Third Deaf School Closing Proposed This Summer
The governor of PA announced just now that the Scranton State School for the Deaf is proposed to be closed at the end of this fiscal year, June 30th. As of now , this school has an enrollment of 91 students and employment of 77 full time staff . Scranton School for the Deaf Closing?
SDSD which is being slated to be axed this summer has approximately 34 students. Kansas School of the Deaf which may be closed the following year has an enrollment of 135 students, according to the office I called today.
The state assemblies meet between Jan and April. Since it’s only the first week of Feb, we may be hearing more announcements of proposed school closings. Please do contact your Deaf schools to see if they may be affected by the budget cuts. If they are, ask how you can help and also check with your state associations of the deaf about any plans to lobby against these budget cuts.
Incidentally I cannot help noticing as of now, Mississippi, North Carolina and St Mary, all which faced student protest in the very recent years, are not being faced with any budget cuts. Louisiana which was embroiled in sexual abuse scandals for over a year, isn’t expecting any, either last week, according to the articles I checked out. Students protesting for stronger academic rigors and better communication access have already called the attention of systematic negligence to the state governments, so the legislators may have already committed monies for these issues. LSD already received a financial commitment from the state to address poor communication and sexual abuses
Since the state assemblies haven’t convened yet, time will tell if these schools won’t experience the pain of financial loss or not. However it is an interesting observation.
From an alumnus: Save Our Deaf Schools By NealLaugh http://www.deafvideo.tv/video/watch/40853/
Update: An alert reader just informed me that Mississippi School for the Deaf will face the budget cuts. after all. I will need to call the school tmw and find out exact what the amount is as the one announced in the news combines the amount for both MSD and MSB. This is a direct contrast to the news I read last week regarding MSD being extempt from state budget cuts As you know, the figures are constantly changing. So I’ll need to pursue that lead further. Thanks, deafpride, for your tip 
Anytime you hear updates or more cuts, please let me know, so I can upgrade the posts. I will need documentation first, like memos or links to newspaper articles as there had been too many unverified hearsay. Thanks MZ
The governor of PA announced just now that the Scranton State School for the Deaf is proposed to be closed at the end of this fiscal year, June 30th. As of now , this school has an enrollment of 91 students and employment of 77 full time staff . Scranton School for the Deaf Closing?
SDSD which is being slated to be axed this summer has approximately 34 students. Kansas School of the Deaf which may be closed the following year has an enrollment of 135 students, according to the office I called today.
The state assemblies meet between Jan and April. Since it’s only the first week of Feb, we may be hearing more announcements of proposed school closings. Please do contact your Deaf schools to see if they may be affected by the budget cuts. If they are, ask how you can help and also check with your state associations of the deaf about any plans to lobby against these budget cuts.
Incidentally I cannot help noticing as of now, Mississippi, North Carolina and St Mary, all which faced student protest in the very recent years, are not being faced with any budget cuts. Louisiana which was embroiled in sexual abuse scandals for over a year, isn’t expecting any, either last week, according to the articles I checked out. Students protesting for stronger academic rigors and better communication access have already called the attention of systematic negligence to the state governments, so the legislators may have already committed monies for these issues. LSD already received a financial commitment from the state to address poor communication and sexual abuses
Since the state assemblies haven’t convened yet, time will tell if these schools won’t experience the pain of financial loss or not. However it is an interesting observation.
From an alumnus: Save Our Deaf Schools By NealLaugh http://www.deafvideo.tv/video/watch/40853/
Update: An alert reader just informed me that Mississippi School for the Deaf will face the budget cuts. after all. I will need to call the school tmw and find out exact what the amount is as the one announced in the news combines the amount for both MSD and MSB. This is a direct contrast to the news I read last week regarding MSD being extempt from state budget cuts As you know, the figures are constantly changing. So I’ll need to pursue that lead further. Thanks, deafpride, for your tip
Anytime you hear updates or more cuts, please let me know, so I can upgrade the posts. I will need documentation first, like memos or links to newspaper articles as there had been too many unverified hearsay. Thanks MZ
February 4th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Oh crap.
I will be attending Indiana School for the Deaf this evening for a public meeting about fiscal matters that ISD is facing. Due to its high enrollment (390 students attending), it is unlikely ISD would be closed.
Thanks for keeping us posted.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:42 am
What struck me is that the ‘baseline’ number of students will not matter. SDSD’s 30 students, is justified (cost effectiveness) Now its SSSD’s 90 students. That’s becoming bothersome to me. Then, KSD’s 135 students, becomes a major concern to me and to everyone.
Few states have at least two deaf schools, for example, Virginia’s had two, and they closed Hampton. North Carolina had three, and they closed Greenboro. Pennsylvania currently have three, and wanted to close one.
Talking about other states which had ONLY one deaf school – for example SDSD and KSD. That is becoming bothersome.
What is the baseline? Number of students? Number of state schools in a state? Or a positive relationship with state school and the legislature?
Yes, an interesting observation, indeed.
Amy Cohen Efron
February 4th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Cultural center? {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/Jn1LosusvE_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Cultural center? ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/4GMBRxB2Tu”}}}
February 4th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Mississippi school for the deaf and blind got cut around 630,000 and they freeze the position of High School prin. and Supt. They will not hiring anyone this year…
February 4th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Deaf Pride,
If Mississippi does not have a ‘leader’ — that’s scary. Who will speak for your school with the legislatures? I hope they have a strong spokesperson or a strong board.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Amy, I noticed the same thing and was the reason I jotted down the enrollment figures. It’s ominous
Deafpride, I checked into that particular school when I was researching last week and it was extempted from any budget cuts.
Here is what I found back then: In mid-November, the governor ordered cuts totaling $41.9 million, roughly 2 percent for most agencies. Education programs excluded from the cuts included the school finance formula, National Board Certification for teachers, vocational and technical education, the schools for the deaf and blind, student financial aid, and a portion of the University of Mississippi Medical Center
.http://www.sreb.org/publications/2008/08S11_Focus_on_Budget.pdf
If there has been some changes, please do send me a link and I’ll upgrade. These figures are transient, subjected to changes. Thanks
February 4th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Brance, I think it is great idea. Almost akin to homeschooling…
IAD was working on setting up a cultural community center last time I heard, so I don’t know the progress. I can contact the steering director who is a friend of our family for the status of it.
I am wondering if there are any words of students and parents planning to protest the planned closing of their schools at all?
February 4th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901160355
here is the link of MSD/B and other Dept. buget cuts. louisiana Gov. want to cut 5.5 million dollar for LSD.
February 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/37319904.html?showAll=y&c=y
Here is the link LA. gov want increased penalties for sexual misconduct at LSD
February 4th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
What will happen to the kids attending SSSD?
I recently decided to put my son in our local school, but they are not as qualified.
I wish the government would look at our children’s needs.
Why don’t they take a pay cut and put the money to our children.
February 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
IMHO, Lackawanna Medical school and/or Lackawanna College have at least as much to do with closing SSSD as the new budget does. Rendell et al are acquiescing to the financially, politically, and shamefully motivated choice of closing SSSD. It would appear part of the strategy is to gobble up the historic buildings and change their defined purpose of more than one hundred years. As a bonus os the total annihilation of any and all forms of neighborhood culture.
I wonder which academic dept. will eventually occupy the Scranton Public Library’s Albright Memorial building?
Jack Manger
February 4th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Hi There!
From what I viewed on Brance’s recent vlog, I recalled David Kerr’s bringing up about Cultural Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in about two years ago and he inquired us Americans to see if we have our own Cultural Center. Unfortunately, we don’t have one in our country.
You brought up good idea to establish a cultural center for deaf and hard of hearing children to equal accessible, to learn, to mingle, and to involve that will increase their sense of pride, knowledge, language, reading, etc. Not only to the deaf and hard of hearing children, Adults will remain to involve in any social activities in order to balance our personal and professional life including to restore our culture and language eternally.
At this point, I must admit that all deaf and hard of hearing residential schools must saved for our future deaf and hard of hearing children to save our culture and language traditionally in accessories of our modern technologies (VRS, VP, Hologram, etc).
UNITY FOR OUR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING SCHOOLS! Cheers!
Nick
February 4th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
[...] Mishka Zena » Blog Archive » Third Deaf School Closing Proposed … [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
With the economy tanking like it has been for several months and continuing to dive, state govn’ts are looking for ways to cut costs because of fewer dollars. Unfortunately state legislators are looking at every item on the state budgets for the coming year. Not only are state funded deaf residential schools either being closed or cut for funds, but many public hearing schools are suffering major cuts or closings as well. It’s a nationwide problem.
Whether states can legally close or cut funding to state deaf residential schools or not is an issue that may end up in the courts via long, drawn-out lawsuits. This is NAD’s opportunity to do some good for the deaf community. However, in the meantime states will probably continue to close or cut funds to state deaf schools, and the deaf kids’ education will suffer in the long run. Protests by the deaf community and its organizations may or may not be effective.
In adverse times, it pays to get creative and envision solutions.
This is where I think Brance’s idea of a cultural center for the kids is a good idea. Can state or regional deaf organizations raise such centers on a local level with funding that comes from membership? Is this possible?
February 7th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I would like to share some information that I learned during the meeting this morning.
My wife and I attended the meeting that was held at Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 at 4210 Independence Drive, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania this morning. This is one of two meetings that were scheduled by Department of Education of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the parents of deaf children that are attending Scranton State School for the Deaf (SSSD). The other meeting was held at Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit 19 at 12000 Line Street, Archbald, Pennsylvania last night at 7:00pm. It was not necessary to attend both of the meetings and I chose to attend the meeting this morning.
The meeting started around 9:00am and ended around 11:30am. I estimate that there were about 40 to 60 parents, children and other interested people in the meeting. The meeting was led by Mr. Thomas Seben who is the division chief of Division of Compliance, Monitoring and Planning, Central that is part of Bureau of Special Education that is part of Department of Education (I got this information from http://www.pde.state.pa.us/special_edu/cwp/view.asp?a=177&q=110603). Two other people that accompanied with him are Mr. Donald E. Rhoten who is the superintendent of Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD) and Dr. Janet Sloand who is the director of PATTAN’s King of Prussia office. (PATTAN is Pennsylvania Training & Technical Assistance Network and its website is http://www.pattan.net .)
I learned during the meeting that it was totally inaccurate that the programs at SSSD as well as the school itself will be completely closed. The news that we read was mostly wrong about the school being completely closed. I believe that the source for the misinformation is the line item in the budget that shows zero funding for SSSD. If you take a look at the budget that is available at http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_113914_350146_0_0_18/2009_10_Budget_Document.pdf (or, go to http://www.pa.gov/portal/server.pt , choose “2009-10 Budget” in the right side, click on “2009-10 Governor’s Executive Budget”), the fourth line in the table on page E14.18 shows zero for SSSD for the fiscal year 2009-2010 and beyond. What is overlooked is Special Education Transition that appears on page E14.17 (and also appears at 23rd line in the table on page E14.18). This is for the programs that exist at SSSD. The amount of funding for Special Education Transition is $5,497,000, about two million dollars less than SSSD’s funding that is $7,345,000 for the fiscal year 2008-2009.
(As a side note, it is interesting to note that the funding for WPSD, Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and other charter schools for deaf and blind is increased a bit, by about $750,000. Look for “PA Charter Schools for the Deaf and Blind” few lines after “Special Education Transition” in the table on page E14.18.)
Mr. Seben did not have any detailed information on what exactly is Special Education Transition and how it exactly works. His people are in dark about this unusual funding. But, it has to do something with the programs at SSSD. He suggested the parents to contact the legislators to find out more about it. Also, he suggested the parents to contact them to add funding back to SSSD or to ensure that there is enough funding for all programs.
The biggest change that triggered the outcry is only in the change of management. Let me give an analogy. Every four (or eight) years, the federal government has a change of almost whole administration. We see the people at the highest levels come and go. But, the underlying departments and employees in the departments are mostly left intact. For example, the Department of Treasury is still there even though there is a big change in the administration.
This is mostly true for the programs that exist at SSSD. The plan is that both WPSD and the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit #19 (IU #19) will manage the programs at SSSD. No longer will the state manage the programs. In other words, the state will transfer the responsibilities and all the management and ownership associated with SSSD to WPSD and IU #19. Mr. Seben emphasized that it is the goal to keep all or most of the programs intact along with the teachers and staff in the programs. He said that it does not make any sense to lay off the experienced teachers and staff and start from scratch and start looking for the new teachers and staff.
The reason for changing the management is to make the programs for the deaf students more cost-effective. Not all people in the meeting believe in this claim.
Mr. Seben contrasted this change of management with the complete shutdown of the other state-supported program. Scotland School for Veterans’ Children is supported wholly by the state. In the budget for the next fiscal year, this program is completely eliminated and there is no plan to replace the program.
Most of the discussions during the meeting focused on the money (where it comes from, how much goes to the programs, how it is managed, how the flow of money works) and the management of WPSD and IU #19 (how it really works). Mr. Seben did not have the complete answers to the questions on these areas. He suggested people to contact the legislators about the money. He said that his team is working on how the programs at SSSD will be managed by WPSD and IU #19.
Some parents asked Mr. Rhoten some questions about WPSD and its philosophy. He said that he is willing to give a bus trip where parents in the eastern portion of Pennsylvania can take to go to WPSD and look at the programs that it offers.
One parent asked Mr. Seben about the timeline. She wanted to know when the final decisions would be made so that she can plan ahead for the change, if any. Mr. Seben said that he did not know for sure about the timeline. He said that his team is proceeding on the assumption that the change of management will occur (on July 1, 2009) and is working on the plan to make it happen. She said that the meetings should (or must) have representatives from the parents. He favored this idea and promised to bring it to the attention of his supervisor.
There was discussion on IEP and some parents are concerned that they do not have time to make changes to IEP. Mr. Seben said that they could change their IEP’s to fit with whatever their deaf children need. This would be a good way to ensure that their school districts will send their deaf children to the programs at SSSD.
If Mishka Zena is interested to post a copy of the letter that I received from Dr. Gerald L. Zahorchak who is the Secreatary of Education that explains the changes to the programs, let me know and I will email a copy to her.
Lest I take things for granted, I want to say that I really do appreciate the efforts of the Department of Education to provide meetings at a very short notice and to give the parents an opportunity to express their concerns and to ask the questions.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
April 24th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
The Scranton State School for the Deaf has 105 students K-12. It has a rich 129 year history and is the only state-owned and state-operated school for the Deaf in Pennsylvania. Governor Ed Rendell and his intellectually-challenged Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak and the morally-challenged Director of Special Education John Tomassini devised this ill-conceived plan to close SSSD. All the fine teachers, staff members, parents, and students are being thrown under the Greyhounds. There’s no transition plan in place, except for a vague venture apparently conducted solely by the private Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, 5-6 hours away in Pittsburgh, or perhaps for a year in Scranton! I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that Scranton’s Marywood College will take over the valuable Scranton State School for the Deaf land and buildings after all the deaf kids are abandoned. It’s all about money. Just this fundamental question to Rendell, Zahorchak, and Tomassini: What does it avail a man to gain a fortune yet lose his soul?
April 29th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
i do agree with scranton state school for the deaf and we will keep fighting to save our school and the governor rendell is making too much mistakes and bob mellow turned his back on us and that is un acceptable because western psennslyvania school for the deaf is a private school it is not a state school cause we own scranton state school for the deaf for 129 years
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:19 am
North Carolina has proposed closing both Deaf scholls and combining with the Blind school
June 4th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Both North Carolina schools are on the chopping block right now. The general assembly is considering closing both and moving the kids to the school for the blind in Raleigh, where superintendent Pearson said they can have “better access to speech pathologists and audiologists.”
We’re protesting, but I worry that this time it’s really going to happen.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:02 am
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September 20th, 2009 at 12:38 am
hello… there is something that i believe strongly..here it is: there is nothing being old fashioned school and/or whatever it may be..it is the school that truly teaches good things to the deaf students.. it doesnt have to have the technoly or a center for the deaf to meet and learn..that is the “Big Brother” system. please do not involve big brother with the deaf school,system and history. Big Brother is trying to destroy the history of the deaf..there is other way we can do to improve the school’s system and teaching..how about fund raising to have a school of our own..please let me know what you have to say ..sept.20th 2009 bobbiesilver!