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Scranton State School for the Deaf in jeopardy
Scranton State School for the Deaf in jeopardy | News | thetimes-tribune.com - The Times-Tribune
The Scranton State School for the Deaf, the only state-owned school of its kind, may close at the end of this school year unless it finds a new source of money.
Funding for the school is eliminated in Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed 2009-10 budget, released Wednesday.
Instead, plans are in the works for the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit to partner with the nonprofit Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf to provide services — likely at the 10-acre campus in the city’s Green Ridge section, said Donald E. Rhoten, superintendent of the Pittsburgh school.
Meanwhile, area legislators said they are determined to keep the school open.
Dr. Fred Rosetti, the intermediate unit’s executive director, said he is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Education to ensure that the more than 100 students at the school will have adequate services for the 2009-10 school year. He said some kind of residential and day service for deaf students would likely still be provided in Scranton.
The School for the Deaf was budgeted to receive $8.2 million in the 2008-09 budget, but Mr. Rendell pared that sum in the fall during a first round of budget cuts.
State Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak, Ed.D., said the cost of the school was too much for the state. About $5 million of special-education funding is included in the 2009-10 budget to assist in the transition.
“We think there is a better way, a more optimal way,” he said at a budget briefing Wednesday in Harrisburg. Dr. Zahorchak added that the cost per student was about $80,000.
At the school’s campus, the news hit like a bolt out of the blue.
Superintendent Monita Hara, Ed.D., did not learn what Mr. Rendell planned to propose until Tuesday at 8 p.m., when she participated in a teleconference call with Dr. Zahorchak.
He informed her that representatives of the department and the governor’s office would be at the school Wednesday to meet with management, staff and students.
“Basically, it’s like a bomb being dropped,” said Margaret Matisko, president of the board of trustees, who spoke with Dr. Zahorchak late Tuesday. “When we brought the news forward (Wednesday morning), everybody was surprised and disappointed.”
Founded in 1880 as a class for eight deaf children, the school started in the basement of a church in downtown Scranton. Through the efforts of Jacob M. Koehler, a deaf man from the area, a coal company donated the land where the school now stands.
By authority of a 1913 state legislative act, the school became property of the state and was renamed Pennsylvania State Oral School for the Deaf. In 1976, the school’s name was changed to its current designation, the Scranton State School for the Deaf.
The school employs 75 faculty and staff members and serves 107 students from birth to 21 years of age. Dr. Hara said about half of the students, who come from 53 of the state’s 67 counties, are enrolled in the residential program — they come to the campus on Monday morning and return home Friday evening.
“It’s most definitely a shock,” said Dr. Hara, who spent most of the day in meetings. “The students were highly emotional hearing this news. They are like brothers and sisters to each other. The older ones look out for the younger ones, and they care about each other.”
She said parents were supposed to be informed about the elimination of state funding in a letter from the department.
“The parents many times have fought to get their children in here,” she said. “It’s just sad to me that now they have to fight to let them stay here.”
Dr. Hara said she had no details about the proposed partnership between the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and intermediate unit.
Mr. Rhoten, who is deaf, said through an interpreter that he is hopeful the relationship between the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and the intermediate unit will include the continued employment of some of the faculty and staff employed at the school.
The Pittsburgh school is one of four charter schools for the deaf and blind in the state, and unlike the Scranton school, is not owned by the state, Mr. Rhoten said. The school is funded by students’ home districts, the state and by donations, he added.
“We’re interested in serving kids, that’s our commitment,” Mr. Rhoten said. “We want to minimize the negative impact this may have on the community.”
Area legislators said they were opposed to the school’s closure.
In a statement, Sen. Robert Mellow, D-22, said he was outraged by the decision and was offended the state made no effort to discuss the plans with school officials or legislators prior to Tuesday night.
Mr. Mellow also said he was offended that the education department bypassed school officials and sent an “overnight letter” to parents Tuesday informing them of the closure.
Rep. Ken Smith, D-112, said he was informed of the intent to close the school by two Department of Education officials who were waiting in his Harrisburg office when he arrived Wednesday.
He vowed to resist any attempt to shut down the facility, asking how the state could put a price-tag “on those who are in most need among us.”
Ms. Matisko said she has promised students the board will do everything it can to keep them together and would have preferred that there was a plan in place to do that before the governor made his announcement.
“It may not be called Scranton State School for the Deaf, but there will be a program,” she said. “The word used was ‘hopeful.’ All of us are hopeful that will occur.”
Scranton State School for the Deaf in jeopardy | News | thetimes-tribune.com - The Times-Tribune
The Scranton State School for the Deaf, the only state-owned school of its kind, may close at the end of this school year unless it finds a new source of money.
Funding for the school is eliminated in Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed 2009-10 budget, released Wednesday.
Instead, plans are in the works for the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit to partner with the nonprofit Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf to provide services — likely at the 10-acre campus in the city’s Green Ridge section, said Donald E. Rhoten, superintendent of the Pittsburgh school.
Meanwhile, area legislators said they are determined to keep the school open.
Dr. Fred Rosetti, the intermediate unit’s executive director, said he is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Education to ensure that the more than 100 students at the school will have adequate services for the 2009-10 school year. He said some kind of residential and day service for deaf students would likely still be provided in Scranton.
The School for the Deaf was budgeted to receive $8.2 million in the 2008-09 budget, but Mr. Rendell pared that sum in the fall during a first round of budget cuts.
State Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak, Ed.D., said the cost of the school was too much for the state. About $5 million of special-education funding is included in the 2009-10 budget to assist in the transition.
“We think there is a better way, a more optimal way,” he said at a budget briefing Wednesday in Harrisburg. Dr. Zahorchak added that the cost per student was about $80,000.
At the school’s campus, the news hit like a bolt out of the blue.
Superintendent Monita Hara, Ed.D., did not learn what Mr. Rendell planned to propose until Tuesday at 8 p.m., when she participated in a teleconference call with Dr. Zahorchak.
He informed her that representatives of the department and the governor’s office would be at the school Wednesday to meet with management, staff and students.
“Basically, it’s like a bomb being dropped,” said Margaret Matisko, president of the board of trustees, who spoke with Dr. Zahorchak late Tuesday. “When we brought the news forward (Wednesday morning), everybody was surprised and disappointed.”
Founded in 1880 as a class for eight deaf children, the school started in the basement of a church in downtown Scranton. Through the efforts of Jacob M. Koehler, a deaf man from the area, a coal company donated the land where the school now stands.
By authority of a 1913 state legislative act, the school became property of the state and was renamed Pennsylvania State Oral School for the Deaf. In 1976, the school’s name was changed to its current designation, the Scranton State School for the Deaf.
The school employs 75 faculty and staff members and serves 107 students from birth to 21 years of age. Dr. Hara said about half of the students, who come from 53 of the state’s 67 counties, are enrolled in the residential program — they come to the campus on Monday morning and return home Friday evening.
“It’s most definitely a shock,” said Dr. Hara, who spent most of the day in meetings. “The students were highly emotional hearing this news. They are like brothers and sisters to each other. The older ones look out for the younger ones, and they care about each other.”
She said parents were supposed to be informed about the elimination of state funding in a letter from the department.
“The parents many times have fought to get their children in here,” she said. “It’s just sad to me that now they have to fight to let them stay here.”
Dr. Hara said she had no details about the proposed partnership between the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and intermediate unit.
Mr. Rhoten, who is deaf, said through an interpreter that he is hopeful the relationship between the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and the intermediate unit will include the continued employment of some of the faculty and staff employed at the school.
The Pittsburgh school is one of four charter schools for the deaf and blind in the state, and unlike the Scranton school, is not owned by the state, Mr. Rhoten said. The school is funded by students’ home districts, the state and by donations, he added.
“We’re interested in serving kids, that’s our commitment,” Mr. Rhoten said. “We want to minimize the negative impact this may have on the community.”
Area legislators said they were opposed to the school’s closure.
In a statement, Sen. Robert Mellow, D-22, said he was outraged by the decision and was offended the state made no effort to discuss the plans with school officials or legislators prior to Tuesday night.
Mr. Mellow also said he was offended that the education department bypassed school officials and sent an “overnight letter” to parents Tuesday informing them of the closure.
Rep. Ken Smith, D-112, said he was informed of the intent to close the school by two Department of Education officials who were waiting in his Harrisburg office when he arrived Wednesday.
He vowed to resist any attempt to shut down the facility, asking how the state could put a price-tag “on those who are in most need among us.”
Ms. Matisko said she has promised students the board will do everything it can to keep them together and would have preferred that there was a plan in place to do that before the governor made his announcement.
“It may not be called Scranton State School for the Deaf, but there will be a program,” she said. “The word used was ‘hopeful.’ All of us are hopeful that will occur.”
