UTAH SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF AND THE BLIND

Corrected and Approved 03/27/08

Institutional Council Minutes

&nb= sp;

Division= of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired

250 Nort= h 1950 West, Suite B

Salt Lake City, U= tah

&nb= sp;

Training Center, Room 218

&nb= sp;

Date: = February 28, 2008

4:30 p.m. - General Session=

Attending: Bill Gibson, Chairperson

Leslie Gertsch, Vice-Chair

Shelly Bridgewaters, Member

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Ron Gardner, Member

Von Hortin= , Member

Gwyneth Ke= nner, Member

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Jodi Kinner, Member

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Kye Miner, Member

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Linda Otte, Member

Dennis Platt, Member

Richard Sadler, Non-Voting Member

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Michelle Tanner, Non-Voting Member

Excused: &= nbsp; Marilyn Call, Member

&nbs= p; &= nbsp;

Also Attending:

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Timothy Smith, Superintendent

Betty Hall, Administrative Assistant

&nbs= p;

Interpreters: <= /span> Dawn Duran

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Andrea Rathbun

&nbs= p; &= nbsp;

USDB Administrative Staff Present:

Melanie Austin, Assistant Superintendent

Bruce Buland, Director of HR

Darla Fowe= rs, Director of Deafblind & Specialty Services

Maura Harris, Director of Resident & Food Services

Carolyn Kwallek-Cook, Program Director of Blin= d V.C.

Marilyn Madsen, Program Director of Deaf South Region

Kim Morris= , Program Director of Parent Infant Program

Liz Parker, Program Director of Deaf Central R= egion

Lorri Quigley, Director of Educational Resource Center

Sandra Ruc= onich, Program Director of Blind Central & North Regions

Leah Voorh= ies, Director of Related Services

Mark Viau,= Finance Director

Others Attending:

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; Karl Wilson, USOE

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Christine Timothy, USOE

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; David Rodemack, USOE/DHRM<= o:p>

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Jan Ferre’, LCPD

&= nbsp; &nbs= p; Everette Bacon, DSBVI

Pledge of Allegiance

Chairman Bill Gibson called the meeting to order at 4:50 p.m. and welcomed teaching staff and ot= her visitors. Dr. Richard Sadler led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Public Co= mments

None

&= nbsp; &= nbsp;

Approval of Minutes of the November 15, 2007 Meetin= g

Mrs. Leslie Gertsch moved to accept the minutes of the November 15, 2007 meeting as prepared. Mr. Von Hortin seconded. Motion carried.

Approval of Minutes of the January 24, 2008 Meeting=

Superintendent Tim Smith indicated that in the minutes of January 24, 2008 it stated that DFCM was looking at Libby Elementary and had said there was a full cafeteria and full size gym. Superintendent has = since visited Libby himself and found that the full cafeteria is correct but the = information on the gym is not; it is a ¾ gym.&n= bsp; It could not have bleachers. He apologized for the misinformation but was going on what Mr. Tom S= haw had said. Superintendent did say = that Libby is, otherwise, in good shape.

Mr. Hortin moved to accept the minutes of the January = 24, 2008 meeting as prepared. Mrs. Gertsch seconded. Motion carried.

Approval of the Minutes of the February 14, 2008 Me= eting

Mrs. Gwyneth Kenner moved to accept the minutes of the February 14, 2008 meeting as prepared.&nbs= p; Mr. Hortin seconded. M= otion carried.

Update on Braille Literacy Committee

Mrs. Melanie Austin reported that the committee met= today and reviewed things they had been working on. One was the success of USIMAC to g= et funding for materials for all children having problems with reading. They talked about a field trip in April. Mr. Ron Gardner, Mrs. Leslie Gertsch<= /st1:PersonName> and Mr. Bill Gibson will parti= cipate and will see some of Mrs. Carolyn Kwallek-Cook<= /st1:PersonName>'s classes. The committee also d= iscussed and will be looking at the Braille Challenge to determine what are some are= as in which our teachers’ need training. Mrs. Austin committed to review th= e memorandum of April 7, 2006 to promote literacy. She will provide the memo of with updates to the Committee for their review. =

Approval of Personnel Actions of January 2008 <= /p>

Mrs. Gertsch asked if we have filled the three teacher vacancies in the blind portion of the school. Mrs. Kwallek-Cook has one open pos= ition for a TVI in the St. George area. Ms. Sandy Ruconich has a program specialist opening which has been unfilled since November and will probably remain unfilled through the remainder of this school year. We have advertised and hope to have someone by early fall. There = is a recruitment fair on Friday, February 29, 2008 at Murray High School. We have a TVI potential and are ho= peful to get them on board. M= r. Bruce Buland confirmed that we have a position= we have been recruiting since 2005 and continue to do so. We hope that career fairs with tho= se coming out of school will find some people interested in our positions.

Mr. Dennis Platt moved to accept the Personnel Actions Report of January 2008 as prepared. Ms. Li= nda Otte seconded. Motion carried.

Approval of Donated Account Summary for February 7,= 2008

Mrs. Gertsch commented that the report gave very littl= e detail where the money is coming from. Mr. Mark Viau said he was told that Institutional Council had asked for somethi= ng different. The idea of this r= eport was to get the final affect. = Mr. Hortin liked the new report with the summary but suggests getting a quick b= ook report <= /span>since some Council members would like a summary and some like more detail. This would cover both bases. Mrs. Gertsch liked the information showing those supporting the schools, etc.= She noted that Institu= tional Council has done a good job supervising it and she would like that to continue. Mr. Hortin said the detailed transaction report would give that information.

Mrs. Gertsch made a motion to approve the Donated Acco= unt Summary for February 7, 2008 as presented.= Mrs. Gwyneth Kenner seconded. Motion carried.

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p;

Budget Report Ending January 31, 2008

Mr. Mark Viau has met with M= r. Todd Hauber on a couple of occasions. He = will keep dialog with him to provide corporate expertise. Mr. Viau felt we should look at alternative funding sources, i.e., The Sorenson Foundation for money for a = new building. They have a history= of supporting such causes. Mrs. Gertsch ask= ed if we are currently a little under budget.&nb= sp; Mr. View noted that was correct; it is so close that he needs to do a new analysis. He will have a = better feel for the best way to do an analysis by next meeting. Mr. Viau indicated that we have not= drawn down our money from the state yet. <= /span>

Mrs. Gwyneth Kenner asked if= we could actually use grant money for USDB since it would not be under the sta= te. Mr. Viau indicated it would be all= owable. The building would be donated to t= he Division of Facilities Construction and Management (DFCM); it would not bel= ong to us. Mr. Hortin commented t= hat in the case of a donation which is specific, we would have better control. Mr. Platt inquired why we would go = after the Sorenson Foundation. It was explained that the state legislature will not fund a building.

Dr. Sadler noted that three = weeks ago, Mr. Viau's name was approved by the Utah State Board of Education (USB= E) as USDB’s new finance director and thanked us for letting the Utah State= Office of Education (USOE) have Mr. Hauber. We now have feelers from the State Board. The Chair and Vice chair met with = the State Superintendent and Governor Huntsman. Dr. Sadler had it placed on = his agenda and brought him up-to-date and talked about solving this problem as quickly as can be done. UCAT = may move into Highland because they are not a school and meet office space codes. The decision will not be known unt= il this session closes. It is a possibility if they are not housed at Salt Lake Community College.

We still have the possibilit= y of Rosslyn Heights or Libby Edwards. Rosslyn Heights has= been vacated over a year; bringing it up to speed would take money and time.

Libby Edwards is in better s= hape.

Fundraising Guidelines

It was noted that the Fundra= ising Guidelines had been reviewed and suggestions made by Institutional Council have been incorporated. Mrs. Michelle Tanner recommended that all USDB staf= f be made aware and trained in using the Guidelines.= Superintendent noted that it would need to be at a time that will not interfere with other work.

Use of Donated Accounts G= uideline

Same as above.

Braille Jr. Olympics=

Mrs. Kwallek-Cook reported t= hat $3,000 was earned with the fundraising events for the Braille Jr. Olympics. 35 students are already signed up.= This is an exciting and wonderful opportunity for our kids.

Update on Status of I= nstitutional Council’s RFP

Mr. Hortin reported that= we need Institutional Council’s approval before releasing the RFP. He noted that the success of the R= FP depends on the right questions. When state purchasing sent out the original RFP, we got no responses. We had given them three suggested vendors. Purchasing used the = RFP Depot but no one we recommended received the information. At the last meeting, we decided to = redo it and send it out as an RFP but make individual contacts with firms and not l= eave it to Purchasing with the hope of receiving a higher success rate. Mr. Hortin indicated that after the questions were formulated, he received input from two more individuals, one from Mrs. Gertsch which was included in the packet and goes into greater de= tail and Mr. Gardner sent additional comments too late to Braille. This was handed out to Council.

Mr. Hortin would like to= discuss whether we are going to revise the questionnaire or leave it as it is. The questions were fairly basic in= the original document and the intent was that once we got responses back and determined those who met the qualifications then we could contact them for additional follow up information as needed. He noted difficult questions and/or essay type responses generally do not get responses. Mr. Gardner indicated this is a on= e shot opportunity to glean information to look into the future. He had contacted different people a= round the country to determine the type of survey that would be the easiest to respond to and suggested doing a telephone survey to gather the information= .

After some discussion and suggestions, a committee was formed which includes Mr. Hortin, Mr. Gardner, Mrs. Tanner, Mrs. Gertsch, Mr. Platt, Mrs. Miner, and Mrs. Kinner. Mr. Hortin will do another draft a= nd send it out to the committee to review.&nb= sp; They will meet on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. at the Divis= ion of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired to wordsmith the questionnaire.

OTHER

Legislative Workgrou= p Update

Mr. Karl Wilson of USOE gave a brief update on the USDB Legislativ= e Workgroup process. During November and December decisions were made that, in order for the group to go forward mea= ningfully, they needed to do some research. As the research group met, it was determined that many of their questions alig= ned with the independent study that the Institutional Council was requesting. They asked that their work be alig= ned with the Council’s study.

The Legislative Workgro= up will be meeting tomorrow to discuss timelines.&= nbsp; He will take back information to them from tonight’s meeting t= hat the RFP will be reopened. Bas= ed on tonight’s conversations, he encouraged Council to move ahead as quick= ly as is prudent in establishing those questions for the survey process and opening the RFP as quickly as possible.&nb= sp; They had set a timeline of hoping to have Council’s results by= the end of February so they could work again with the Legislative Workgroup to consider the findings in making recommend-ations that would then go out to public hearings. They have ju= st a few months left before they need to be in the process of drafting recommendatio= ns with the legislative analyst that would go to the 2009 legislative session. Anything Council could do to prude= ntly speed the RFP process would contribute to work of the USDB Legislative Workgroup. They will see wher= e they can adjust their timelines so the RFP results can be included in discussions that would move toward those recommendations.

The second issue is tha= t a number of legislators were in the Legislative Workgroup process. In December, they asked very speci= fic questions about the USDB Legislative Workgroup and the recommendation we had made to not to move toward a bill in 2008 but to move to the 2009 legislati= ve session. They had heard a spe= cific concern that was raised in that Workgroup that when students in the USDB system are= academically successful and are at or above grade level, some have been moved out of the USDB system because they no longer qualify for special education. The State Board of Education recei= ved a letter dated February 6, 2008 from those legislators asking that the State Board, in the interim, consider that practice of having students achieving = at or above grade level being moved out of the USDB system and whether they co= uld find a solution before there is a change in statute.

They have had a chance = to research that issue and it will be presented to the Board at their March 7, 2008 meeting. He brought it to Council for their information and also to request any input that might be helpful to the State Board in that process. The current state statute and State Board rule is very clear that entrance into USDB is through special educati= on eligibility but neither is clear in terms of when students exit the USDB because of competency. Because of that we will recommend USBE consider one of three options= :

Option 1, which = they feel is the most appropriate option, is for the State Board to direct staff= at USOE and USDB that if you have students that are at or above grade level and there is a question whether they qualify for special education any more or = not that, at this point in time, if the IEP determines that USDB is the best su= pport placement for the student that they be allowed to stay.

Option 2 that USOE might take is to instruct= staff at USOE to go through the process of revising State Board rules to specific= ally address that issue where it currently does not. One draw back is that it would take several months for the three readings process and public input, etc. Also it would go beyond current st= ate statute which hopefully would be revised in the 2009 session which would precipitate redoing the State Board rules.=

Option 3 that US= OE could take is to say they feel that USDB eligibility should continue under curren= t state statute to be aligned with special education eligibility and if they are not eligible for special education then they should leave USDB and should move = back to their local school district. We hope they won’t take that option.&nb= sp;

Mrs. Kinner expressed c= oncern about entrance and placement. Mr. W= ilson explained that USOE could not change the entrance criteria into USDB because the curr= ent state statute is very clear right now on the guidelines which is that the student must have a qualifying disability of being deaf, blind, or Deafblind and qualify for special education and have an IEP.

Mr. Wilson asked Counci= l for input on the options discussed above. Mrs. Gertsch made a motion to show Institutional Council’s sup= port for option #1. Mr. Hortin seconded. Motion carried. Superintendent will state that information was brought to Institutional Council and they support option #1 because it aligns with USDB’s mission statement.

Mr. Wilson noted the US= BE meeting is an open meeting and will be held on Friday, March 7, 2008. This topic will be addressed about= 1:00 p.m. Public comment is welcom= e but individuals must contact Twila Affleck 24 hours in advance.

Capitol Visit <= /o:p>

Superintendent reported= on the exciting events yesterday at the Capitol. Mrs. Kinner said she felt it was a truly positive experience for legislators and see different methods USDB offers. They don’t take time to visi= t classrooms so bringing the classrooms to them was unique and helpful. At noon, several of them sat with = us and asked about USDB and what we provide. JMS and the deaf community were starting to lose hope for a new buil= ding but the feeling is that it will be more likely.

Superintendent indicate= d that three students were temporarily lost but we found legislators had taken them on t= our. Our kids are so smart and articula= te. They did a good job of winning the legislators over. He publicly thanked Mrs. Michelle Tanner b= ecause this was her brainstorm; one spark looking outside the box, created a wonde= rful experience. Superintendent commented that he had no proof that it h= elped, but on Monday the Executive Appropriations Committee meeting was cancelled,= Tuesday the meeting was cancelled. We= dnesday evening, after our event, the meeting took place. Three of five of our requests were funded: steps and lanes, lease money, and USIMAC. The lease money is not attached to= a specific building. Mr. Hortin= said we have a better standing now because last week, DFCM commented on earthqua= ke funding. It was taken out and= then put back in after the Wells, NV earthquake. We have better opportunities. Superintendent said yesterday was magnificent. We are on the ro= ad to recovery in many ways. Mrs. K= inner commented that Mr. Carl ~~Miller~~ Wimmer spoke u= p in a meeting to give support. She = hoped this event will be an annual affair.=

Chairman Gibson comment= ed that after the last meeting we had in this room and discussed the RFP, we need to continue that discussion in a future meeting to develop a legislative plan.=

Hiring Guidelines

Mrs. Kinner asked to br= ing back the Hiring Guidelines to assure the disabilities preference statement is correct. Mr. Buland will foll= ow up.

Mrs. Gertsch made a mot= ion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Von = Hortin seconded. Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned 7:20 p.m.