that all students graduate
from high school prepared with 21st century skills:
o
WSSB is nationally accredited (through
the National Association of Accredited Schools) and continues to emphasize the
importance of having solid teachers with great skills that can help students
gain the skills necessary for the 21st century.
Strategic Plan Update 2015-2025
The Strategic Plan has been updated, has been
e-mail to all board members and is available on our website. This plan was updated based upon the input
from a stakeholders planning sessions which was held this past winter
(2014). The plan is updated every two
years.
Lean Training
This fall, all WSSB employees received Lean
training from Mr. Brian Willett with the state’s auditor’s office as part of
the all employee fall workshops. Lean provides
proven principles that help Washington state government create a culture that
encourages respect, creativity and innovative problem solving, continuously improves
and eliminates waste from government processes, aligns efforts across state
agencies and delivers results that matter to Washingtonians. WSSB goal is to apply Lean concepts to our
daily work with children and working with other agencies in the development of
the best systems/programs for BVI children that result in solid growth and
development.
2014-2015 School year estimates
On-campus: We estimate
that by the end of October we will have 76 students receiving educational
services representing: on-campus
intensive services grades 6-12+, LIFTT (5th year program), and
online classes being provided by WSSB teachers.
Outreach Services: Continue to grow each year. Craig Meador, Director of
Outreach and state Vision Consultant will provide more detailed information.
Budget
·
2014-2015 budget information can
be found in Mary Sarate’s report. Mary
has been busy getting our books in order, closing the books for the past fiscal
year, spreading allotments for the 2014-2015 year and working with staff in building
the 2015-2017 biennial budget which is due in Olympia
on September 11, 2014.
·
Budget Reduction Drill: WSSB has to submit a 15% budget reduction
decision package, which would be devastating to services for BVI children
involved in the on-campus program. This decision package will be discussed at
the upcoming board meeting and is not in its final status as of this time.
2015-2017 and 2015 Supplemental
Budget (will be discussed at the board
meeting):
Note: WSSB has been able to provide some protection
from budget reductions on a temporary basis over the years due to the continued
diversification of services, funding sources, etc. Currently, programs funded
through WSSB are represented by 67% GFS dollars and 33% private local funds
which are made up of donations, fees for services and grants. If a reduction of
15% were to occur from GFS funds, the state appropriation would represent only
52% of the schools budget if the school were able to generate additional
private support to help fund programs/services previously funded by the state
of Washington.
WSSB has had some private local
funds to work with on an intermittent basis. It is our goal to try and continue
to utilize these funds to pilot new approaches to learning, utilize some of the
funding to provide additional in-service training days for teachers in order to
keep staff skills current and help level the playing field with the disparity
that has occurred from the LEAP (statewide teacher salary schedule) due to the
implementation of TRI days (time, responsibility, incentives) that LEAs are
able to grant from mill levy dollars. This has caused a huge problem with
recruitment when there is a huge national shortage of TVIs and O&M
specialists.
New Staff
Various departments will introduce
their new staff, but I did want to take this time to introduce two new people
who will be heading up two important areas that contribute to BVI students and
those providing service to BVI children throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Michael Bicknell: Mike is the new
Coordinator for Digital Research and Development work. Mike comes to Washington
from the state of Texas where he worked for the Texas School for the Blind and
was involved in their digital learning environment. Our goal is to continue to
expand online learning options for BVI children, provide more digital resources
for families and service providers working with BVI students.
DeEtte Snyder: DeEtte is the
new statewide Coordinator for BVI – B-3 infant/toddlers and services to
families. DeEtte comes to Washington from the state of Arizona and has
approximately 20 years of experience working the BVI infants/toddlers and is
currently working with New Mexico School for the Visually Impaired and the APH
in re-establishing the national baby count – BVI to better help our nation
understand the needs of families. The need for the B-3 Coordinator’s position
came from a state task force made up of individuals from: DSB, WSDS/OSPI, Dept. of Early Learning, NICU unit personnel – U of WA, Dept. of Health and WSSB. WSSB
has submitted a request for funding for this important position which will help
shape future services for BVI infant/toddlers and families. Currently the
position is being funded through private local funds. It is our hope that DeEtte, along with others,
will be able to increase services from 88 identified BVI infant/toddlers to
540, which is a realistic number based upon national
incidence numbers. We would also like to move forward and help Washington move
vision related services into the SPA under the Health Care Authority (HCA),
which would allow for 3rd party billing to Medicaid for services
which would help expand services in our state.
Board of Trustees Openings
·
Congressional District 9 and 10
are both open at this time.
o
Congressional District 9 is
represented by the south eastern Puget Sound area from Bellevue, Kent and
Northern Tacoma. [currently not filled]
o
Congressional district 10 is
represented by east of Tacoma, Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater Shelton and surrounding
areas. Currently Denise Colley has graciously consented to continue to serve
until this position can be filled.