OFFICIAL MINUTES FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING OF THE
The Board of Trustees for the
Present: Henrietta Williams, Chairperson; Pam Hyneman, Vice Chairperson; Beth Gray, Secretary; Dr. Doug Watson, Board Member; John McGehee, A.S.B. Board Member; 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, Interpreters; Amy Ford, Office of the Attorney General; Members of the Deaf Community; Members of the Blind Community
Absent: Andrew Tolbert
08-B-014 Motion to Approve Consent Items
Ms. Williams asked for a motion to approve the Minutes from the July board meeting and the Personnel Items. Dr. Watson made the motion to approve and Ms. Gray seconded. The motion passed unanimously. The Financial Statement will be approved at the next board meeting.
Action Items
None
Discussion Items
None
Superintendent Report
Mr. Hill said since Ken Fowler was approved for secondary principal, the supervision chart has been revised and each board member received a copy of the revised supervision chart.
Registration was Sunday and the school has 14 new students; 6 new babies from the Birth to 3 program, 5 new elementary students and 3 new juniors. Mr. Hill said the school feels very good about the response from the baby program and the summer school program. The enrollment is close to 90 students and 4-5 students parents want to enroll their child, but have not yet completed the paperwork. There are approximately 80 babies in the program at this time. The program did have close to 90 babies, but several of them ‘graduated’ to preschool. Mr. Hill said the State Department of Education Special Ed. sanctioned the program. The baby program that the State Department had closed and those babies will be referred to A.S.B. This will add about 15. Mrs. Hyneman asked how young the babies are and Mr. Hill said as soon a parent knows their baby has a vision
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problem the school begins services. Ms. Williams asked if
new staff will need to be hired to accommodate the program. Mr. Hill said he is
going to need more staff and he has a budget proposal for next year and is
asking for two more positions. He said it is going to be that the school can
offer one, maybe two, visits a month and more visits are really needed. Dr.
Watson asked if the children who are moved up are dispersed or are in one
program. Mr. Hill said some schools do not have preschool programs and
occasionally A.S.B. services those children for a longer period of time. Where
there is a preschool, the children will enter the local preschool program and
A.S.B. works very closely with that school district for transition purposes.
Dr. Watson asked if there is anyway A.S.B. can continue to monitor to see how
the parent-infant program is paying off in the preschool start. Mr. Hill said that is probably something the
school will look at. The school is setting up a structure where more
administrative work can be done, which would involve researching what happens
next and where are they now, etc. The Oregon Curriculum is specifically
designed for the child to be ready to enter preschool and this is the program
that the school uses. Mrs. Vaughn asked if there was a need for Spanish
interpreters, particularly in
Mr. Hill said the school received a report from the Department of Education regarding the yearly progress report and that he is happy to say the school is not classified as being in the school improvement program.
On registration day, a parent’s group provided free ice cream to parents, teachers and students and also had air slides for the day. He said there was a good turn out for registration and that registration is one of the most strenuous days. He mentioned that Katie, Sharon and Ken were doing all of the registration, with auxiliary people helping with student accounts, lunches, etc.
Mr. Hill said the School for the Blind was one of the first
schools to sign up for JAG. Governor Beebe has been elected to the board of JAG
and
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The Gifted and Talented Program has started and the teachers have received complete certification. Mr. Hill reminded the board that the school had not been required to have a Gifted and Talented program, but then he was told it was required, and then he was told it did not have to the program. However the school went ahead and developed a program with Chris Wilks being the teacher in charge of the program. There are about 16 students in the pull outs, Grades 1-3 will be in the classroom, and the other grades will be pulled out. Mr. Hill said he is really excited about the program especially since it is ADE approved.
A.S.B. was selected to receive a grant from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic (RB&D). He said the organization is responsible for the development of a program that puts, not only textbooks, but puts leader reading material on CDs. Mr. Hill explained how the recorder works. The school received the equipment free and the institutional package, and they hope to receive another grant to receive additional books for the school.
Administrators attended two basic meetings this summer, one of which was Smart Start. Ray Simon, Gene Wilhoit and Ken James were on the panel and they explained what they thought was needed to carry a faculty forward to become highly effective teachers, which is one of this year’s drive. Dr. Lipschitz was speaker at the AAEA meeting and Mr. Hill said he presented good information. At the AAEA meeting a copy of the ethics code was given and this has been approved by ADE. Mr. Hill said it has strong implications for any school and any school employee and a major in-service this year will be designed along the line of highly effective teacher.
Mr. Hill said the school has always pushed that tests are not appropriate for visually impaired students. He said one of the ways the school has stressed this is by getting involved and actively seeking committees that deal with the tests and the biases. He said he doesn’t think all of the biases will ever be removed, but if they can be reduced even a little, it is worth the time. Mr. Hill said that Maranda Cole is on the third grade test bias committee, Pam Raspberry is on the K-12 grade bias committee, Sharon Niemzcyk is on the fifth grade bias committee, and Lis Geoghegan was scheduled to be on a committee but she was told she couldn’t serve because she was blind. Mr. Hill said that the Department of Education has really tried to get involved in making the tests fairer and they have been very effective in letting A.S.B. teachers on the committees, but there are some things they do not have control over, which is part of problem. Mr. Hill also said that Linda Williams was on the Family and Consumer Sciences committee and was involved in writing new Frameworks for that area and Amy Morris helped write the Science Frameworks.
Mr. Hill said about 6 months ago the school received a check for $26,000 from the estate of Kramer-Welter and received the remainder which was about $400.
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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.
_____________________________
Henrietta Williams, Chairperson
_______________________________
Beth
Gray, Secretary
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