[Nfbk] Iowa school ends residential program...

[Kevin Pearl]

Iowa school ends residential program after more than century of service to blind students.
VINTON, Iowa - The residential program at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton has ended after nearly 150 years.
The school, which dates back to 1862, has allowed students to live on campus for academic instruction, life-skills training and social activities, but it is closing this week is part of a plan to offer more programs across the state. The state Board of Regents approved recommendations from a study committee last August, the Gazette reported.

The school's closing ends a historic chapter in Iowa.

"It's very, very sad, really," said Kasey Domer, 18, who lived at the school this year for the fifth-year program, which teaches students life skills to make the transition after high school.

Domer has learned to cook, clean, do laundry and even change broken light bulbs. He will study court reporting at AIB College of Business in Des Moines this fall.

"It's really proved invaluable," Domer said. "I feel now I have the skills to confidently live on my own in college. I couldn't have said that before."

The stately campus will continue to house the administrative offices of the statewide system that serves the state's blind and visually impaired students. Some short-term and summer residential programs will also be held there.

The transition from the on-site residential school to providing services to students in their home schools and communities has been an evolution years in the making, said Patrick Clancy, Braille School superintendent and director of the statewide system that serves about 500 students.

"My feelings are certainly very mixed," he said. "I do believe that the time for this change is right. But it isn't without acknowledgment that this is a significant change."

About $2.2 million was spent on the Braille School residential program this year. It's enrollment of five was down from 34 students in 2005.

Clancy said the plan is to use much of that funding to hire more teachers and more orientation and mobility specialists who can work with students in regions of the state.

The plans, he said, are contingent on funding for next year, which remains unknown. Some legislative proposals call for a 20 percent cut in spending.

"Our inability to hire these additional people will really hamper our ability to intensify services," Clancy said.

Leah Morrison, a Waterloo parent who fought to keep the Braille School open, is not optimistic that the end of the residential program will lead to better services for students in home communities.

Her son, Julian Herington, 17, just finished his sixth year at the Vinton school. He will likely attend public school in Waterloo next year.

Morrison said the Braille school gave students "an enormous gift of time" to learn life skills.

"It's a huge quality difference," she said.

Sylvia Anspach, of Cedar Rapids, hopes the schools closing will free up resources to better help students in their home schools. Her 14-year-old son is not a Braille school student and will attend Kennedy High School in the fall.

She said the teachers and specialists that work with her son are great but have limited time to work with him because they work with other students in the region.

"We are frustrated," she said. "I feel for those families who've had their kids in residential care, I'm sure it's very difficult for them. But for the majority of kids getting services, they're not able to provide the services they need to in the communities."
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