[Nfbo-linn-benton] November minutes

Sat Jan 23 13:27:36 UTC 2016

Thank you, Sally!  See everyone at 10 at the front door of the North Co Op at Grant and 29th  today.

Kristen Jocums, JD

 <mailto:kjocums at icloud.com> kjocums at icloud.com

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From: Nfbo-linn-benton [mailto:nfbo-linn-benton-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sally Utt via Nfbo-linn-benton
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 9:32 PM
To: nfbo-linn-benton at nfbnet.org
Cc: Sally Utt
Subject: [Nfbo-linn-benton] November minutes

Hello Everyone,

Well, better late than never!  I’ve been having technical difficulties getting this to send out as an attachment, so, its all below. 

See you tomorrow,

Sally Utt

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MINUTES:  Linn-Benton Chapter of the NFB  November 21, 2015   ****          

MOC 10am to 12pm

Present at the meeting were;

            Arona Rosegold, Carolyn Gardner, John Gardner, Robert Jaquiss, Kristen Jocums, Rosulyn, RJ, Sally Utt, Sara Gelser

1.Introductions around the table

2.  Meeting with Sara Gelser

            The purpose of this meeting was 3-fold.

First, to open an ongoing dialogue with Sara Gelser about issues pertaining to the blind. Second, to have Sara highlight some of these issues which will be coming up in the next legislative session. Third,we as a group, have been particularly interested in what issues led up to the defunding of the Oregon School for the Blind. And, how funds that would have been allocated to the School are being used for educating blind children in Oregon.

Some issues that became clearer were;

            *The Oregon School for the Blind was closed down for a number of reasons. Some of these were that there were only 28 children attending, and only 10 of these were blind. The school had lost its accredation. The physical school itself was in very poor shape because they lacked funds to make major repairs. The school was in a situation where they could not appeal to the community for a bond measure.

            *According to Oregon law, any new text books purchased by a school with state funds must be produced in an accessible format. Unfortunately, this won’t actually help students until new books are purchased. 

            *Oregon’s department of education is set up differently than in most other states. Most states have a direct line of authority between their state department and their local school districts. Each of Oregon’s 196 local school districts has its own autonomy in how they use their funding. Each district makes it’s own decisions about, for example, what text books to adopt. They do their own ordering and purchasing. There is no statewide text book adoption process. In fact, there is no statewide working together at all between the individual districts, and no common “pool” of accessable technology which could be shared among various districts.

            What became very clear to all during the meeting is that blind students need to be given appropriate tools in order to get a decent education, and there is a huge disconnect about how to do this. Spend funding on more TVI’s (teachers of the visually impaired) and personal assistants, or provide up to date technology, which will be able to travel with students throughout their schooling and on into their professional lives. 

It was a productive meeting, and we hope to continue to have a long term dialogue to continue to raise questions about how Oregon uses its funding for the education of blind children.

3.  Old Business

* Minutes

            There was a motion, and a second, to accept the October minutes

*Treasurer’s Report

            $150 was spent to send members to State Convention. That left $30 in our account. Also, there will be more to add as money collected from a raffle is counted up.          Money from this amount was used to purchase pastries and coffee for the meeting today.

4. New Business

Our next meeting will be our Holiday Social, and will take place at Imagine Café in Philomath. We will meet there from 2 to 5 on Saturday December 5. We will be able to have our gathering in one of their meeting rooms, for free, and in exchange, we will purchase drinks and pastries from them.

Looking ahead, in January we will have our business meeting and conduct elections for our board.

** New venue for our monthly meetings

            We can no longer use the MOC for our meetings. However, we can use a meeting room at the First Alternative North Store, located on the Northeast corner of Grant St. and 29th St.  For free!

Our January meeting will take place from 10:00 to 12:00 on Saturday January 23 at the First Alternative.

Respectfully submitted,

Sally Utt

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