WASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
BOARD
OF TRUSTEES
March
13, 2014
Vancouver,
Washington
Board Members Participating: Denise Colley, Lorna Walsh, Jim Kemp, Ed Snook,
Nancy McDaniel, Yang-su Cho and John Glenn.
Board Members Absent: Cindy Bennett and Steve
Rainey.
Ex-Officio Members Participating: Berl
Colley (Washington Council of the Blind), Doug Trimble (Teachers Association), and
Denise Vestman (Parent Representative).
Ex-Officio Members Absent: Scott Hone (Washington Federation of State
Employees Local #1225) and Michael Freeman (National Federation of the Blind of
Washington).
WSSB Staff Members Participating: Dr.
Dean Stenehjem (Superintendent), Mary Sarate (Director of Business and Finance),
Anne Baker (Human Resources Manager), Craig Meador (Director of Outreach), Hans
Michielsen (Director of On-Campus), Lori Pulliam (Director of Transition
Services), Rob Tracey (Facilities Manager), Emily Coleman (Teacher of the
Visually Impaired, Outreach), and Janet Kurz (recording secretary).
March 13 – 6:00–8:15pm
Ed called the meeting to order at 6:00pm.
Department
Updates/Highlight (Education):
Rob
Tracey, Buildings & Grounds:
A modular home will
be placed between Hall and Clarke Cottages; the primary purpose of this will be
housing for practicum students. Ziegler
Homes, a company in Woodland, Washington is a potential source where the home
could be purchased. The cost will be
approximately $90,000 from start to finish.
The unit should be complete by the first of September.
The roof/efis work
bid on Old Main came in $20,000 less than budgeted. Moss, dirt staining will be eliminated, in addition to re-caulking.
The swimming pool liner
issue is still being evaluated. Rob met
with a materials engineer to discuss the possibility of lining the pool with
fiber glass. A bid has not been obtained
yet. Work also needs to be done on the
lane lines and depth markers.
Jim stated that the
facilities look great, and that Rob and crew are doing an excellent job.
Hans
Michielsen, Director of On Campus Programs
We are anticipating
that we will have 12 graduates this year.
The Orientation
& Mobility (O&M) part time position was not filled, therefore para pro
time has been added to assist with this program under the direction of O&M
staff.
A data collection
system for expanded core is being tweaked to help provide more information that
can be used by students, families and LEAs.
A new course
catalog has not yet been developed (summer project).
Cross credits are also
being explored, i.e. O&M and PE credits, summer camps earning credits.
Mr. Steve Lowry has
done an excellent job in working with students who are on a vocational track.
Mai Nguyen has been
hired as the new English TVI for the 2014-2015 school year. Mai was a former student who attended WSSB, and
was originally from Vietnam. Mai
graduated magna cum lade and received her TVI endorsement in Arizona. Mai then taught in Idaho; however her goal was
to return to WSSB as a teacher.
The school
psychologist position has not yet been filled.
WSSB is exploring the options of hiring someone with experience or
hiring someone who is doing their practicum.
Dr. Stenehjem asked Anne to research if that position could be removed
from the union so there are more salary range options. Lorna asked how WSSB is handling the needs
for a school psychologist. Hans has his
Ph.D. in psychology so he is handling the psychology needs.
Craig
Meador, Director of Outreach
Role of an
Itinerant:
Emily Coleman reported that she visits
2-3 districts per day in her role as an Outreach-TVI. Jim asked what districts she covers; Emily serves
Medical Lake, Cheney, E. Valley, Colville, Deer Park, Davenport and a B-3
center. Emily lives west of Spokane and
is centrally located with those districts.
Ed asked how long she has been a TVI; Emily said this is her third year
and she completed her program through Portland State University (PSU). Emily also has an 8-year old blind child who
is autistic. Emily’s oldest student she
serves is 16 and the youngest is 14 months old.
The Outreach
O&M position for South Seattle has been filled. The position already has a full
contract. This position was filled by an
O&M practicum student that was working with one of WSSB’s O&M
instructors.
Ed asked if our
salaries in Outreach are commensurate statewide. Craig stated that Tacoma pays
about $12,000 more per year; however WSSB offers a state car, technology,
collegial support, professional development, etc. Dr. Stenehjem stated in Washington, there is
the LEAP schedule (statewide teacher salary schedule) which was intended to
equalize pay in the state, however TRI dollars, which are supported by local
mil levy dollars have caused huge disparity within the state from LEA to LEA,
etc. Districts have the ability to add
days, pay for additional duties, etc.
WSSB is concerned about this disparity.
Craig stated the
mean number for caseload for WSSB 16:1 for Outreach teachers. The goal is that no teacher is contracted for
more than 16 days per month; allowing time for time for assessments, office
time, etc.
John asked what
percentage of service is direct and what is consultative; Craig has received
the information but has not yet crunched the numbers. Once he has this information, he will share
with the board.
John asked Emily if
she has braille users and if someone within the districts she serves can help
augment her instruction. Emily stated in
Medical Lake she has three braille students who are secondary level; Emily has
a certified braillist that works there and a para pro that knows braille, to
help supplement her time.
Lori
Pulliam, Director of Transition Services
Lori reported that
getting the residential staff functional braille skills has been a focus. They are piloting the Hadley School for the Blind’s
braille program. Tess Scholl,
Residential Life Dean is very creative in how she works with staff, i.e. games,
sending notes in braille, apps, etc. Periodic
in-service training is being planned for after they receive the training. Lori sees a lot of enthusiasm with her staff
in this area. Lori would like to add training
in the area of assistive technology so they can stay current with what the
students are using.
Residential staff
is continuing to work with students on their focused Daily Living Skills
program. A monthly theme is being
utilized and they will make changes to the program as time goes on.
The Learning
Independence for Today and Tomorrow (LIFTT) program is going well. The improvements to the living area and
kitchen area have proven to be very beneficial for all.
Doug asked how many
years the program has been running. Lori
stated it started in 2003-2004.
Denise C. asked if
there is any follow-up with students after they leave the program. One of WSSB’s staff contacts students after
they leave; Lori stated the version of success can vary as some students take
time to get up to speed with their vocational plan. Denise C. asked if there are many students
who graduate from LIFTT who go on to the OTC; not a lot go onto OTC. The two programs are very different with some
overlap. LIFTT is more habilitation
rather than rehabilitation. Lori stated a Department of Services for the Blind (DSB)
staff gave a report regarding how the OTC program is evolving and
changing. Lori plans to follow up with
this person regarding alignment of programs.
Anne
Baker, Human Resources Manager
Anne stated several
on-call positions have been filled.
Anne’s has attended
two career fairs recently. A new display
board has been created and a lot of interest has been garnered. WSSB is signed up to attend another career
fair in April; Anne also plans to go to high schools to provide information to
students as to this possible career path.
Applications
continue to come in for the Digital Research/Development Coordinator position. WSSB will be interviewing for this position
on March 26.
A task force was
created for the Birth-3 position. A job
description and posting have been created and the hope is to have the posting
out at the end of March. Lorna asked what
kind of qualifications we are looking for.
Dr. Stenehjem stated the following would be beneficial: experience in early childhood, TVI,
leadership skills, training in leadership work with diverse type of programs
and people, etc. Lorna would like to forward
the job posting to people she knows in Spokane.
Mary
Sarate, Director of Business and Finance
Mary has balanced
all of WSSB’s general ledger accounts.
Mary stated she
received an email from the state auditor letting us know they will be beginning
an audit the first week of April. The
audit will be focusing on private local funds for the time period of July 1,
2012 through June 30, 2013.
WSSB continues to
have issues with the transition of our business office from the Department of
Enterprise Services (DES). DES held on
to several claims that were almost two years old; therefore WSSB had to ask
permission to expend approximately $10,000 (outside of the fiscal year).
WSSB has been
saving funds due to the inability to fill several positions. 82-85% of WSSB’s budget is salaries. Ed asked if WSSB is in jeopardy with the
audit when it comes to 19B funds. Dr.
Stenehjem stated we have a state law in place that allows us to have this fund. Mary stated she has concerns regarding the
19B funds because of how it was handled through DES.
Lorna asked about
fiscal note requests. Mary stated the
latest one has to do with health care; the other has to do with adding two non-paid
days to staff for religious or other non-paid days taken.
Business Meeting:
Old Business:
o
Approval of minutes for January 15, 2014 Board of Trustees
Meeting. Jim moved to approve the
minutes, Nancy seconded the motion. The
minutes passed unanimously.
New Business:
o
Review/Approve
2014-2015 School Year Calendar. Lorna moved to approve the calendar; Jim
seconded the motion. The calendar was
approved unanimously.
Superintendent’s Report
Dr. Stenehjem reported the following:
WSSB continues to
receive applicants from all over the United States for the Digital Research/ Development
Coordinator position. WSSB plans to interview five applicants. Lorna suggested having a person from
Microsoft participate on the interview committee.
The Ogden Resource
Center (ORC) has been very busy and their program is expanding. Over 600,000 pages of braille were produced
last year. One of the former women from
WCCW was hired and works in the ORC. This
employee presented at the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) workshop
last fall; she commented that the program changed her life.
The ORC is also
gearing up for the changes related to the Unified English Braille (UEB)
code. This will be a long process with January,
2016 being the transition date. Each
state is being transitioned in on a different timeline. Lorna asked if people who know braille will
have to re-learn. Craig said a few rules
are changing and several contractions are being changed.
Ed asked how salary
raises can be moved forward for TVI’s.
Dr. Stenehjem stated this needs to be addressed in the 2015-2017 legislative
session. WSSB has provided extra
training days through 19B funds, however WSSB cannot count on these funds as
they are generated through fee for service programs (Outreach, Oregon state
student contracts, etc.). Dr. Stenehjem
will set up a meeting with Office of the Governor and Office of Financial
Management to address this issue. Jim
thought Yakima has 17 TRI days for their staff.
Dr. Stenehjem would like to see the concept of TRI go by the way side
and make adjustments to the LEAP schedule to once again balance pay for
teachers throughout the state at a nationally competitive salary.
Dr. Stenehjem was
frustrated that through the budget request process, two positions were not funded
that he felt should be covered by Basic Education. WSSB is utilizing private local funds to
cover these positions (teacher’s aide for a medically fragile student and a
teacher’s aide for a deaf/blind student).
Dr. Stenehjem feels the state should fund these positions under Basic Ed.
Denise V. asked
about Hans’ title, Principal/Director of On-Campus programs. Hans’ position is Dir. of On-Campus, because
he covers more area than Principal. However, Principal would be a more common
working title to the general public.
Dr. Stenehjem
stated WSSB is still waiting to hear which applicant will be chosen for the
Board of Trustees for Congressional District 3 (there are three applicants and
we are waiting for the Governor’s office to make a decision). Currently, there are no applications for
Congressional District 9 that we are aware of at this time.
Sherry Hahn and
Robin Lowell are in Barcelona, Spain for the Microsoft Partners in Learning program. Dr.
Stenehjem received an email from Sherry stating that 97 countries are
represented; with 260 people that were chosen from 23,000 applicants.
Ex-Officio’s
Reports
·
Washington
Council of the Blind (WCB) – Berl Colley
o
WCB
members went to DC for legislative training and mid-year activities; they dealt
with some issues established at the national organization level.
o
The
WCB database is being worked on.
o
WCB
leader training will be held the first part of May.
o
WSB’s
national convention will be in July in Las Vegas and their Fall
state convention will be held in Tacoma.
·
Teachers
– Doug Trimble
o
Teachers
on campus have had an exciting year; Doug feels Sean and Hans are doing a great
job.
o
There
have been a lot of opportunities for Professional Development this year.
o
Mr.
Steve Lowry, WSSB transition TVI attended the AFB leadership conference in New
York regarding transition.
o
WSSB’s
Career Fair was held last week and was a huge success. Doug wanted to thank DSB for providing/paying
for the lunch.
o
WSSB’s
Science camp (Camp Magruder) will be held in April, 2014.
·
Parent
Representative – Denise Vestman
o
Denise
spent the day on campus; her son is graduating in June and she wanted to see
what he can do vs. what he does at home on the weekends.
o
Denise
stated the grounds are gorgeous.
o
Denise
visited Mrs. Johnson’s art class and reported that the students have built Muppet
puppets and they are very impressive. Denise
feels they should be put on the Facebook and displayed during the spring music
program.
o
Denise
met with Mr. Lowry regarding transition options for her son, and felt they had
a great conversation.
o
Recently,
Denise attended a transition fair at the Microsoft campus; they had every
employment vendor in the state; four seminars, etc. They held one seminar titled “what happens
when the yellow school bus doesn’t come anymore”. Denise feels that the transition plans for
multi-disabled students needs to be more in place.
o
Denise
feels the energy at the school is great.
Committee Reports
·
Education
Committee (Chair-Hans, Cindy, Denise C., Doug, Yang-su, John)
o
John
is interested in seeing where the kids are at with technology, i.e. Window Eyes
(free program). John is very impressed
with our student’s technology levels. Dr.
Stenehjem reported that the NVDA is a new screen reader program (free) and
feels that students should be using this software. Yang-su stated they still utilize JAWS and
that the same key strokes can be used for JAWS, NVDA and Window Eyes. Berl asked if there are any movements in
going towards Apple; Dr. Stenehjem stated different technology works for
different people. Berl stated one
advantage is that when purchasing Apple, it is ready to go in the box
(accessibility). Yang-su stated a lot of
people in his department want to purchase Apple products.
·
Buildings
and Grounds Committee (Chair-Berl, Jim)
o
Berl
stated things look great on campus. Jim did a walk of the campus and felt all
looks very well.
·
Management
Committee (Chair-Lorna, Ed, Denise C.)
o
Lorna
stated the management committee may be busy in the upcoming months (Dr.
Stenehjem’s annual evaluation, looking into salary schedules, etc.).
·
Legislative
Committee (Chair-Denise C., Lorna, Berl, Michael)
o
Denise
C. felt it would be a good idea to start initiating some calls to discuss some
of the issues regarding teacher salaries, etc.
Dr. Stenehjem feels the legislative committee may get busy depending on
the results of the Strategic Plan session which will be held on Friday, March
14.
The regular business meeting adjourned at 8:15pm.
Executive Session
An
executive session was called to order.
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:30pm. The next Board meeting will be held via
conference call on May 1, 2014 at 7:30pm.
Ed Snook,
Chair Dean O. Stenehjem, Ed.D., Superintendent
Board
Reports – March 2014
Spring
has begun in earnest as the requests for evaluations and assessments have
doubled since January. We’ve had
districts on a waiting list since mid-February and expect that this will
continue until early April. While this
is not atypical, our delay in response time is.
This is due to increasing demand for services throughout the state and
especially in the greater Seattle area.
On
the forefront is that it appears that Seattle area ESD and Seattle area Birth-3
centers will be looking to hire full time teachers. This is a great victory for students and I
would like to think that our continued involvement with these programs has helped
this along. I am hoping they are
successful in their recruitment and have offered our services to help them in
this process. I will be hosting a
recruiting table at the California Transcribers and Educators of the Blind and
Visually Impaired (CTEBVI) conference in April.
I have offered to push district positions for the upcoming and current
school year.
In
our world of Outreach we are in the interview process for an Orientation &
Mobility (O&M) position in the Seattle/Tacoma area. This word leaked out and we have already have
request for a full contract of services.
Smarter
Balance Troubleshooting: I recently met
with the OSPI team on Smarter Balance.
Washington had launched the SBAC field test program for 1/3 of all
Washington students; this created a great concern as we move into testing
season. The accommodations had been
included in the test but the devices and training had not been provided by OSPI
to the staff working with visually impaired students. Due to this oversight, it was determined that
students with visual impairments would be offered the traditional MSP or HSPE
assessment this year while the state prepares for next year. WSSB/WSDS will be taking the lead on this
training process and will schedule training during the summer months.
Recent
and upcoming workshops:
January: WSSB/WSDS hosted a Cortical Visual Impairment
(CVI) follow up workshop attended by 40+ participants.
February: WSSB and the Association for the Education
and Rehabilitation of Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) teamed up to have Dr.
Dianne Wormsley present her “I M ABLE” workshop. This functional approach to Braille Literacy
was a sold out workshop of 47 participants.
It was a highly energetic and well received event.
March: Philip Schweigert will be presenting on the
Communication Matrix which is a tool for beginning literacy with multiply
involved students. Currently we have 45
participants registered.
May: Lilly Smith, a leader in the field of
communication and programming with blind students will present at WSSB in
May. We expect a full house for this
two-day event
Digital/Distance
Learning
So
it is off to Spain for Robin Lowell (WSSB’s Math Teacher of the Visually
Impaired (TVI)) and me. We have been working hard on our presentation for this
competition and feel honored that Microsoft invited us back for a second time.
This year we are competing against 250 projects worldwide – not at all
intimidating. As a component we had to
have a new project and this year we added Yammer, Microsoft’s version of social
networking. So how does that fit into a math class?
Within
the context of core knowledge instruction, students must also learn the essential skills for
success in today’s world. We have implemented
the social networking program, Yammer, into our math classes to enhance
collaboration, communication, critical thinking, problem solving and overall
student engagement. Because 67% of blind and visually impaired (BVI) adults in
the United States are unemployed our short term goal is increasing engagement
in math but our long term goal is to give students skills for life beyond high
school.
Our
students have big dreams, and we are here to help them reach their goals. By
using mainstream business technologies we are giving the students the tools and
skills they need to help them be successful beyond high school.
Our
distance learning classes are conducted using Microsoft Lync in real time
during the school day, but Yammer extends that to after school and on weekends.
Students have access, on demand from anywhere 24/7, changing the culture of the
classroom and mirroring life in the professional world.
Yammer’s
multi-dimensional abilities, allows us to have persistent and real-time chats,
postings, announcements, and public/private messages. In addition, it also
serves as the classroom knowledge base, and can easily be posted to and
accessed by teachers, students, and teaching assistants.
Social
networking is a medium that every student is already familiar with. Businesses are using social media to enhance
communication in the work place. Yammer is also highly accessible to BVI users,
due in large part to Microsoft’s commitment to accessibility in their products. But, why social networking
in a math class? We have seen an immediate impact on our classes. Math
is one of the most challenging subjects to teach as students do not always see
the relevance to their daily lives. If we can get students more engaged in the
class via a tool like Yammer, then chances are they will retain more
information, and perform better. Regardless of what career our students choose,
they will need the math skills they learn in our classes. With the dynamic
abilities of both Yammer and Lync, we enhance our content with Ted Talks,
professional speakers, discussions, field trips (real and virtual) and small
group work. These authentic opportunities are key in
creating a connection between math and real-world occupations. Students learn
collaboration and professional communication in authentic situations through
Yammer and Lync.
Our
classroom environment is highly personalized, encourages communication, and is
built upon empathy. We are focused on teaching the whole student, not just the
academic subject. Students are learning to take charge of their own learning
creating an experience that best fits their lives and needs.
In
addition, our classes are collaborating directly with the Yammer accessibility
and education teams to give input concerning accessibility and K-12 usage of
the product. This gives our students an opportunity to self-advocate and
collaborate on a real-world project with Microsoft, and now they see they can
affect change.
As
agents of change we have created a 21st Century math class that
celebrates the whole student by weaving together core academics, critical
thinking, and career skills.
So
this is how we are explaining our project to the world. No matter the outcome
we are already the winners by just being a part of the WSSB family.
On
Campus
Enrollment
Current
school enrollment is 57 students, with ten additional slots in the LIFTT
program. Seventeen students participate
in the on-line program. We have twenty
new students. Ten of our students attend
one or more classes at Hudson’s Bay High School, while two students attend
Clark Community College. It is expected
that an additional five to seven students will enroll before the end of the
school year bringing total expected enrollment for 2013/2014 to 75 to 77.
New Enrollment
We
have instituted some new procedures to address new referrals. Part of that is
that all enrollment information is digitized and accessible on the shared drive
to all members of the admissions review committee.
O&M
Due
to the new student additions, we are running short of O&M slots. We had posted for an additional part-time
O&M, but were not successful. We
were able to hire some additional paraprofessional time to assist in dealing
with the added workload.
Expanded Core
We
have started work on a more comprehensive data collections system for expanded
core topics. Our current grading system
(Skyward) is not very conducive to collection of expanded core data. Options considered include use of an iPad
application that could be used by education staff and resident life alike. Our main expanded core teachers have revamped
their classroom to better meet the needs of our students.
Common Core
Our
school, like many other schools for the blind and visually impaired, does not
currently have a course catalog. It is
imperative that we develop one by the start of the 2014-2015 school year to be able to be accountable for students’ progress
toward the common core standards. We are
now in the process of eliminating course codes that are no longer used and to
bring existing course codes in line with State Course coded.
Job Placements
Our
transition coordinator has done a tremendous job developing job placements for
our students in the community and on campus.
Our student store is now open on a regular basis and discussion with DSB
has taken place to make the student store an OJT placement with possible
expansion to the campus of Clark College.
Additional placements include the “Paper Tiger,” the Clark County
Courthouse, The Vancouver Pie Company and the Habitat
for Humanity Restore Store.
Residential
Updates:
Daily
Living Skills (DLS) Training: As reported last quarter, we are creating and
teaching an enriched DLS program that goes beyond DLS skills on students IEP’s.
All residential students participate and day students are encouraged to
participate as is appropriate or of interest to them. There is a general theme
for the month and activities are created and presented at levels that meet the
needs of the students in each cottage, based on gender and age/ability.
Following
the “Entertaining” unit in December, which culminated in the students planning
and hosting a party for the staff, January brought the cleaning theme. Students
learned household cleaning skills that go beyond their weekly cottage cleaning
requirements.
February
was Organizational Skills and Time Management where students learned about how
they spend their time, ways to be more efficient and organized, using various
types of calendars and trip planning.
March
will bring Hygiene month, followed by Kitchen Skills in April, and then in May,
You and Your Community.
Staff
form committees to plan each month’s activities. Tess Scholl, the Residential
Life Dean is heading up this new program and is doing a wonderful job.
Residential
Staff are all working toward Braille competency, most through the Hadley School
for the Blind courses. Others are taking the course through WSSB. We have had two Residential Life Counselor’s (RLC’s) pass the BLUE, and two
more that are close. Kudos to our staff.
All
RLC’s are keeping current with other requirements for safety training.
A
big commendation goes to Tess Scholl who uses her
superpowers of organization and creativity, and keeps us all caught up, moving
forward, and making sure the students have the best prepared staff possible to
work with.
Business
Office
2013-15 Operating Budget
We closed the month
of January with a positive variance of 2.6% in general fund-state and a 39%
surplus in 19B not including carry over balance from last year. Our GFS surplus, in part, is due to unfilled
positions. We will be reviewing next
year’s allotments and making adjustments for FY15.
2014 Supplemental
Budget
The House committee
has passed the 2014 Supplemental. They
did not recommend funding for two of the four decision packages; the two that
were asking for funding to hire personnel to work with a medically fragile
student and a one-on-one interpreter for a deaf/blind student. The other two packages; one for 6 FTEs and
the other increasing our 19B spending authority to $2.02 million per year
passed the House Committee.
We have also been
responding to various Fiscal Note requests from the legislature.
DES Transition
We continue to work
with DES on some residual processing. We
are still working on balancing a few general ledgers. We are so very, very close; with that piece,
at least. It has certainly taken longer
than we would have liked but we continue to make progress. It’s a little more time consuming when you
have to do the day-to-day work while trying to review/correct as you go; and in
addition, re-establishing processes and procedures that had been abandoned.
With the creation
of 19B fund, came some processing issues.
We have made some changes in processing to streamline and reduce room
for error; in addition to eliminating duplication of effort and
redundancy. The next major step is
reviewing our allotments for FY14 and making the required adjustments. This is the second half to determining where
we are financially.
Training
Another time
consumer is training. Since we have to
travel to Olympia for training, staff is out for the day whether it is a full
day training or half day. Dr. Stenehjem
continues to advocate for Olympia to jump on board the distance learning train.
Performance Measures
Performance
measures for quarter ending March 31, 2014 will be due April 22.
Human
Resources
New
Hires:
·
English
Teacher (on-campus) – Mai Nguyen (Fall 2014)
·
Administrative
Assistant 3 (ORC) – Justin Raner – promotion
·
Warehouse
Worker 1 – Mitchell Hughes
·
On-call
Cook – Melody Pettingill
·
On-call
Custodian –Michelle Saddoris and Nathan Gruenberg
·
On-
Call Instructional & Classroom Support Tech 1 – Jenna Boyle and Cindy Lowry
Open
Recruitments:
·
Digital
Research and Development Coordinator
·
School
Psychologist
·
TVI
– Outreach (North Seattle Area)
Trainings
Attended:
·
Organizational
Management, sponsored by Department of
Enterprise Services
·
Investigator
Training, sponsored by Department of Enterprise Services
·
HR
Manager’s Meeting, facilitated by Lee Strehlow, Department of Retired Systems
·
Tools
and Technologies for School Emergency Response, co-hosted with the US
Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate’s First
Responders Group (FRG)
Misc:
·
Hiring
Event – Sponsored by WorkSource – Coordinates with the Veteran’s
Stand-Down. WSSB was one of 60 vendors
representing both public and private sectors.
·
All
major’s Career Fair – Portland State University.
Ogden Resource Center (ORC)
Staffing Changes
The Administrative Assistant 3
position, left vacant by Donna Martino’s November 30 retirement, has been
filled. Justin Raner,
formerly our Warehouse Operator 2 moved into the position January 1. He knows
all of the American Print House for the Blind (APH) products and procedures for
supplying the students in the state with the accessible instructional media
they need. His previous job experiences before coming to the ORC and his
current knowledge have prepared him well for this transition.
Mitch Hughes
began working in the ORC this fall as an On-Call Warehouse Worker where he
helped us receive, repackage and put inventory back on the shelves. February 1,
he became a permanent employee. With his previous experience in shipping,
receiving and database inventory systems he hit the ground running!
·
2846 Accessible
Instructional Media (AIM) Items shipped to
·
152 School Districts
and Agencies
·
556 BVI students
received at least one AIM
·
46 New Large Print
titles added
·
68 Large Print
Reproductions
·
679 Braille transcription jobs
received and delivered 100% on-time
o
31 New Braille book titles
transcribed
o
Washington & Georgia State
Assessments
o
Many college level mathematics
materials
WCCW Braille Program
Our Correctional Industries (CI)
Braille Supervisor, Rick Flores, has been promoted to a new position, effective
February 28, 2013. We anxiously wait while the position is posted, filled and
trained. In the meantime, the transcription continues!
All 16 women are NLS Literary
Certified Transcribers. In addition to their NLS Literary:
·
6 are Nemeth (math & science)
·
2 are certified proofreaders
·
3 are associate of music certified
·
1 has a NBA Textbook Formats
certificate
In the past 6 months
·
Transcribed 58,220 original braille
pages
·
Created 8,887 tactile graphic pages
APH Census
We
have begun the first phase or the Annual APH Census. Preliminary numbers show the following:
·
1567 Total Students registered for
services with the ORC
·
1172
Meet the Definition or Function at the Definition of Blindness (quota
eligible)
The results of last year’s Census
resulted in 1577 total students with 935 that qualified as MDB or FDB,
resulting in annual quota dollars of $295,919 for our state.
Future Planning
Braille
Authority of North America (BANA) has voted to adopt the Unified English
Braille (UEB) code, which most English speaking countries world-wide have
adopted. For the United States, we have a lot of work to do in preparation to
transition to UEB. Each state must have a plan for implementation.
The
ORC plans to take the lead in organizing the committee consisting of
representatives of National Federation of the Blind (NFB) of WA, Washington
Council of the Blind (WCB), AER, WSSB and OSPI to lay out a plan for
implementation and training. Changes to the WAC and testing requirements must
be addressed. Much of Washington’s plan is dependent on when NLS has new code
books published and APH has revised Building on Patterns and other braille
related products.
In
preparation of the braille code changes, ORC staff will be attending CTEBVI and
NBA workshops pertaining to the new code changes. With the information gathered
at the conferences, ORC staff will prepare workshops for vision professionals
in our state.
Buildings
and Grounds
Capital:
We have met several
more times with the state Job Order Contractor regarding the efis staining and
metal flashing on the exterior of Old Main. After reviewing the situation with
a sheet metal contractor, it was agreed that the scope of work would include
removing and re-caulking the top flashing adding a drip edge to the lower point
and cleaning the existing stained areas. Work should be ready to begin when
school is out for the summer.
Campus:
We are putting the
finishing touches on the bid requirements for purchase and placement of a
student teachers cottage. This will be a three bedroom manufactured home that
will be located on the unused basketball court between Clarke and Hall
Cottages. This will allow us to offer housing to practicum students working on
their TVI certification and hopefully give us a better advantage at recruiting
additional teachers for Washington.
With the help of
Anne Baker, we have been reworking the Continuation of Operations Plan (COOP).
This is a guide to follow in the event of an emergency or disaster as to how we
will continue to meet the requirements of the agency should a catastrophic
event take place.
We have been
researching how best to handle the swimming pool liner and rust problem.
Recently we received a quote from a company based in Ellensburg to spray the
gutter with a urethane sealant similar to the bed liner material used in
trucks. It has also been recommended that we consider pulling the liner and
using a fiberglass spray method to recoat the entire surface. Both ideas would
allow for a seamless transition from the gutter to the pool and thus eliminate
any water migration issues. This project is currently on hold until we know
what the final costs will be for phone system replacement, efis rework and
modular house purchase.
Superintendent
Funding:
Partnerships/State
Appropriation:
I
want to emphasize how important the diversification of services has been over
the years. Expansion of needed services
since 1990 have mostly been accomplished through what is called private/local
funds (which are made up of fees for services, out-of-state tuitions,
partnership funds with other agencies/ organizations, grants, federal funds and
gifts and donations). Without these
partnerships the following services which provide services to approximately
2,000 students and professionals and over 600,000 transcribed braille pages
would not be in place [e.g. Outreach services to local school districts,
Instructional Resource Center, Braille Access Center, Birth to 3 services,
which will be going into place by this fall, Components of Online Learning,
just about all of the in-services that provides training to up to 300 Teachers,
paraprofessionals and others working with BVI students, summer school programs
for many years and outdoor school, and numerous other functions to many to
mention]. I want to provide some
emphasis on this because I believe it is important for the Board to realize
that a growing part of the services that WSSB provides each year have not been
supported by direct state appropriation.
Sustainable systems have been put in place and have proven to be
responsive and high quality in meeting student’s needs, but I believe it is
time for the state to step up and provide additional support under the current
supreme court ruling of McCleary Decision on fully funding Basic Education when
it comes to students attending WSSB. In
accordance with two Judge Doran decisions that state: Basic Education for
students in Special Education is determined by the IEP. As of this time, WSSB has not received
additional funding due to the Supreme Court Ruling and I believe we have needs
tied to the IEP that should have been funded under provisions of “Basic Education”
(i.e. recent requests for two para-professional positions that are needed in
order for two students to access “Basic Education” (a deaf-blind student in
need of a one-one interpreter/intervener, and a medically fragile student
needing a one-on-one). These were requested
during the 2014 legislative session and did not move forward. Sometimes I feel that the entrepreneurial
spirit of figuring out how to make things work without direct appropriation has
actually hindered us at times, because we have been able to pull together
resources. However, those resources
that we pull from are often those that are needed to support students,
families, and training that would not be covered under “Basic Education”. This
does not mean that WSSB is going to stop being creative and stop forming
important partnerships, but at times we almost feel like we are penalized for
doing the right thing and being creative. This is very frustrating and I think
it is important to you has a board to be aware of this.
Private Local
Funds:
About three years
ago, staff at the Office of Financial Management (OFM) worked with us in
getting a minor change in state law which allowed us to carry forward private
local funds from one fiscal year to the next.
This was a tremendous game changer in allowing us to be more efficient
with our limited funds, which has resulted in the ability to provide more
services in a timely manner.
Modular
Home:
WSSB
will be installing a modular house on campus, which hopefully will be in place
by next fall. This is being funded by
those “private local” funds and will provide housing for student teachers from
throughout the U.S. and foreign countries.
We have discussed in past board meetings the concern with the huge
shortage of trained TVI’s and O&M instructors and we believe this will give
us one more recruiting tool to use in attracting student teachers. Once we get individuals to the N.W. we can
often keep individuals to help meet WSSB program needs and the needs of local
school districts throughout our state.
Teacher
salaries:
Please
note however, that the state of Washington and WSSB is going to have to do
something with teacher salaries to be more competitive on a national basis. In
years past Washington was more competitive and has lost that edge. Once again through private local funds we
plan on adding additional days to teacher’s schedules for training in an
attempt to help make salaries a little more competitive. However, something will need to happen at the
state level in the near future if we are to once again be competitive on a
national basis.
TPEP
– Teacher, Principal Evaluation Program:
WSSB
is on board with changes in state law that mandates a change in how teachers
and principals are evaluated. Our
teachers have chosen the “Danielson Model” which was one of three approved
models and 5 teachers are involved with the new model this year, with the goal
of all teachers being on the model over the next 2 ½ years. Administrative staff, Craig Meador, Director of Outreach,
Hans Michielsen, Director of On-Campus Programs/Principal, Sean McCormick, Associate
Principal, and I have received training on the principal evaluation process and
will continue to receive support from an individual assigned to WSSB through
funding from OSPI to the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA). Principal evaluations on the new system will
begin next year.
Staffing
changes:
·
School
Psychologist: This position is still
unfilled and we are hoping to fill it through a paid internship which would
begin next fall. WSSB would qualify to have a paid intern since Dr. Michielsen
has his doctoral degree in School Psychology and could provide oversight.
·
Birth
to Three (Early Intervention State Coordinator): This would be a new position that will begin
the fall of 2014. A task force made up of individuals from: OSPI/WSDS, Department of Services for the
Blind (DSB), Department of Early Learning (DEL), Department of Health (DOH),
Deaf/Blind Services and WSSB has been meeting since last fall to help determine
how we can improve services to families of young BVI students. As a result of the work the task force has
done, WSSB will be hiring a B-3 Coordinator that will work with the above
partners in helping to guarantee that appropriate services and training occurs
for this population of students. The
first year will be spent surveying the total needs and providing training to
improve services. We know this will take
active involvement from all parties and the coordinator will attempt to do
this. Our goal would be to start this out with private local funds and request
funding during the next biennium.
·
Digital
Learning/Research Coordinator: WSSB will
begin interviews for this important position the end of March, 2014. This
position is not a new position, but being filled to replace Sherry Hahn who
will be retiring the end of this school year.
At this time it appears that we have some good candidates and we are
looking forward to this new person to help build upon the work that Sherry and
done over the years and open up more options for learning for students,
families and those working with the blind.
Future Planning
Workshop:
On
March 14, WSSB will be conducting a future planning workshop where by
stakeholders from throughout the state will be asked to help WSSB set direction
for the next 5-7 years. The information
gathered from this session will be used to help tweak and rebuild our strategic
plan, which will become a driver for the 2015-2017 biennium.