WASHINGTON
STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
BOARD
OF TRUSTEES
Vancouver,
WA
Board Members Participating: Steve
Rainey, Kay Adamson, Denise Colley, Sherry Perry, Chuck Nelson, Eric Wiseman,
Jerry Farley, Annabelle Fitts
Board Members Absent: Joe Fram
Ex-Officio Members Participating: Berl
Colley (Washington Council of the Blind), Michael Freeman (National
Federation of the Blind of Washington), and Bonda Albers (Washington Federation
of State Employees Local #1225).
Ex-Officio Members Absent:
Theresa Tate (WSSB Teachers
Association) and Kathleen Brown (Parent Representative).
March 28th –
Interview with the Governor: Dr. Stenehjem was to provide a report to the
board on how the interview, which was scheduled for
Capital Budget Update:
¨
Dr.
Stenehjem met with Mr.
¨
Dr.
Stenehjem also met with Senator
¨
Board
members and ex-officio members had already made some contacts, but they were
going to hold off making additional contacts until the process moved forward a
little more.
Efficacy study to discuss the need for
residential school:
¨
As
stated in the meeting notes from
¨
Dr.
Stenehjem mentioned that a number of states have conducted similar studies and
usually what has come out of these studies is that residential schools have a
place in the continuum of services for blind and visually impaired
children. These studies have also
emphasized that schools need to diversify there service delivery system: expand
outreach services, expand assistive technology options and training, provide
training on alternate schedules (summer program, short-term courses, etc), and
expand Braille Production Centers, and Instructional Resource Centers for the
State’s blind/visually impaired children, and expand training opportunities for
teachers, parents, and form university connections and partnerships. These are the things that WSSB has been doing
for years and continue to explore how to more effective reach more children
throughout our state. This has lead to a
lot of the pilot work that WSSB has been doing in digital learning, etc.
¨
Public
Awareness and Training:
o
Board
member Eric Wiseman mentioned that maybe we need to go back to our Strategic
Plan and see how much emphasis has been placed in this area. Dr. Stenehjem mentioned that public awareness
throughout the state is a key element in our plan, but maybe we need to see if
more time and resources can be put into this important area.
o
Recommendation
were made to get all representatives and senators onto the campus to see the
good things that are happening for blind children both on campus and throughout
the state because of WSSB’s expanded role.
o
Discussion
was made about the importance of the 24 hour I.E.P. and all the important CORE
competencies that children are learning that people sometimes assume just
happens. These are often the items that
make a difference of whether a person is successful or not.
o
Mike
Freeman mentioned that often people’s lack of awareness about the blind can
cause them to have low expectations about what blind people can do, and maybe
these low expectations cause people to think that why should we invest in the
blind if they are not going to be productive anyway. Very false and dangerous assumption.
o
Dr.
Stenehjem mentioned that maybe the WSSB and board need to schedule regional informational
meetings about the school and blind children and a try to get all legislators to
attend. Better yet would be to get them
onto the campus.
¨
The
board mentioned at this time they would hold off on additional communications
with legislators, but did want to be kept appraised of the situation to
determine if any additional action needs to be taken.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at
Jerry Farley, Chair Dean
O. Stenehjem, Ed.D.
Superintendent