[Nfbk] Braille Clerk

[Cathy]

Good Morning,

Retirement is great! I love being able to do my NFB work during the day as
apposed to having to come home and do it in the evening. I want to give you
an up-date on the Braille clerk situation at Jeff County. As if it isn't bad
enough that they hired one person to transcribe who doesn't know Braille,
they have hired a second gentleman at Contrail who doesn't know Braille
either. I sent a letter to Dr Burman, superintendent. It has been a week and
a half since he received the letter and I have yet to hear any response from
him or the two other administrators I copied, Dr. Sharon Davis, Director of
Exceptional Education, and Prestina Bacala, Vision Specialist. I am not
really surprised. I suppose they think if they ignore me I'll go away. They
obviously don't understand the Federation. I am in the process of composing
a letter to all of the school board members. I will, naturally provide them
with the letter I sent to Dr. Burman. At some point I will probably need
each of you to contact the school board member in your area. I was told that
one doesn't need to know Braille when using the Tiger software. I spoke to
Ann Taylor, a former JCPS/KSB graduate who directs the Research and
Development center at our national office. She says you most definitely need
to know Braille, that Tiger isn't some magic software. I am hoping at some
point I can have Ann more involved in this situation. Donna Garrett, the
resource teacher at Central told me that Ann was the smartest blind student
she had ever taught. Something tells me that Donna wouldn't be very happy if
Ann rocked her boat. I am quite sure we will have to take this to the media.
An old-fashioned picked might be good too. I can be just as arrogant as they
can. I extended an invitation to Sharon Davis to speak at our convention.
Again I have not heard from her. I am quite sure she has no intention of
coming, but sending a reply would be the polite thing to do.

Speaking of the convention, don't forget that tomorrow the 3rd is the last
day to guarantee your reservation at the hotel. Ranelle needs those
pre-registration forms too. We will need to give the hotel catering numbers
for the luncheon and banquet, not to mention staffing our child care.
September 15th is the deadline for pre-registration.

Cathy