OFFICIAL MINUTES FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING OF THE
The Board of Trustees for the Arkansas School for the Blind met for their monthly meeting on April 21, 2009.
Present: Pam Hyneman, Chairperson; Beth Gray, Vice-Chairperson; Andrew Tolbert, Secretary (via telephone conference); Dr. Doug Watson, Board Member; Henrietta Williams, Board Member; Khayyam Eddings, A.S.B. Parent Representative; Janice Vaughn, A.S.D. Parent Representative; Jim Hill, A.S.B. Superintendent; Dr. Marcella Dalla Rosa, A.S.D. Superintendent; Katie Becker, Zania Musteen, Cheri Courtwright, Betty Steed, Interpreters; Members of the Deaf Community; Members of the Blind Community; Amanda Abernethy, Office of the Attorney General
09-B-006 Motion to Approve Consent Items
Mrs. Hyneman asked for a motion to approve the Consent Items. Dr. Watson made the motion and Ms. Gray seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Action Items
None
Discussion Items
None
Superintendent’s Report
Mr. Hill said the school received program approval from General Education and Special Education with no CAPS. He said he is very pleased that both programs received approval.
Mr. Hill said there was a visit from JAG on May 14-15 and a reception at the Governor’s Mansion in connection with this. He said the JAG group is headed by the Governor of Maine and the group was very complimentary of the A.S.B. JAG program.
Mr. Hill said that Shelli Moore is the outreach director for the baby program and she is providing a two-day in-service for the staff at Children’s Hospital. The in-service will provide training and skills designed to accommodate blind and visually impaired students when they are at the hospital, as well as the aspects of children’s need when they suddenly become blind because of an accident, etc.
Board of Trustees Meeting
Arkansas School for the Blind
April 21, 2009
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Students took the ACTAAP last week. Mr. Hill said there were issues with the tests being unfair to visually impaired students, with some of the students not being able to finish the test in the set time frame. He said the Department of Education is trying very hard to make the tests as fair as possible, but there are still problems. Students will be taking the End of Course Algebra and End of Course Biology.
Prom is scheduled for April 30. The banquet will be at Gauchos and the dance will be held at the City Garden Club.
There will be an AER Conference on May 11-12. Mr. Hill said this organization works with visually impaired individuals. Senator Steve Faris will be honored at the conference for all of the work he has done for the school. Mr. Hill said Senator Faris has been very influential in helping both schools getting a significant amount of money through the budgeting process.
A.S.B. 12th Grade Graduation will be May 21 and the 6th Grade Graduation will be May 28. The academic honors program will be at 8:30 a.m. May 28.
Mr. Hill pointed out an article that was printed in the magazine Extraordinary Educators. One of the articles is about the Accelerate Reading program at A.S.B. and highlights the A.S.B. library cat.
Barbara Cole, who is director of the Food Service Department at A.S.B., was featured in an article in the School Nutrition Services Nutrition Link. Mr. Hill gave each board member a copy of the article.
Mr. Hill said that many blind and visually persons are systematically invisible in the public schools. He said there is a federal child count of blind and visually impaired individuals and this count does not really count all children who qualify as blind or visually impaired students. The Office of Special Education does a study every year and they come up short with the number of individuals who are blind. He said this tells you that a significant number of students are not being served through a reputable program. American Printing House for the Blind provides resource materials for blind and visually impaired individuals. They do count the students, but they have a very strict count and only count those students who are mostly blind, and this only counts for about half of the students are actually blind or visually impaired. The National Training Personnel who serve children with blindness and low vision also counts students, and they counted four times as many blind and visually impaired students as is counted in the public schools. Mr. Hill said this could be a problem for blind and visually impaired education because with less population it can skew research to make it look like there are not as many
Board of Trustees Meeting
Arkansas School for the Blind
April 21, 2009
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children. He said it also causes some colleges to reduce their certified educational program and this cuts down on the number of trained individuals for education, orientation and mobility, braille and other courses that are offered specifically for blind and visually impaired individuals. He said what they are talking about when they say that kids are systematically invisible is the fact that they don’t count a lot of kids blind or visually impaired when they are. They are typed as a 504 and, even doing that, those students fall through the crack as far as having appropriate educational services. Children are not being appropriately served in the educational system in this country and this does not (inaudible) for the educational process of blind and visually impaired individuals.
Mr. Hill said the National Federation for the Blind is offering a program that will allow blind individuals to call, toll free, a variety of news media and have the information read to them.
Mr. Hill again mentioned how strong Senator Faris has been in helping ASB and ASD receive funding. He said the school has been allocated $500,000 for general improvement and $5 million for facilities improvement.
There being no further business for the Arkansas School for the Blind, the meeting moved to the Agenda for the Arkansas School for the Deaf.
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Pam Hyneman, Chairperson
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Andrew Tolbert, Secretary
Board of Trustees Meeting
Arkansas School for the Blind
April 21, 2009
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