WASHINGTON
STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND
BOARD
OF TRUSTEES
Minutes from Board of Trustees Meeting
November
5-6, 2004
Vancouver,
Washington
Board Members
Participating: Steve Rainey, Sherry Perry,
Jerry Farley, Denise Colley, Joe Fram, Kay Adamson, Chuck Nelson, and Eric
Wiseman.
Board
Members Absent:
Annabelle Fitts
Ex-Officio Members
Participating: Michael Freeman (National Federation of the
Blind of Washington) and Kathleen Brown
(Parent Representative).
Ex-Officio Members
Absent: Theresa Tate (WSSB Teachers Association), Cindy
Burgett (Washington Council of the Blind) and Bonda Albers (Washington
Federation of State Employees Local #1225)
Washington State School
for the Blind (WSSB) Staff Members Participating:
Dr. Dean Stenehjem (Superintendent), Cherie Willhide (Human Resources Manager),
Mary Sarate (Business Manager), Dee Amundsen (Director of Outreach), Rob Tracey
(Plant Manager), Renee Corso (Director of Residential Services), Craig Meador
(Principal), and Janet Merz (recording secretary).
November 5, 2004 – 7:00
– 9:05 p.m.
Jerry called the meeting to order at 7:00
p.m. Eric, Sherry, and Steve all introduced themselves.
Department Updates: The
Department managers presented their reports (attached to the board
minutes).
Dr. Stenehjem showed a recent video
produced by TV Etc. regarding Jennifer Butcher, Fit For Life instructor at
WSSB. Jennifer received the bronze medal
at the 2004 Paralympic Games.
November 5, 2004 – 8:10
a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Jerry called the meeting
to order at 8:10 a.m.
Business Meeting
New Business:
Dr. Stenehjem stated that he would like
to review the committees:
Education
Committee: Chair Kay Adamson. Committee members: Sherry Perry, Steve Rainey, Annabelle Fitts,
Denise Colley. Dr. Stenehjem asked that
the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) and test assessment be a
focus of this committee. Kay said she is
trying to track down what the Association for Education and Rehabilitation
of the Blind and Visually Impaired Association (AER) is doing. Dr. Stenehjem met with test central at the
American Printing House for the Blind and also OSPI; and he feels the timing is
right because there is a new test developer.
Legislative
Committee: Chair Chuck Nelson. Committee members: Kathleen Brown, Annabelle
Fitts, Steve Rainey and Mike Freeman.
Dr. Stenehjem said there are two primary focuses for this committee:
Operating and Capital budgets and also No Child Left Behind/WASL (could also be
tied into the Education committee). Dr.
Stenehjem said that WASA (Washington Association of School Administrators) and
WSSDA (Washington State School Directors Association) hosts a yearly conference
in Olympia in February. At this
conference meetings are set up with Representatives and Senators. Reauthorization
of IDEA (Federal legislation of children with disabilities) will be another
focus of this committee.
Facility
Committee: Chair Jerry Farley. Committee members: Eric Wiseman, Joe Fram, and Chuck
Nelson. The two primary goals of this
committee is the annual inspection and future projects. Eric asked if there was
a need for a lock-out/tag-out. Eric said
that Industrial Hygienist can make sure that programs are up to date. Eric offered to send Dr. Stenehjem a contact
and phone number for a person who would help us in this area.
Management
Committee: Chair Joe Fram. Committee members: Jerry Farley, Bonda
Albers, Eric Wiseman and Denise Colley.
Dr. Stenehjem said he would like to include this committee in future
organizational structure and personnel issues (has to be board members only).
WASL
Dr. Stenehjem would like to set up a
meeting with Nancy Arnold (adaptive test contact) at OSPI and the Deputy
Superintendent of OSPI with the chair of the Education Committee. Dr. Stenehjem
said that Riverside had the contract however this year it will be assigned to
another test developer. Dr. Stenehjem feels
that the visual questions should be replaced by questions that are equal in context, but not visual in format. Dr. Stenehjem feels we need to bring them a
solution; not just the problem. Kay
Adamson will get in contact with representatives from AER to see where they are
on this issue.
ESD Listing
Denise asked if there was an ESD listing
and each individual school districts.
Dr. Stenehjem said we could try to locate this listing.
Old Business:
Approve board minutes of September 24-25,
2004. Joe moved to approve the minutes
as submitted; Chuck seconded the motion.
The motion passed unanimously.
Dr. Stenehjem stated that he would like to post the minutes on the web
before they are officially approved. Dr.
Stenehjem’s concern was the length of time between board meetings and need for
information. The board agreed that the
minutes can be posted before approved by the board. They will be noted as “draft.”
SWORD
(Southwest Washington Organization of Rescue Rivers)
Mike Freeman asked what was happening
with the SCUBA training. Dr. Stenehjem
stated that with the partnership with the police departments we have made a
connection with the SWORD; they use our pool for training and have offered to
provide SCUBA training for students and staff.
Kennedy – Gymnasium
Building
Jerry asked that Dr. Stenehjem report on
the Kennedy gymnasium situation. Dr.
Stenehjem reported that WSSB hired an architectural firm and asked them to
review the building. The architectural
firm found that there were major seismic issues with the building. WSSB discussed this with OFM and received
permission to do a preliminary study for design and replacement of a new
facility. WSSB temporarily had bracing
to garner protection to be able to continue to use
the building. Dr. Stenehjem stated we
used private funds ($68,000) that was donated to the school to construct a new
track, in anticipated preparation for a new building, which would be sited on
the current track location. This would
eliminate the center of the campus being torn up twice and in the long-run save
the state considerable dollars. Dr.
Stenehjem stated if the new building is approved, one of the first steps will
be to remove the front foyer from the current Kennedy building and some of the
front of the building. Due to the
temporary bracing this will not have a negative impact on the integrity of the
building and will allow the space needed for new construction. During this process
we will be able to continue to use the building for programs. The west side of the building will be
like a fitness center; behind that exercise area will be a weightlifting area; with
areas for storage. Also included will be
a climbing wall, gymnasium, bleachers, locker-room; recreation center; health
room, arts area (with pottery); public restrooms, and on the east side there
will be a saline pool. The YMCA has a
similar pool. The operator at that
facility stated she would never go back to a chlorine pool. The cost to operate a saline pool is $500
worth of salt in a year; vs. $200-$400 per month in chlorine. Dr. Stenehjem would like to establish a fitness center as part of the program that could
also be used by staff, with a possible membership fee. This fee could then be used to paid students
through a work experience program to operate the center. Eric asked about the liability posture regarding
outside user groups using our facilities.
Dr. Stenehjem stated we have contracts with each facility and we have
only had one claim since Dr. Stenehjem has started in 1990. All groups have to sign waivers, etc.
Independent
Living Building: Dr.
Stenehjem stated that the last major Capital Project requested is an
Independent Living building to house our LIFTT program.
Emergency/Disaster
Plan: WSSB
has a comprehensive emergency/disaster plan in place. The communication center, in case of
emergency disasters, is in Idaho.
Ahlsten
Building/Vancouver Police Department: The
detectives division of the police department is housed in the Ahlsten
building. The police department leases
the building for $1.00 per year; however they pay for custodial, maintenance, utilities, etc. Utilities are paid direct by the City of
Vancouver as they are metered separately.
Dr. Stenehjem said that the kids have challenged the police detectives
to a goalball game. Eric asked if the
detectives bring in criminals to interview them. Dr. Stenehjem stated that primarily it is
witnesses. It is important to note that this
is not a precinct.
Run for
Sight (hosted by the Washington School for the Blind Foundation): Discussion
was held regarding the annual Run for Sight.
Steve asked if we were going to continue to do this. Dr. Stenehjem said that we have not done this
as the last time we held the run we were close to losing money. Dr. Stenehjem would like to get the run going
again.
Superintendent’s
Report
Dr. Stenehjem’s
report is attached to the minutes.
Discussion followed:
Litigation: Discussion was held regarding teachers litigation. There is litigation filed against the school
stating that the school has not paid teachers for TRI
(Time/Responsibility/Incentive) which the Vancouver School District pays their
teachers from their local mill levy dollars.
Litigation was filed as a class action lawsuit; however, only two
teachers are still going forward with the lawsuit (to begin on November 19).
Stephen F. Austin University: Discussion was held regarding the number of teachers of
the visually impaired that are going to retire and the partnership with Stephen
F. Austin University (SFAU). SFAU
received a $1.5 million dollar federal grant which provides 6-7 slots for
teachers of the visually impaired and/or Orientation and Mobility per year over
a 5-year period. Dr. Stenehjem stated
that SFAU uses our campus for training.
Washington School for the Blind Foundation: The Foundation has decided to fund technology equipment for
WSSB’s seniors. Technology evaluations
will be included to determine needs. This
year, it will cost approximately $21,000 to fund this.
Food Service: Steve would like to discuss the food issue and obesity
problems. Dr. Stenehjem said that WSSB’s
RN, Sarah Buttrell, and Bob Lonnee, Food Service should attend the next board
meeting to discuss this. Jerry stated
that she saw Jennifer Butcher, teacher, in the PE class do testing regarding
fitness and weight. Jerry said there
appears to be some monitoring of that.
Steve said he would like to review food monitoring.
Ex-Officio Reports
Kathleen
stated that it is a tradition that it is difficult to engage parents here due
to the proximity of students. Kathleen
said that she conducted a survey for parents; with 26 responses received. Kathleen identified the top 10 items that
parents would like to focus on. They
were: parent education regarding how to teach:
cooking, O&M in their own community, housecleaning skills, selecting
clothes, laundering, shopping skills, music as rec. and leisure, CPR, fitness,
promoting good social etiquette, and money managing. Kathleen said the age range that came out was
high school and young adult that they wanted us to focus on. The majority of the respondents wanted written
materials sent to their home; second preference was DVD’s, third was website
access. Renee will be addressing the top
four requests and will develop written materials along with a DVD that would
demonstrate these. This would also be
placed on the website so that everyone would have access. In October the school hosted an Open
House. Kathleen stated that the
Student/Parent Directory will be produced for the third year. Dr. Stenehjem stated that a listserv was set
up for parents to join. Kay suggested
putting that on the Teachers of Visually Impaired listserv and also Mike suggested
putting on National Federation of the Blind’s listserv.
Mike
stated that the NFB’s state convention was held in October. Renee Corso gave a fine presentation about
the school. Denise Mackenstadt, former
board member, was presented with a service award on the board. A representative from the Governor’s office
presented the plaque to Denise. Two scholarships
were presented at the convention. The spring
convention will be the first weekend in April in Tacoma (LaQuinta Inn).
There being no further business, the
meeting adjourned at 11:20 a.m. The next
Board meeting will be held via a conference call on January 11, 2005 at 7:30
p.m.
Executive
Session
Jerry called an Executive Session to
order. This portion of the meeting
adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
Jerry
Farley, Chair Dean
O. Stenehjem, Ed.D.
Superintendent
November 2004
Human
Resources
Here are the highlights
of activities within the HR Department over the last two months:
Collective
Bargaining:
On October 8th, the Washington Federation of State Employees (WSFE) voted
to ratify the statewide master agreement between the State and WSFE. The financial aspects of the agreement were
added to the Governor’s budget and now the contract will go to the Legislature
for their approval.
On
October 20th, I met with the Management Teams of both the School for
the Blind and School for the Deaf, to go over some information regarding the
contract including compensation information (a 3.2% increase effective July 1,
2005 and a 1.6% increase effective July 1, 2006), information on health
benefits (employer will pay $663 per employee per month from July 1, 2005–June
30, 2006 and $744 per employee per month from July 1, 2006–June 30, 2007), and
information on the classification system (Department of Personnel (DOP) will
retain the oversight of the new classification system). On November 30, the Management Team members
of both the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf will be meeting
with Eva Santos, Director of the Labor Relations Office and Steve McLain,
Deputy Director. Eva and Steve will be
providing more detailed information regarding the WFSE master agreement which
will go into effect on July 1, 2005.
Merit
System Rules: Beverley Burdette, Small Agency Client
Services representative from the Department of Personnel met with April Rounds,
Human Resources Manager from the School for the Deaf and I to go over some of
the DOP changes including the new classification system and the training that
DOP will be providing to agencies.
Because most of our staff members are covered under collective
bargaining agreements, we will have to determine how all these pieces of Civil
Service Reform will work together and how to meet the new statewide
requirements. Beverley will also be participating in the training with the
Management Teams on November 30.
According
to the DOP training schedule, I will need to attend 15 days of training between
now and the first of June 2005, in addition to the Collective Bargaining
Agreement training and the training for the new HRMS computer system.
HRMS
System: As with any computer system conversion, there
are bound to be problems and the HRMS system is no exception. I received an e-mail on October 20th
from the HRMS team stating that the roll out date of the computer system has
been moved back from December 2004 to March 2005 for Release 1 group 1. The team still feels that Release 1 Group 2
(which includes WSSB) will only be moved back one month from April to May,
2005. There have also been some
discussions as to how to ensure the project stays on schedule and within
scope. All Change Agents were notified
that we will be contacted by our HRMS Readiness Coach to meet and discuss if any
of our agency requests for system specifications can not be accommodated in the
new system. As of this date, I have not
been contacted by our Readiness Coach, but I will be attending a Change Agent
meeting on October 27th and will keep everyone informed if there are
any agency requests that cannot or will not be accommodated.
The
HRMS group has also begun to roll out some preliminary training on the new HRMS
system. The ABC’s of SAP (the designers
of the system) is now available on-line.
Jessica Sydnor, our Payroll person and I will be setting up some time in
the digital learning classroom to review this material. According to the information sent to us, this
is 4 hour training. As of this date,
Jessica and I are scheduled to attend more than 100 hours of training on the
new system.
I am
looking forward to getting all the training out of the way, so I can begin the
actual work of updating our policies, procedures, handbooks, etc to conform
with the requirements of the new Collective Bargaining Agreements, DOP
regulations and the HRMS system.
Education
What a difference a year makes. When we left last spring we were looking at
declining enrollment and the launching of two new programs. Many questions were left unanswered. Since that time our whole educational world
has done an about face. Here are some of
the highlights.
*Enrollment: We currently have 62 students on campus. We anticipate another 5 students by December
1.
*8% of our students relocated to
Washington and enrolled at our school.
*Pre-School is up and running with 6
students in the program and more students waiting to get in.
*LIFTT (Living Independently for Today
and Tomorrow) is in its first full year.
We currently have 5 students enrolled with another one in the
application process. We are nearing
capacity, limited only by bed space.
Our two pilot students from last year are currently living on their own,
meeting their expenses, paying bills on-time and attending college.
*Our elementary program has expanded
which is great news. We had to re-calibrate
our staff and add another teacher to the program.
*We hired another teacher, Jerome
Buckmeir, to work with our Occupational Studies Program.
*Distance Learning: Here is the information provided by our Distance
Learning Coordinator,
2003-2004 =
192
Students in
online 1st semester – 10
Students in
online 2nd semester – 7
Conferences
– 40
Professional
Development classes
Mini-Braille
– 31
Braille Too
– 21
Intellitools
– 12
Music
Braille I – 19