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Mellow says SSSD could remain open as a day school | News | citizensvoice.com | The Citizens' Voice
Scranton State School for the Deaf would come under new management and transform into a day school for deaf students under a plan being developed to avert the school’s closing.
The transition plan calls for SSSD to remain as a residential school during the 2009-10 academic year while the nonprofit and state-chartered Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf takes over management from the state Department of Education, according to state Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Peckville, Senate Democratic staffers and education department spokesman Michael Race.
Over a three-year period, they said, SSSD would transform into a WPSD-run day school offering educational programs for deaf students. An academic relationship with neighboring Marywood University also is being explored.
Details are being worked out, including providing job protection for SSSD employees and a potential arrangement whereby Marywood would lease the property from the state on a long-term basis, participants said. Legislation may be needed to achieve both ends.
The plan, if it comes to fruition, would appear to head off future action on Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposal to end state funding for SSSD in the fiscal year beginning July 1. That proposal, announced in early February, has sparked protests, including a rally today at the state Capitol by SSSD alumni.
“It had always been the governor’s intent to find a way to keep the school operating and serving its population,” Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said, speaking in general terms.
Under the proposed transition plan, the Department of Education would no longer be in the business of running a school for the deaf, as state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak, D. Ed., wants. Also, Mellow said his goals of providing quality education to deaf students and finding a permanent solution to keeping a deaf school operating in Scranton would be achieved.
A major concern of the senator’s is that SSSD will become a political football each budget season unless a new lasting structure is created, said Colleen DeFrank, Mellow’s legislative director.
Senate aides hope a strong relationship will develop between the school for the deaf and Marywood. The audiology program in Marywood’s Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders could be a building block, Randy Albright, a Senate Appropriations Committee staffer, said.
On Tuesday, Sister Anne Munley, I.H.M., Ph.D., Marywood’s president, said the university has no plans to administer programs or operate SSSD.
Marywood students have internships at the school, and would hopefully continue to do so if operations change, Sister Munley said.
Rep. Kevin Murphy, D-Scranton, expressed opposition to the plan Tuesday. “I’m not in favor of the transition plan,” he said. “I am not sure how committed they (administration) are to the transition.”
Murphy plans to deliver petitions bearing 50,000 signatures in favor of saving SSSD to the governor’s office after today’s rally.
Meanwhile, officials from SSSD say they are frustrated because they have not been privy to any of the plan’s details.
“We’re angry for our parents most of all. They deserve to have answers,” Ruth Gerrity, the school’s teachers union president, said. “We’re angry for the public. They deserve to have answers.”
Scranton State School for the Deaf would come under new management and transform into a day school for deaf students under a plan being developed to avert the school’s closing.
The transition plan calls for SSSD to remain as a residential school during the 2009-10 academic year while the nonprofit and state-chartered Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf takes over management from the state Department of Education, according to state Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Peckville, Senate Democratic staffers and education department spokesman Michael Race.
Over a three-year period, they said, SSSD would transform into a WPSD-run day school offering educational programs for deaf students. An academic relationship with neighboring Marywood University also is being explored.
Details are being worked out, including providing job protection for SSSD employees and a potential arrangement whereby Marywood would lease the property from the state on a long-term basis, participants said. Legislation may be needed to achieve both ends.
The plan, if it comes to fruition, would appear to head off future action on Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposal to end state funding for SSSD in the fiscal year beginning July 1. That proposal, announced in early February, has sparked protests, including a rally today at the state Capitol by SSSD alumni.
“It had always been the governor’s intent to find a way to keep the school operating and serving its population,” Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said, speaking in general terms.
Under the proposed transition plan, the Department of Education would no longer be in the business of running a school for the deaf, as state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak, D. Ed., wants. Also, Mellow said his goals of providing quality education to deaf students and finding a permanent solution to keeping a deaf school operating in Scranton would be achieved.
A major concern of the senator’s is that SSSD will become a political football each budget season unless a new lasting structure is created, said Colleen DeFrank, Mellow’s legislative director.
Senate aides hope a strong relationship will develop between the school for the deaf and Marywood. The audiology program in Marywood’s Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders could be a building block, Randy Albright, a Senate Appropriations Committee staffer, said.
On Tuesday, Sister Anne Munley, I.H.M., Ph.D., Marywood’s president, said the university has no plans to administer programs or operate SSSD.
Marywood students have internships at the school, and would hopefully continue to do so if operations change, Sister Munley said.
Rep. Kevin Murphy, D-Scranton, expressed opposition to the plan Tuesday. “I’m not in favor of the transition plan,” he said. “I am not sure how committed they (administration) are to the transition.”
Murphy plans to deliver petitions bearing 50,000 signatures in favor of saving SSSD to the governor’s office after today’s rally.
Meanwhile, officials from SSSD say they are frustrated because they have not been privy to any of the plan’s details.
“We’re angry for our parents most of all. They deserve to have answers,” Ruth Gerrity, the school’s teachers union president, said. “We’re angry for the public. They deserve to have answers.”