[nfbmi-talk] regents to close school for blind

[J.J. Meddaugh]

Sounds like what we went through about 20 years ago. Problem is our LIO 
wasn't very effective for awhile, though they do seem to be improving 
recently.

J.J. Meddaugh - ATGuys.com
A premier Code Factory, KNFB Reader, and Sendero distributor
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "joe harcz Comcast" <joeharcz at comcast.net>
To: "blind democracy List" <blind-democracy at octothorp.org>
Cc: <acb-l at acb.org>; <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 9:13 AM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] regents to close school for blind


http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100806/NEWS01/8060306/Regents-to-close-school-for-blind

Regents to close school for blind



Jens Manuel Krogstad • The Des Moines Register • August 6, 2010



AMES -- A plan to close the state's residential school for the blind to 
focus entirely on providing local services to its students was approved 
Thursday

by the Iowa state Board of Regents.



The Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School will save $2.2 million by closing 
its 148-year-old campus in Vinton.



The school will use the money to hire seven more teachers, two 
special-education consultants and other staff. It also will partner with 
agencies to provide

long-term care and intensive short-term programs.



The campus will provide some services and house the administration for a 
statewide education system re-named the Iowa Educational Services for the 
Blind

and Visually Impaired.



Regent Rose Vasquez said some parents skeptical of the plan backed it once 
everyone realized the school did not have to exist in a single, centralized 
place

to best serve its students.



"We didn't need to have some big campus or some big building," Vasquez said.



"We needed to have a fluid system where there were perhaps some 
administrative functions, but where they could also fan out and reach the 
populations and

serve them there."



School enrollment has dwindled from 119 students in 1972 to 9 students last 
year, as changes in federal law have steered disabled children to 
traditional

public schools.



The cost of educating each student has risen from about $53,000 in 1993 to 
about $246,000 last year.



School superintendent Patrick Clancy said the old model didn't meet the 
needs of students today.



"This isn't about how to reduce costs," he said. "This is about how we meet 
those needs in a different way."



The regents will send the plan to a legislative council by the end of the 
month. The changes could be fully implemented by fall 2012.
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