WASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

 

Minutes from Board of Trustees Meeting

June 15, 2007

Vancouver, Washington

 

 

Board Members Participating: Chuck Nelson, Jim Kemp, Steve Rainey, Denise Colley, John Driscoll, Sherry Perry, and Eric Wiseman.

 

Board Members Absent:  Annabelle Fitts and Kay Adamson.

 

Ex-Officio Members Participating: Berl Colley (Washington Council of the Blind), Judy Koch-Smith (Teachers Association) and Jean Curtis (Parent Representative).

 

Ex-Officio Members Absent:  Michael Freeman (National Federation of the Blind of Washington) and Bonda Albers (Washington Federation of State Employees Local #1225).

 

WSSB Staff Members Participating: Dr. Dean Stenehjem (Superintendent), Craig Meador (Director of On-Campus Programs), Dee Amundsen (Director of Outreach), Rob Tracey (Plant Manager), and Janet Merz (recording secretary).

 

June 15, 2007 – 12:45 – 3:50 p.m. 

Chuck called the meeting to order at 12:45 p.m.   

 

Department Updates:

*      Outreach Department (Dee Amundsen):  Dee reviewed her written report as submitted. 

o        Dee reported that we are adding another half time dually certified instructor in Whatcom County.  All teachers of the visually impaired (TVI) and Orientation and Mobility (O&M) position openings statewide will be listed on WSSB’s website. 

o        Steve asked if we have any school districts on a waiting list for Outreach services.  Dee said that Bethel and Orting are on waiting lists. 

o        Denise asked if we receive funding for OSPI for Summer Institute; Dee said no.  The total cost for Summer Institute is $31,000.  Dee is submitting a grant request to the Gibney Family Foundation to help defray costs of the program.

*      Buildings and Grounds (Rob Tracey):  Rob reviewed his written report.  Eric asked for feedback on the list of items that were generated during the March facility tour.  Eric said one concern was a gate latch from the exit of the basement of Chapman Cottage. 

*      On-Campus Department (Craig Meador):  Craig reviewed his written report.  The board complimented Craig on the awards ceremony and commencement.

 

Washington School for the Blind Foundation (WSBF)

Barbara Sheldon, Executive Director reported that WSBF is sponsoring a fundraising event on June 24 in the Fries Auditorium.  Four WSSB students will be demonstrating assistive technology; and another former student, Nick Baker, will be performing music.  In addition, Grammy winning guitarist Doug Smith and his trio Three Together also will perform.  Eric asked if we have ventured to obtain data from throughout the state of Washington to identify technology companies to partner with the Foundation and students.  Barbara will contact Eric.

 

Committee Reports:

*      Buildings and Grounds Committee:  Eric feels that hazard recognition is a critical function of this committee.

*      Management Committee:  Steve called an Executive Session to order at 2:29 p.m.  The Executive Session ended at 2:43 p.m. 

 

Ex-Officio Reports

*      Washington Council of the Blind:  Berl reported that their leadership training was held in Everett, May 4-5.  WCB’s National Convention will be held June 30-July 7 in Minneapolis.  WCB’s state convention will be held on November 1-3 at Spokane Double Tree. 

*      Teachers:  Judy reported that the teachers joined the Washington Public Employees Association, UFCW Local 365.  The teachers have asked that tuition be lowered for Summer School Programs as that may be an issue with enrollment.  The teachers also feel that enrollment in summer programs contribute to keeping enrollment up at WSSB.  The Powerlifting team was not a school sponsored team this year and the Powerlifters attended a meet that was sponsored by the Northwest Association for Blind Athletes.  The preschool team would like to be introduced at the Board at the September meeting.

*      Parent Representative: Jean is working on the parent listserv to improve communication.

 

Superintendent's Report

Dr. Stenehjem reviewed his written report:

*      Learning Independence for Today and Tomorrow (LIFTT):  Discussion regarding one former student who may be interviewed as a Resident Assistant to help supervise the LIFTT program.  

*      Washington State Quality Award:  Jessica Sydnor and Mary Sarate are attending a workshop today for WSSB.  This is an award that all state agencies are required to obtain every three years.  Sherry Perry has offered to assist as her background is in quality, etc. 

*      Student Store:  Grand opening will be October 15 which is White Cane Awareness Day.  The store will have aids and appliances and students and volunteers will run the store. One of the key volunteers who helped get the store started was a retired Optometrist from Kaiser. 

*      Dr. Stenehjem may request to make a change to our school year calendar.  Dr. Stenehjem stated that WSSB’s state in-service is set for March 21 which is Good Friday.  This is generally not an issue; however WSSB tries to coordinate the in-service day with AER so that WSSB staff can join.  The Board meeting date would remain the same (March 14-15). 

*      Judy stated that Craig approved Orientation and Mobility (O&M) staff to visit student’s home communities.  Cheri DeLyria, WSSB O&M instructor will be working with two students so they can continue building their O&M skills this summer; they are piloting this program now. 

*      Kennedy PE Building Removal:  A decommissioning of the building will be publicized.  Berl feels the name of the building should have significance. Eric made a motion to put together a committee for renaming the building.  Sherry seconded the motion.  Berl, Chuck, and Jean will be on the committee.

 

Business Meeting:

 

Old Business:

Jim moved to approve the Board meeting minutes of May 3, 2007; Eric seconded the motion.  The minutes were approved unanimously.

 

New Business:

Election of Officers:  Denise was voted as Chair of the Board; Chuck was voted as the Vice Chair.

 

Committee Assignments:

*      Buildings and Grounds Committee:  Chair:  Eric Wiseman.

*      Legislative Committee:  Chair:  John Driscoll.

*      Education Committee:  Chair:  Judy Koch-Smith.

*      Management Committee:  Chair:  Steve Rainey.

 

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m.  The next Board meeting will be held in Vancouver on September 21-22, 2007.   

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Chuck Nelson, Chair                                                   Dean O. Stenehjem, Ed.D.

                                                                                    Superintendent

 

                                                                                                                                                             

 

Board Reports

June 2007

 

 

Business Office

 

1.      2006-07 Budget

a.       Operating

·         We ended the month of April with less than a 1% positive variance. The books for May do not close until June 15 but we anticipate maintaining the variance. We have been implementing a closely monitored and reviewed spending plan since January.  Because we started mid-year, we have been able to divert resources where the needs are.

·         This year we will be closing out the biennium in addition to the regular fiscal year. 

b.      Supplemental Budget

·         While our supplemental requests were not recommended for funding, we were still successful in receiving funding from the legislature for transportation in the amount of $67,000.

c.       Capital Budget

·         The Dry Building remodel is underway. “Discoveries” after construction began have escalated the price so we are closely monitoring the budget.  Rob has outlined some of the discoveries in his report.  The anticipated completion date is mid June, 2007.

 

2.      2007-09 Budget

·         The legislature has funded the recommendations as listed below.  Dean has expanded on these in his report.

 

Decision Package

Original Request

Recommendation

Day Transportation

 $       409,000

 $          234,000

Child Safety Training

 $         27,000

 $            27,000

Braille Transcription

 $       319,796

 $          124,000

LIFTT

 $       171,448

 $            86,000

Regional Outreach

 $       254,000

 $          254,000

Kennedy Gymnasium

 $    8,629,238

 $       9,000,000

Campus Preservation

 $       770,000

 $          770,000

Independent Living Cottage

 $    1,995,001

 $                   -  

 

·         Will be working on 2007-09 allotments which are due August 6.

 

3.      Safety Net

·         We were successful in our application for funding.  We will receive $49,809.

 

4.      Recruitment

·         Have hired a replacement for the accounts payable Fiscal Tech position, Randy Nelson.  He will begin his employment with us on June 11.  He came to us from the School for the Deaf where his duties were very similar to those at our school.

 

5.      Activity Inventory Performance Assessment

·         The legislature has passed ESHB 1242 requiring that the governor’s office regularly conduct reviews of selected activities to analyze whether the objectives and measurements submitted by agencies demonstrate progress toward statewide results.

·         The admin team is currently reviewing all of our performance measures and activities in preparation for our review which will be held on August 6.

·         We will also be reviewing the activity inventory to determine if changes need to be made for the 2007-09 biennium.  We have until June 30 to make changes.

                                                                                                                                               

 

Buildings and Grounds

 

·         The Dry Building remodel is progressing well after some major discoveries during remodel and excavation. In spite of the unknown conditions which included: multiple live and dead water and steam lines not on any prints, dry rot in the ceiling joists, 4” of concrete under the blacktop paving and a concrete sub-floor that was out of level by over 1-1/2”, the contractors are still hopeful that they will meet the June 30 deadline for substantial completion.

·         Major items still remaining to be completed in the Dry Building are:  top flooring, doors hung, lights hung, fire alarm connected and reassembly of the room’s equipment. 

·         DSB second floor offices, which were also part of this contract, are completed and they have taken possession.

·         Sensory Safari, in the basement of Old Main, is only waiting on track lighting and the animals to complete that portion of the project.

·         In preparation for construction of the new gymnasium this winter, I attended a LEED seminar in Shelton, WA and made several good contacts for future help. The next day we held an on-campus project review and feel confident that this building can meet the standards set for LEED Gold.

·         We received feedback from the Department of Labor and Industries after we requested two advisory inspections of our campus. They were pleased with the general condition and pointed out only four mechanical things needing to be addressed as well as an upgrade of our manuals. The mechanical problems have been corrected and the manuals are in the process of revision.

·         We recently hosted 80 people from the green energy tour who were interested in what we have and learned from the Ogden building.

 

Ongoing Activities

·         We are reviewing the campus wide energy system and have invited ESD 112 to conduct an independent energy audit. This was scheduled for June 9 and we are waiting for their evaluation.

·         Proposed summer projects include:

1.      Relocating of library shelves

2.      Setting up the remodeled woodshop

3.      Cleaning of awnings

4.      Checking and repair of all vehicles

5.      Moss prevention on all cottage roofs

6.      Adding inspection hatch and rust proofing interior of condensate return tank

7.      General preventative maintenance

                                                                                                                                                           

 

On Campus

 

We have just completed another excellent year of programs and progress.  Here are the highlights:

 

Expanded Core Progress

This was the first year that we had data in most of the compensatory skill areas, known as the expanded core curriculum.  This provides us with quantitative data that demonstrates the growth students make at WSSB.  Here are the average rates of skill growth students make in 9 months of instruction:

 

*      Daily Living skills:  Average growth 1.95 years

*      Assistive technology:  1.6 years

*      O&M:   10 months

*      Nemeth:  1.22 years

 

10th Grade WASL Results

We had five students complete the WASL this year.  4/5 students passed the Reading and Writing section of the WASL. 

 

Library Focus

Last year we began the process of a library review.  Our goal was to find out what materials aligned with local school districts at the elementary, middle and high school levels.  We used Vancouver public schools, Camas School District and online resources to determine appropriate materials.  From this we developed a list of haves and have nots.

 

As part of the Irwin Restructuring focus, we developed a library committee.  The focus of the committee was to address the library and develop a plan to begin the process of alignment of our materials.  The committee reviewed the current library holdings and did cross-referencing on age of materials, and checkout status (circulation).

 

The committee developed criteria for purchase and retaining materials:

*      Materials must be cross-referenced to local school districts

*      Purchase new and replacement materials in multiple formats

*      Materials that fell into classic status are to be kept or replaced

*      Rare books to be set aside and saved

 

Items to be discarded:

*      Multiple copies available

*      Materials in poor shape

*      Material that is era specific or fad related

*      Material that is outdated 

*      Material with missing volumes

 

This has been a huge undertaking, as we have moved hundreds of volumes.  Most of the discarded materials were given to students, cottages and teachers classrooms.  Items that were not selected are being recycled.

 

We have ordered thousands of dollars of replacement braille, large print, and print books for our shelves.  In addition we will begin training students on using digital books this next school year.  

 

Curriculum Maps:

Teachers are creating classroom overviews.  These “Curriculum Maps” will allow visitors to the school website to view the curriculum and instructional plans for each WSSB class.  These Maps will be tied to the State Academic Learning Requirements and Grade Level Expectations (GLE’s).    All Curriculum Maps will be on the website by late summer

 

Summer Programs:

We are preparing for summer programs this year. 

 

*      YES I (July 8-19):  We currently have 19 students enrolled in the program.  This is another full year for YES I. 

*      Sports Camp (July 15-19):  At this time we have 20 campers signed up.  

 

Our summer school program was cancelled this year due to low registration. 

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Outreach

 

Itinerant Vision Services

We will begin the 2007-08 school year with 39 districts contracting for Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) services and 23 districts contracting for Orientation and Mobility (O&M) services.  The 2006-07 school year ends with 37 districts receiving TVI services and 28 districts receiving O&M services.  We have one full-time Para-educator/transcriber, 7 full-time teachers (3 of which are dual-certified) and 2 part-time teachers, both of whom are dual-certified.  FTEs have stayed the same.  Again, the trend seems to be that we are not increasing the number of districts served, but serving fewer districts with more time.  This speaks to the quality of services and clear perceived benefits from the districts’ perspective.  The Outreach end of the year survey has gone out to district personnel and parents and we are just now starting to get them back.  

 

Current itinerant staff include:  Peggy Gallagher, Vancouver;  Cindy McAlexander, Vancouver;  Diana Stebbins, Gresham, OR;  Annie Stockton, Olympia;  Catherine Golding, Olympia;  Joe Dlugo, Olympia;  April Love, Olympia; Brenda Foster, Bothell; Kathryn Kier, Orcas Island; and Rod Humble, Vancouver.

 

We welcome a new staff member to Outreach and WSSB.  Janet Vivian has been hired as the Outreach Secretary and manages the front office in Old Main. Janet is a native Floridian that has a zest for working with people.  Prior to moving to Washington State in 2002, she worked for twenty years for the Walt Disney World Resort, with the last eight years being with the Disney Cruise Line.  Before WSSB, Janet was working for the Human Service Council/SWWAA in Kelso, Washington, where their main goal is to assist elderly and disabled clients.  She is extremely excited about her new role and is looking for longevity at WSSB.

 

Lions Low Vision Clinic

The clinic is located at WSSB and provides low vision care to anyone, of any age, who is already diagnosed as visually impaired.  They are not a primary care provider, but rather specialists in ascertaining how low vision aides (optical and non-optical) can help a person optimize their vision.  The clinic is open two days a week and takes two appointments each day.  There is no charge for this service, although any low vision aid prescribed would be purchased by the patient.  This year the Low Vision clinic had 80 appointments compared to last year’s 98 appointments.

 

IRC

So far this year, the IRC has shipped 4599 accessible media items, up 594 items over last year as of April 30. The addition of a full-time office assistant, Donna Martino, to read half time with the proofreader, produce large print and assist the manager has played a significant role in maintaining quick, quality services.

 

Spring Alternate format WASL distribution was a major problem! OSPI/Pearson had huge distribution issues with the score-able booklets causing the IRC staff additional work. All WASLs were shipped via UPS Overnight and were received by districts the day before the testing windows.

 

Braille Access Center (BAC)

The legislature funded the BAC’s Decision Package to expand the Braille program at the women’s prison. A meeting is scheduled with WCCW on June 13 to discuss space limitations and how we can expand or move from the current location in the Community College Building. BAC continues to have transcription requests from in-state and out-of-state. The summer transcription load is too large for the inmates to handle, so BAC will contract with one former inmate and at least 4 other transcribers to meet the demand.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Human Resources

 

Recruitment

·         We will be recruiting for the following positions in the next few weeks and possibly throughout the summer:

o        RN3

o        Part-time dual certified TVI/O&M for Bellingham area

o        Custodian

o        Communications Consultant 1 – Temporary (this position is currently open)

o        RLC (half time employee for the LIFTT program)

o        Regional Program Coordinator (currently open)

·         We have filled the following positions:  Fiscal Analyst 3, Fiscal Analyst 2, and Secretary Senior.

·         Recruitment Techniques and Resources currently used:

o        E-Recruiting System:  I am currently posting positions to the State’s E-recruiting system but have not been able to pull candidates from the talent pool.  At the HR Manager’s meeting on June 6, the Department of Personnel (DOP) announced that the E-recruiting search function is back up and running, however we may still run into some issues.  DOP has been very helpful in pulling candidate lists for me so that we are in compliance with all governing rules and regulations.

o        Craig’s List:  This has been extremely effective for classified staff but has not been helpful with teacher recruitment.  We will continue to use this system as a resource as it has no cost to the agency.

o        AER Job Exchange:  We have become a Corporate Member of AER and this enables us to post on the exchange for free.  This has generated some response but has not necessarily helped us to fill any positions as most candidates have not met the qualification requirements.

o        Newspapers:  This source is most effective for classified staff.

o        Direct Contact with Universities and Colleges:  We have recently drafted a letter to be sent to all Universities and Colleges with teaching programs and specialized teaching programs nationally.  This letter will hopefully generate some information exchange that will help us to locate candidates.  Upon approval of this letter by the Superintendent, we will send this out toward the end of June.

o        Various Other Resources:

§         TeacherTeacher.com – no responses from past postings.

§         Spedex.com – no responses from past postings.

§         WSSB website – generates some responses but usually originating from one of the other sources.

 

Personnel

·         The teachers have recently joined the Washington Public Employees Association (WPEA).  We have talked with Labor Relations Office recently about the current and upcoming contracts but have received no communication with the union as of June 8.  We are currently in the process of reviewing the contracts and communicating with the School for the Deaf regarding their processes (WSD teachers are also represented by WPEA.)

 

Training

·         Training Committee:

o        Effective next school year we will be impl