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Deaf school down to 16 after program moves | argusleader.com | Argus Leader
Weeks after lawmakers voted against closing the campus of the South Dakota School for the Deaf in Sioux Falls, administrators struck a deal that soon might leave them with no alternative.
The Brandon Valley Board of Education last week agreed to acquire the deaf school's 12-student auditory-oral program, leaving the Sioux Falls campus with a projected fall enrollment of 16.
The Board of Regents, which manages the deaf school, will pay Brandon Valley to educate those children at its new Fred Assam Elementary School, which is within the Sioux Falls city limits four miles east of the main campus.
Deaf school administrators say the move lets them focus on outreach services for about 400 hearing-impaired students enrolled in mainstream schools across the state. Critics say it's the latest in a series of steps aimed at making the campus so costly to the state and unattractive to deaf families that shutting its doors becomes the only option.
The 14-acre campus, valued by the county equalization office at $9.99 million, held more than 130 students at its peak in the 1970s. Enrollment is down to 30 this year.
Some tie enrollment drop to fewer course options
Technological advances such as cochlear implants and hearing aids have allowed some would-be students to attend mainstream classes full time. But parents of deaf children attribute enrollment drops to ever-declining course options, which make it impossible for students to graduate without splitting their time between the deaf campus and a mainstream school.
Faced with a serious budget deficit, Gov. Mike Rounds in January recommended closing the campus, thereby eliminating 25 jobs and saving $2 million. Thanks largely to federal stimulus legislation, state lawmakers restored funding and asked that the matter be studied in the ensuing 10 months.
A letter of intent by the legislative executive board asked the interested parties to study ways to improve the deaf school's services and return with a recommendation next session. State Sen. Dan Ahlers, D-Dell Rapids, said the two-year deal between the Board of Regents and Brandon Valley runs counter to that letter.
"We want to sit down and come up with a real plan and look at all the options," he said. "It does definitely create a problem."
Rep. Tim Rave, R-Baltic, sees the Brandon deal as "a very safe step to take" as the state considers what shape deaf education will take in the future.
But Ahlers said the move creates instability on campus.
On Tuesday, the day after Brandon Valley board members voted to take on the auditory-oral program, deaf school Superintendent Terry Gregersen informed 18 employees they no longer will have jobs. Ten of those worked with the auditory-oral students.
Brandon Valley will get three new employees
Brandon Valley will educate the same children with only three additional employees. The regents will compensate Brandon Valley for the cost of those employees plus about $100,000 a year for the space at Fred Assam.
Brandon Valley Superintendent David Pappone said the new hires also will improve the quality of education for his existing hearing-impaired students. The district has eight this year on individualized education plans.
"The benefit to the district will be that we will have some staff members whose primary expertise will be with the hearing-impaired population," he said.
Despite the layoffs, the deaf school budget is not shrinking. Gregersen will use the savings to at least double his outreach staff from six to 12 and increase spending on professional development for school staff statewide where hearing-impaired children are enrolled.
It will be a dramatic shift from this year, when the state will spend $3.7 million on deaf education, the great majority of which is going to the 30 students who spend at least part of their school day on campus. Just $400,000 of that budget is spent on outreach services for the 400 hearing-impaired students in mainstream schools throughout South Dakota.
"If you look at the math, that's not being fiscally responsible," Gregersen said. "It was time to systematically redefine our mission."
Cheaper, yes, but also a better experience
Tad Perry, who is approaching retirement as executive director of the Board of Regents, acknowledged it will be cheaper to have Brandon Valley educate auditory-oral students but said that's not why it's being done.
"We think this will give those kids a better educational experience," he said.
Deanne Curren of Flandreau disagrees. She served on a deaf education task force last year and has two deaf children: a young daughter whose application to the deaf school was rejected and a high school boy who used to attend the South Dakota school but now goes to the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf.
She said the best way for those children to learn is in an exclusive deaf school environment. "If parents wanted those children in a mainstream situation, they would have put them there," she said.
She counts the Brandon move as the latest in a series of decisions that have discouraged families from sending their children to the deaf school - closing the dormitory, rejecting students with multiple disabilities and dropping basic courses needed for graduation.
"It's been a constant push to get that building closed. This is just another step," Curren said.
Ahlers said the regents have left parents with two choices: Get an inadequate education at the deaf school or an inadequate education at their home school.
"They continue to shrink what they offer and expect their school to grow," he said. "It's been their goal for several years now to get to a situation where they can close it."
Perry stresses that decision belongs to the lawmakers. He said he doesn't think the Brandon deal necessarily makes it easier to close the school but said, "Obviously, the facilities and the space can handle a whole lot more (students) and they have in the past."
Holding onto the past, deaf school leader says
Gregersen attributes most parent complaints to a desire to hold onto the past, when the campus was a community where students learned during the day and socialized at night.
"Technology has kind of eroded the culture so they feel they're losing their identity and I don't blame them," Gregersen said. "But we have to think outside the box."
He said the enrollment numbers no longer justify such a large campus. He was asked what he'd say to lawmakers if they asked him why they should keep the campus open.
"If they asked me tonight, I wouldn't have an answer," he said.
But with some developing technology, he said, the campus might play a role in outreach to deaf students in rural areas.
An undisclosed business has pledged $750,000 to develop an online teaching program, he said. He envisions online courses taught by certified teachers - perhaps working from the deaf school campus - for hearing-impaired students throughout South Dakota and maybe surrounding states.
A major barrier for those students is a sense of isolation, Gregersen said. If they become part of a virtual class with other students like them, their school performance will improve, he said.
"We have failed our kids for 150 years. They're still on the welfare rolls," he said. "It's time for a change."
Weeks after lawmakers voted against closing the campus of the South Dakota School for the Deaf in Sioux Falls, administrators struck a deal that soon might leave them with no alternative.
The Brandon Valley Board of Education last week agreed to acquire the deaf school's 12-student auditory-oral program, leaving the Sioux Falls campus with a projected fall enrollment of 16.
The Board of Regents, which manages the deaf school, will pay Brandon Valley to educate those children at its new Fred Assam Elementary School, which is within the Sioux Falls city limits four miles east of the main campus.
Deaf school administrators say the move lets them focus on outreach services for about 400 hearing-impaired students enrolled in mainstream schools across the state. Critics say it's the latest in a series of steps aimed at making the campus so costly to the state and unattractive to deaf families that shutting its doors becomes the only option.
The 14-acre campus, valued by the county equalization office at $9.99 million, held more than 130 students at its peak in the 1970s. Enrollment is down to 30 this year.
Some tie enrollment drop to fewer course options
Technological advances such as cochlear implants and hearing aids have allowed some would-be students to attend mainstream classes full time. But parents of deaf children attribute enrollment drops to ever-declining course options, which make it impossible for students to graduate without splitting their time between the deaf campus and a mainstream school.
Faced with a serious budget deficit, Gov. Mike Rounds in January recommended closing the campus, thereby eliminating 25 jobs and saving $2 million. Thanks largely to federal stimulus legislation, state lawmakers restored funding and asked that the matter be studied in the ensuing 10 months.
A letter of intent by the legislative executive board asked the interested parties to study ways to improve the deaf school's services and return with a recommendation next session. State Sen. Dan Ahlers, D-Dell Rapids, said the two-year deal between the Board of Regents and Brandon Valley runs counter to that letter.
"We want to sit down and come up with a real plan and look at all the options," he said. "It does definitely create a problem."
Rep. Tim Rave, R-Baltic, sees the Brandon deal as "a very safe step to take" as the state considers what shape deaf education will take in the future.
But Ahlers said the move creates instability on campus.
On Tuesday, the day after Brandon Valley board members voted to take on the auditory-oral program, deaf school Superintendent Terry Gregersen informed 18 employees they no longer will have jobs. Ten of those worked with the auditory-oral students.
Brandon Valley will get three new employees
Brandon Valley will educate the same children with only three additional employees. The regents will compensate Brandon Valley for the cost of those employees plus about $100,000 a year for the space at Fred Assam.
Brandon Valley Superintendent David Pappone said the new hires also will improve the quality of education for his existing hearing-impaired students. The district has eight this year on individualized education plans.
"The benefit to the district will be that we will have some staff members whose primary expertise will be with the hearing-impaired population," he said.
Despite the layoffs, the deaf school budget is not shrinking. Gregersen will use the savings to at least double his outreach staff from six to 12 and increase spending on professional development for school staff statewide where hearing-impaired children are enrolled.
It will be a dramatic shift from this year, when the state will spend $3.7 million on deaf education, the great majority of which is going to the 30 students who spend at least part of their school day on campus. Just $400,000 of that budget is spent on outreach services for the 400 hearing-impaired students in mainstream schools throughout South Dakota.
"If you look at the math, that's not being fiscally responsible," Gregersen said. "It was time to systematically redefine our mission."
Cheaper, yes, but also a better experience
Tad Perry, who is approaching retirement as executive director of the Board of Regents, acknowledged it will be cheaper to have Brandon Valley educate auditory-oral students but said that's not why it's being done.
"We think this will give those kids a better educational experience," he said.
Deanne Curren of Flandreau disagrees. She served on a deaf education task force last year and has two deaf children: a young daughter whose application to the deaf school was rejected and a high school boy who used to attend the South Dakota school but now goes to the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf.
She said the best way for those children to learn is in an exclusive deaf school environment. "If parents wanted those children in a mainstream situation, they would have put them there," she said.
She counts the Brandon move as the latest in a series of decisions that have discouraged families from sending their children to the deaf school - closing the dormitory, rejecting students with multiple disabilities and dropping basic courses needed for graduation.
"It's been a constant push to get that building closed. This is just another step," Curren said.
Ahlers said the regents have left parents with two choices: Get an inadequate education at the deaf school or an inadequate education at their home school.
"They continue to shrink what they offer and expect their school to grow," he said. "It's been their goal for several years now to get to a situation where they can close it."
Perry stresses that decision belongs to the lawmakers. He said he doesn't think the Brandon deal necessarily makes it easier to close the school but said, "Obviously, the facilities and the space can handle a whole lot more (students) and they have in the past."
Holding onto the past, deaf school leader says
Gregersen attributes most parent complaints to a desire to hold onto the past, when the campus was a community where students learned during the day and socialized at night.
"Technology has kind of eroded the culture so they feel they're losing their identity and I don't blame them," Gregersen said. "But we have to think outside the box."
He said the enrollment numbers no longer justify such a large campus. He was asked what he'd say to lawmakers if they asked him why they should keep the campus open.
"If they asked me tonight, I wouldn't have an answer," he said.
But with some developing technology, he said, the campus might play a role in outreach to deaf students in rural areas.
An undisclosed business has pledged $750,000 to develop an online teaching program, he said. He envisions online courses taught by certified teachers - perhaps working from the deaf school campus - for hearing-impaired students throughout South Dakota and maybe surrounding states.
A major barrier for those students is a sense of isolation, Gregersen said. If they become part of a virtual class with other students like them, their school performance will improve, he said.
"We have failed our kids for 150 years. They're still on the welfare rolls," he said. "It's time for a change."