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; Andrew Tolbert, Board Member; Dr. Doug Watson, Board Member; Johnny McGehee, 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, Interpreters; Amy Ford, Office of the Attorney General; Members of the Deaf Community; Members of the Blind Community
Call to Order
Ms. Williams called the meeting to order at
08-J-011 Motion to Approve Consent Items
Ms. Williams asked for a motion to approve the Minutes from the August board meeting. Ms. Gray made the motion and Dr. Watson seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Action Items
None
Discussion Items
Janice Vaughn, A.S.D. Parent Representative
Mrs. Vaughn: I do have a few things because I tend to get calls all week long. Umm, and I thought about this before I came and I thought, you know, a lot of times I’m always talking, I mean I’m having to report bad things. I would like to start by reporting something good. Umm, this is more personal but it is going on with a lot of people, I understand, as y’all are redoing a lot of IEPs and ours has been redone, and so far really people have put a great deal of effort, and I want to thank you, because it’s going very well. Couple of things I just want to bring to your attention because I have been contacted by people that there are a lot of IEPs that pretty well need to be done pretty fast. Is that not correct that they are doing them?
Dr. Dalla Rosa: Uh huh.
Mrs. Vaughn: Umm and there have been some behavioral, problems with behavior unit. I heard from one specific mother, which I can’t go into obviously, and I’m, I’m a little
Board of Trustees Meeting
Page 1 of 4
concerned about that because we have had some problems at the school with the behavior unit. Umm, one child is leaving and having to be checked into somewhere else. Another one trying to run away, but not getting out, and I just had some, one of the problems that was brought to my attention, and by a mother, was that, umm, if for example, Centers says they couldn’t help her child and now they’re trying to go with Centers again, and this is the child, one of the children, I think, that ran away the other, but was found. But long and short is, maybe I’m just saying there are some problems and I guess we need to probably at some point address what we’re doing as far as the safety because I understand that now two out of, how many kids are there, five?
Dr. Dalla Rosa: There’s six.
Mrs. Vaughn: Okay, two out of six have at least, one escaped and one had an attempted escape, so that’s a problem for the other students. The last thing I want to say, and I know nothing about this, but I’m just passing on because I get the word, is that there’s a dire need for a bed in the middle dorm, I guess the middle girls’ dorm, that has been requested, I was told, two years in a row, and there is still no bed and the kids are sleeping on the floor and..
Ms. Williams: Wait, wait, wait. They requested a bed two years ago?
Mrs. Vaughn: That’s what they said, there has been a request and they…
Ms. Williams: Have they requested one this year?
Mrs. Vaughn: I
asked that question and they said no and I said, please go ahead and submit it
and I was told by this person that if
Ms. Williams: Well, we’re not going to…
Mrs. Vaughn: I just get these calls so I just pass on what I feel, like if it’s something the board wants to take up, but I do want to bring up.
Ms. Williams: Okay. Umm, then I find that hard to believe but now that it has been brought to Marcella’s attention, I’m sure it will be taken care of.
Dr. Dalla Rosa: We’ll take care of it immediately, immediately (inaudible).
Dr. Watson: This is more to do with a bed frame?
Mrs. Vaughn: I don’t, it was a bed, that’s what, I mean, again, I’m passing on because I get calls all day.
Dr. Dalla Rosa: I mean, we have plenty of beds on the campus.
Mrs. Vaughn: That’s what I understand that there was a need for a new one in the middle girls’ dorm, and they had made two requests for it last year and the year before, and had not heard one thing from the request, and could I please make sure, and so I just said, I’ll, I’ll bring it. And again, it’s I’m leaving it there. That’s all I’m doing. I just feel obligated when parents or family members call that that’s what my job is to bring to (inaudible).
Ms. Williams: Absolutely. Okay.
Dr. Watson: I would like to ask Janice, umm the signed word was two children tried to escape from the unit. Where they trying to like go where the other children were? They wanted to return to their peer group?
Board of Trustees Meeting
Page 2 of 4
Dr. Dalla Rosa: No, and it’s one that like he, that’s how he deals with issues. He runs. I mean he was a student, been a student at our school for a long time and this is not the first time he’s run.
Mrs. Vaughn: What are we doing to make it safe?
Dr. Watson: (Inaudible) he tried to leave campus.
Mrs. Vaughn: He did leave, one did.
Dr. Dalla Rosa: He did leave, but usually he goes to a certain spot. Umm, I have the information on the PRIDE Program on my agenda, if we could wait for that maybe answer.
Ms. Williams: Okay. That’s a good idea. Let’s wait until she brings it up and we can discuss it then. Anything else, Janice?
Mrs. Vaughn: None.
Johnny McGehee, A.S.B. Parent Representative
Mr. McGehee: If I could I’m going to introduce Mrs. Barbara Cole. She is going to talk about a certificate that she got.
Mrs. Cole: Oh, thank you, Mr. McGehee and Good
Evening. I was in Mr. Hill’s office and sharing with him an award that I
received this summer and I guess I tooted my own horn and patted myself on the
back so I shared it with him, and he said, well you need to share this with the
board, and so I am honored to share with you an award that I received at our
national conference that was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this summer. I
think the last time I came to the board, I had been elected southwest regional
director for that association and that position did end in July. But an award
that I received while I was there was Outstanding Director of the Year Award
and each state has a peer in their state who is eligible, could be eligible for
this award, so I got it for the State of
Ms. Williams: Congratulations.
Mrs. Cole received a round of applause from the Board.
Mrs. Cole: I want to say when I share with people where I work and I say the School for the Blind, the first thing they want to know is how many students do you have, can I do sign language. (Laughter) (Inaudible) you really don’t need it. You realize how blessed you are when you work there and I do think it takes a special person to work in special needs. And they are just real excited and you hear stories like my grandfather is blind, or I have a student, I know somebody. So, um, I think the word is out around the country about the School for the Blind and I do again thank Mr. Hill for the opportunity to allow me to get nominated and run for that position, which I did win. But again excited about the award that I received and thank you all. (Applause)
Board of Trustees Meeting
Page 3 of 4
Mr. Hill: Madam Chairperson…
Ms. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Hill: If I may, Barbara, stay up there. I’ve given you a copy of two weeks of menu and I think you’ll probably if you get time to look over it, you’ll see it’s pretty good meals and Barbara does a great job in planning these meals and it’s always in tune with the current process where students are given less salt and less sugar, as much as you can choke down without salt. But I think my point is, she always considers the health of the child in terms of the food you serve. It works very closely with a health committee in the school to be sure that we design, not only tasty meals, but healthy meals as well. She does a great job.
Mrs. Cole: Okay. This is the award that I received, and I was a member of the Board of Directors, so this is the pictures of the members of that director. I think this picture looks better than my driver’s license. (Laughter). But anyway, I wanted to share that with you. Thank you.
Ms. Williams: Congratulations.
Mr. Tolbert: Congratulations.
Mr. McGehee: Well, Ms. Barbara is if it makes you feel any better, I was talking to my son. You know he’s staying in the dorm now at college. I asked him how it was going and he goes to the cafeteria. He said, well dad it’s going pretty good, but it’s not as good as the food up there at the blind school. (Laughter)
Ms. Williams: Yes, they do have good food. I’ve eaten there.
Mr. McGehee: He thinks the world of it. And the only other thing I’ve got is next month, I’m going to go to the fair with them, so I’ll give you a report on that.
Mrs. Vaughn: Oh, good. You just want (inaudible)
Ms. Gray: Can y’all give me a note to get out of work to go to that? (Laughter)
Mr. Hill: I’ll write the note, but you’ve got to do the rest.
Ms Gray: Say you need me really, really bad. (Laughter)
Mr. McGehee: And also I want to thank you for the tickets.
Mrs. Vaughn: Yes, thank you.
There being no further business of a Joint nature, the
meeting moved to the Agenda for the
_______________________________
Henrietta Williams, Chairperson
_________________________________
Board of Trustees Meeting Beth Gray, Secretary
Page 4 of 4