WASHINGTON STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes from Board of Trustees Meeting

November 4-5, 2005

Olympia, Washington

Board Members Participating: Annabelle Fitts, Steve Rainey, Denise Colley, Joe Fram, Kay Adamson, Chuck Nelson, and Eric Wiseman.

Board Members Absent: Sherry Perry

Ex-Officio Members Participating: Michael Freeman (National Federation of the Blind of Washington), Paul Baldwin (WSSB Teachers Association), and Berl Colley (Washington Council of the Blind).

Ex-Officio Members Absent: Kathleen Brown (Parent Representative) and Bonda Albers (Washington Federation of State Employees Local #1225).

Washington State School for the Blind (WSSB) Staff Members Participating: Dr. Dean Stenehjem (Superintendent), Dee Amundsen (Director of Outreach), Craig Meador (Director of On-Campus), and Janet Merz (recording secretary).

November 4, 2005 – 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Chuck called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. The members introduced themselves.

Department Updates:

The Department managers presented their reports (attached to the board minutes). Dr. Stenehjem presented the Plant Manager, Business Manager and Human Resources Manager reports.

Angie Armstrong, Executive Director, Washington School for the Blind Foundation showed the Foundation’s video. Angie also presented a PowerPoint presentation to the Board reviewing the last 18 months that she has been in this position. Angie’s main focus has been building awareness regarding the Foundation and the school. Angie handed out a fundraising letter that will be sent to Lions Clubs.

Executive Session

An Executive Session was called to order at 8:50 p.m. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

November 5, 2005 – 8:00 a.m. – 11:23 a.m.

Chuck called the meeting to order at 8:10 a.m.

Outreach Department Update

The meeting started with Dee presenting the Outreach report (attached to the minutes). Discussion was held regarding the fact that no funding is passed from local school district to WSSB for student enrollment. Dee stated that WSSB does not solicit kids to come to WSSB. Often times WSSB visits districts at their request, then several more students are identified that need services. Costs for evaluations were discussed.

WSSB is serving the Taholah area, south of Neah Bay. There is an Indian reservation that has 11 children who are visually impaired and many adults. WSSB serves them one day per month. Dee is trying to coordinate a low vision clinic to go to Taholah to evaluate all students and adults.

Business Meeting

New Business:

Eric reflected on the past year regarding his involvement on the Board of Trustees. Eric feels he is directly accountable to the parents and also to the Governor’s office. Eric stated he would have never imagined how rewarding it would be to be involved at WSSB. Eric discussed that if a parent were to approach him regarding WSSB, he would anticipate that the parent would ask of him about the quality of education at WSSB as well as safety issues. Eric feels that the meetings and information shared is very informative regarding fiduciary and education. Eric feels the board needs more information regarding standing policies as well as details regarding transportation, social events, physical education, residential safety policies, etc. to validate that we have proper programs. Eric would like more information in each of these areas to provide him a better sense of accountability. Dr. Stenehjem stated that in most areas we do have a lot of the policies and procedures in place, and do review our policies and change them as often as needed. WSSB also develops new policies and procedures as issues develop and in relationship to changes in state and federal law. An example of this was WSSB in the area of safety for children. Dr. Stenehjem stated that all WSSB staff members attend 16 hours per year of training regarding CPS, etc. by law and we continue to explore both capital and operations to make sure that we are providing the safest environment. Joe feels that maybe this is an area that a committee could discuss to assist in answering some of the questions Eric has brought up. Eric also suggested we delineate what each committees expectations are with timelines, etc. Eric also feels strongly that we need to determine who has the lead on the WASL. The general feeling is that nothing will change with the WASL test if left up to OSPI, and that all the validation problems and with a test that has huge visual bias will not be modified unless the lead comes from WSSB. WSSB has been involved with OSPI on this and felt that progress was being made last year, but all the individuals who WSSB and others were working with at OSPI have left the organization and OSPI has not filled these position at this time. Dr. Stenehjem will make contact with OSPI to see if we can push this issue forward and bring this concern directly to Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of OSPI.

Old Business:

Approve board minutes of September 23-24, 2005. Kay moved to approve the minutes; Denise seconded the motion. The minutes were passed unanimously.

Superintendent’s Report

Dr. Stenehjem’s report is attached to the minutes. Discussion followed. Michael stated that the board was glad that Dr. Stenehjem decided to stay.

WASL/Assessment

Dr. Stenehjem said that OSPI is recruiting an adaptive testing person and also for that position’s supervisor. WSSB is waiting for their replacements so that we can discuss WASL. Another area that WSSB needs to focus on is Assessment. Craig has been talking to his staff to determine an appropriate tool for assessment. One option is the NW Evaluation and Assessment, which is a company located in the Portland area. This company offers computerized assessments. Dr. Stenehjem feels the reading and language portion of this assessment tool would be ideal, however the math and science sections were not accessible. Dr. Stenehjem talked to the other schools for the blind across the country and there doesn’t appear to be another good instrument or test for blind and/or visually impaired students. Kay stated she would like to see AER, WSSB and consumer groups present a statewide approach. Dr. Stenehjem will try to get a meeting going regarding this. Dr. Stenehjem feels we should have a Representative and or Senator on the WASL Committee.

Washington Institute on Public Policy (WSIPP)

Dr. Stenehjem reviewed the first draft of the efficacy study regarding WSSB and WSD. There were several areas in the report that needs refining and some data was reported erroneously; as well as some of the information was outdated. Dr. Stenehjem would like to ask them to make the corrections and then request another copy of the study before it is published.

Ex-Officio Reports

Washington Federation of State Employees #1225 (read by Janet Merz): At our October Union meeting we had election of officers and Bonda Albers remains President and will remain representative to WSSB Board of Trustees. Dana Pride remains vice-president and will remain representative to WSD Board of Trustees. At the recent convention in SeaTac, the Union began choosing our negotiating team for the next contract. Local 1225 donated $200 to the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired and $200 for the Louisiana School for the Deaf to be used to help their students affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Washington Council of the Blind: Berl reported that the state convention occurred last weekend in Pasco. Dr. Stenehjem was one of the panel speakers; LouOma Durand, Director DSB, and Gloria Leonard from WTBBL was also on the panel. The WCB invited an American Council for the Blind representative to lead discussions regarding emergency preparedness. The WCB gave out $19,000 to four different students for scholarships. Next year’s convention will be held at SeaTac (DoubleTree).

National Federation of the Blind of Washington: Michael reported that the NFB held their state convention at the Governor’s Ramada Inn in Olympia. Mike would like to have the next NFB convention at the Quay in Vancouver. The NFB had Carolym Meyer from the Louis Braille Center present as well as Sylvia Cashton from the Kaizen Program for VI ESL students. Accessible voting was a focus. Renee Corso, Residential Program Supervisor gave a great report for WSSB in Dr. Stenehjem’s absence. $5,000 in scholarships were awarded.

Teachers: Paul reported on the following:

o The decertification ruling came through in the teachers favor. The Federation now has the option of appealing that decision. WSSB on-campus and outreach teachers will have the opportunity to vote whether to remain members of the Federation of State Employee or decertify. Teachers are waiting for a date to vote. Eric asked if the teachers have intent to be organized in another way. Paul stated the teachers are looking at possibly joining the Washington Education Association. Eric further asked if they were thinking they would be negotiating with administration or at the state level. Paul mentioned that they would prefer to work directly with administration at WSSB.

o October 14^th the teachers met with administration regarding the school year calendar. The teachers would like to align the calendar more closely with the Vancouver School District. This would mean WSSB would start about a week prior to what they have been starting. The teachers would also like to look at pushing back commencement approximately one week to align with Vancouver.

o The teachers are concerned about the current teacher shortage. However, a teacher and teachers’ aide has been hired.

o The teachers talked to Dr. Stenehjem on October 21^st regarding TRI money that Vancouver School District teachers receive. Judy Koch-Smith and Cheri DeLyria, two WSSB teachers have filed a suit against WSSB requesting that the school pay tri-money funds as Vancouver School District does. At this time both groups are waiting for a decision, which would be based upon a interpretation on the Bauer Bill from 1981. The teachers asked if the court ruled in their favor if there were funds in a supplemental budget. Dr. Stenehjem stated no, but if it did go through that some teachers would have to be laid off in order to pay this non-funded situation. Dr. Stenehjem stated that if funding didn’t come with the court case for the TRI monies that we would have to get the money from someplace if state appropriations did not come forth. Discussion was held regarding the Bauer Bill and 182 days per school year.

o The teachers met with Craig Meador and Karen Mowry to go over housekeeping details, i.e. getting activity calendars up and running, better communications with administration and staff. Some of this has been resolved due to another secretary returning from an extended leave.

Board and Commissions Training

Discussion was held regarding the December 13^th Boards and Commissions training. The training will be held at South Puget Sound Community College. There will be a reception at 6:00 p.m. that evening at the Governor’s Mansion.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:23 a.m. The next Board meeting will be held via a conference call on January 10, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.

Chuck Nelson, Chair Dean O. Stenehjem, Ed.D.

Superintendent

Board Reports

November 2005

Human Resources

Statewide Computer Project: Due to the time and cost overruns with the new statewide computer project, the HRMS project team has made some changes to the scope of the project. Some of the “bells and whistles” we thought we were going to get in release 2 and 3 have been deleted. Because of this, much of the work we completed regarding business processes and role assignments will have to be redone. Mary Sarate and I will be traveling to Olympia in mid-November to attend workshops regarding these changes and after the meetings I will be resubmitting our information to the HRMS team.