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Illinois School for the
Visually Impaired
Advisory Council Meeting
Summary Notes
May 1, 2009
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Present:
Lyle Stauder, Dr.
Derrald Taylor, Trudy Diepholz, Richard Schrumpf, Chris Clark, Lisa McDaniel,
Lyle Stauder and Araceli Avina
Absent:
Amy Grau, Dr. Michael Zost, Jeff Schulte, Sharon Wimmer
Guests:
Robert Kilbury, Marjorie Olson, Joe Lanier, Carmen Dennis, Janet McGovern, Rick
Canode, Paul Drake, Jane Breen, Reggie Clinton, Donna Cockerill, Todd Williams,
Marsha Schoth and Flora Dennison
I. Roll
Call/Introductions
Dr. Michael Zost was unable to attend the meeting. In Dr. Zost absence Dr.
Derrald Taylor, Vice Chairperson, called the meeting to order. Each person who
was present introduced himself or herself.
II. Approval
of Minutes/Adoption of Agenda
Members were asked to review the minutes from the February 2009 meeting for any
changes or additions. There were changes made. A motion and second was made to
accept changes to the minutes.
III. Student
Council Report - Janet McGovern, Principal
A report was given to all members for review prior to the meeting. Our student
council representative has left for the year due to medical reasons, so Mrs.
McGovern filled in today. Students are looking forward to prom. This year prom
theme is “A Night to Remember”. Students are looking forward to graduation,
which is only three weeks away.
IV. Old
Business: Dr. Michael Zost
-
Membership –
members completing terms and replacement members (ICB/NFB)
This agenda item
will be tabled until next meeting when Dr. Zost will be in attendance.
Mr. Lanier would like to see this item addressed at this meeting; he feels it’s
been long enough that there hasn’t been a representative from ICB at meetings.
Mr. Lanier feels that ICB/NFB should split the time. Dr. Taylor again reminded
everyone this item will have to be tabled until Dr. Zost is in attendance.
-
Outreach
program – Trudy Diepholz, Lisa McDaniel and Chris Clark
This group
includes Trudy Diepholz, Reggie Clinton, Jane Breen, Chris Clark, Sharon Wimmer,
Lisa McDaniel and Marsha Schoth. This group has met twice since the last
Advisory meeting.
-
Messages we
would like to get out to the community about ISVI
The message that
they would like to get out to the public is that ISVI should be the hub of
information on education of blind or visually impaired students and how it can
be accessed. The first thing is to create a new DVD about ISVI, however this
can be very costly. The question was raised if there is a possibility that DRS
could find the money. Dr. Kilbury said that an estimate of cost should be
determined and he would see if it would be possible to fund it. Trudy doesn’t
want to recreate anything that is already available on the web. Could it be
possible for ISVI to have links to other sources on their web site? Dr. Taylor
stated that there is a lot of work to create a video and he experienced this
with the Low Vision video.
-
Chicago
Lighthouse to work with ISVI – subcommittee of Ms. Diepholz, Mrs. Breen, Ms.
Clark, Mr. Clinton, Ms. Wimmer, Mr. Stauder, Ms. Thompson and a
representative from the Alumni Council.
-
Mr.
Schrumpf’s gave an update on the status of an advertisement in LIONS
publication about ISVI. Mr. Schrumpf did contact the Lions group and they
have offered to sponsor a child at the Lion’s camp. He does have permission
to do a publication in the LIONS magazine, so he will get together with
Marsha Schoth for an article to be published. This magazine is published
twice a month and is circulated all over Illinois.
-
Partner ship
with MacMurray College – Mr. Clinton and Mrs. Breen recently met with
MacMurray College staff to discuss possibly partnering with clubs at the
school. They also talked about possible Braille classes.
-
Marsha Schoth
met with CVS Pharmacy in Jacksonville regarding a partnership with ISVI.
CVS will be providing prizes for bingo along with having a picnic for all
students before the end of the school year. ISVI is very pleased with this
partnership thanks to Marsha. Many CVS employees are excited about
volunteering throughout the school year.
V. New
Business:
-
It was shared
that the Advisory Council should meet with Grace Hou annually and not just
when a crisis arises. The Council should craft a list of issues and
concerns for ISVI. Dr. Kilbury will invite her to attend our next meeting
in September.
-
The Advisory
Council should also have an annual meeting with Senator Demuzio and
Representative Watson to include any interested consumer groups. It would
be a good idea to meet with both at least once a year to address issues
about ISVI. Rick Canode asked if there was a mailing list that we could use
to invite other constituents to ISVI. Reggie recently took a group of
students to the capitol. Students got to meet the Governor and stay for his
press conference. Mr. Clinton was very proud of how the students presented
themselves to the Governor and Representative Watson. Many questions were
asked by our students.
-
ISVI needs a
transition coordinator ASAP. Mrs. Breen explained that this is being
covered with current staff. Mr. Williams works with Bureau of Blind
Services, but there seems to be a gap for kids with Development
Disabilities.
-
ISVI needs to
get classroom aid positions back (ISD lost no staff at all). At this time,
those positions were lost to budget requirements. We still have three
educator positions that need to be filled starting the school year. Last
year we posted the position, was ready to interview and Springfield pulled
the posting. We filled two positions with subs all year. This ended up
taking most of our money that we had reserved for subs.
-
Dr. Kilbury
addressed the issue regarding ISD. ISD has a larger population of students,
and their population goes up all the time. We need to remember that we
can’t hire beyond our headcount. Dr. Taylor is worried that we are hiring
educators who don’t have a vision background, which is not in the best
interest of the students. Mr. Clinton explained that we ask that the
applicants be vision certified. The problem is that we have graduates from
ISU that are looking and are qualified for the jobs, but with the lengthy
process the State of Illinois has we end up losing them. Dr. Kilbury
reminded everyone that ISVI isn’t the only state agency that lost
headcount. There was a third of rehabilitation counselors that were let
go. You have to remember that this also puts a big impact on other
departments as well. Mrs. McGovern questioned if there could be an
incentive program to have educators become vision certified. Mr. Clinton
stated that once they have been certified they would receive a 5% increase.
Ms. Clark stated that we do need more educators in the vision field. Mr.
Stauder asked if CMS is getting the word out that we need vision certified
educators. Mr. Clinton explained that we post on many web sites IASA is
one.
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ISVI needs to
have representatives from the Lighthouse come down once a year and do
vocational evaluations starting at age 16, so that our teens can work on
those vocational goals. Kelsey Thompson is from the Lighthouse and is
willing to work with ISVI.
-
ISVI needs to
invite the Four Rivers special education staff to ISVI for a transition
meeting and get their students paperwork filled out at that meeting. Mrs.
Breen explained that we have students on a waiting list for services. Mr.
Drake explained that ISVI does provide information to all parents prior to
their child graduating.
-
ISVI needs to
work with local agencies on placement referrals and help parents locate
agencies in their home districts, by working with their local transition
coordinator. Mr. Drake explained that ISVI does provide information to all
parents prior to their child graduating.
-
Secure
funding for the Parent-Infant Institute – Dr. Taylor asked if we were set
for this year regarding our budget for the Parent-Infant program. Mr.
Clinton replied that at this time ISVI is. The Parent-Infant program has
been funded through ISBE grants. Mrs. McGovern explained that there will be
some changes this year. The name will be changed to Opening Doors. Mr.
Clinton explained that we are moving in a different direction in order to
serve more families and gain more families. Ms. Clark brought up the issue
of trying to get more fathers here and getting them more involved.
-
ISVI needs to
encourage DHS to add solar panels to our campus to help decrease the cost of
hot water and electricity in the dorms and laundry. ISVI will be in the
process of converting our heating system from coal to gas over the summer
months. This project has been with CDB for a while with funding pending.
We finally have the approval to go forward with this. ISVI is on a
maintenance budget so this suggestion would cost more than we have been
allotted. Mr. Stauder questioned why the Jacksonville Developmental Center
would be getting our coal that was purchased with ISVI funds without
reimbursing ISVI. The only reason we had so much coal is that we purchased
it before the price went up. Mr. Clinton explained that we received extra
money to purchase the coal so in reality it didn’t come out of our
maintenance budget. We do anticipate that heating the campus with gas will
cost more.
-
ISVI needs to
explore how we can get more of ISVI staff Braille literate – Mr. Clinton
explained that we have addressed this issue with staff in the past. Once
staff found out the cost, they were no longer interested. Ms. Clark thought
that maybe with funding we could have a workshop for two days in the summer
& fall. She will try to research and see if there could be a grant for this
purpose. Mr. Clinton replied that this would have to be on a voluntary
basis as we would not be able to pay them for their time. Mrs. Breen
explained that even we could get a stipend to cover the cost of a book. Mr.
Stauder inquired if DHS could fund something like this. Dr. Kilbury said if
there were funds we could look into doing something like this. However, at
this point the State’s budget has not even been approved. Mrs. Breen stated
that with ISD they have worked with the local high schools and students have
gone into deaf education. We can possibly work with ISD and the local
school to promote students to go into education for the visually impaired.
VI.
Committee Reports:
Public
Relations - Trudy Diepholz
Ms. Diepohlz has conducted two meetings on public relations. This meeting has
been held with Advisory & ISVI staff. They are working toward getting a new
video and information on the ISVI web site.
Long Range
Planning Dr. Taylor
Dr. Taylor explained that he is still working on getting a grant from Target and
possibly a sponsor for ISVI.
VII.
Reports:
Mr. Clinton
updated everyone on personnel issues. We have an employee who transferred from
housekeeping to yard maintenance and the accountant position has been posted. ISVI
has been given approval to proceed with filling the two vacant educator
positions.
Assistive
technology purchases as to date are 198 new pieces of equipment. There has been
money designated for staff training related to new equipment purchases. Orders
have been finalized and submitted for the remainder of funds allotted.
Budget
proposals for 2009-2010 at ISVI will be considered a maintenance budget.
Preliminary budget work for next year began in April.
The boiler
replacement project has been given the approval through CDB to replace the two
coal fired boilers and remove the smoke stack. There will be four new gas
powered boilers installed. This will improve the efficiency from 60% to 90%.
This project is to begin in May or June and should be completed by the end of
October.
The ISAC
Legislative Breakfast was held on Friday, April 3. ISVI sent middle and high
school student council members. ISVI students were able to greet legislators
and present them with information on ISVI.
Dual Course
Credit with Lincoln Land Community College has been on the agenda for ISVI
students. Mr. Williams and Mr. Clinton have met with LLCC staff to discuss
this.
Mrs. Schoth
has met with CVS Pharmacy management staff to pursue a business partnership with
ISVI. Mrs. Schoth has successfully finalized a contract for this. ISVI now has
a Business Partner.
DHS Report:
Mrs. Olson applied for a grant through Lowe’s. ISVI would like to put together
a Bistro outside the auditorium on our new patio. This would include buying
tables, chairs, and grills. We should know soon if we have been approved.
Mrs.
Olson is also working on the stimulus money, which is available to both ISD and
ISVI. There are many guidelines that need to be met. This is something that
will take a lot of work. Mrs. Olson will continue to inform Mr. Clinton on
where we are with that.
VIII.
Adjournment
Prior to adjourning the meeting Mr. Stauder announced that he would no longer be
on the Advisory Board. He explained that he represented IPVI, but was not
elected this time. Mr. Stauder explained that Mr. William Bielowski will take
his place. Dr. Taylor wished him well and thanked him for his support to ISVI.
Mr. Stauder explained that he will still be around due to the fact he is our
vender. A motion to adjourn was made, and a second was made and accepted.
The
next scheduled meeting will be held September 18th from 10:00 a.m. to
1:30 p.m.
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