[NFBWATLK] {Spam?} RE: {Spam?} Article: School of Piano Technology for the Blind closing, The Columbian, March 9, 2017

[Mary ellen]

Too bad!  I'd rather have a blind person employed in a so-called stereotyped
occupation than not employed at all!  Piano tuning is a significant skill
and people who can do it well are not always easy to find.  The person who
tunes our piano is in his eighties.  

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBWATLK [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Nightingale, Noel via NFBWATLK
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 9:00 AM
To: nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org; rehab at nfbnet.org
Cc: Nightingale, Noel
Subject: [NFBWATLK] {Spam?} Article: School of Piano Technology for the
Blind closing, The Columbian, March 9, 2017


http://www.columbian.com/news/2017/mar/09/school-of-piano-technology-for-the
-blind-closing/

School of Piano Technology for the Blind closing: Repairs, sales going
strong, but longtime Vancouver institution has no students The Columbian
March 9, 2017 By Scott Hewitt

A unique Vancouver institution that has lit up many lives with saleable
skills and career possibilities is about to go dark. After 68 years, the
School of Piano Technology for the Blind is preparing to shut down within
the next few months.

The school's specialized niche has always drawn students in small numbers,
and commencement ceremonies that used to boast six graduates have dwindled
in recent years to just two, or even one. There are no students at the
school now, executive director Cheri Martin said. The last two graduated in
December.

"We don't have students," she said. "We've done well in everything else.
There's no debt. We have strong assets. But we don't have any students."

All of the nonprofit organization's assets will be moved into a permanent
endowment fund, named for founder Emil Fries, that makes "annual grants to
organizations serving the blind and visually impaired community," according
to a statement. That plan was created in cooperation with Fries'
descendants, two of whom remain members of the board of directors. And, the
tuning and repair business likely will continue as a private, for-profit
business under instructor and technician Leal Sylvester.

But the school itself is finished, Martin said. The property at 2510 E.
Evergreen Blvd. will be sold, along with approximately 85 pianos and
thousands of parts and tools that are still on hand.

Busy, but ...

Emil Fries, 1901-1997, was a blind piano tuner and teacher at the nearby
Washington State School for the Blind. When the school phased out all of its
vocational courses, including piano tuning, the outraged Fries reportedly
sold his possessions and mortgaged his property in order to keep the
practice alive.

He launched his piano tuning school in 1949. It was called The Piano
Hospital, a nickname that remains today; the school's cash-generating
sideline is repairing and reselling used pianos.

That sideline continues to be "incredibly busy," Martin said. So is the
piano tuning service that has sight-impaired technicians making a living by
working on instruments in private homes, schools, instrument shops and
wherever else they're needed.

Those activities have generated approximately half the school's income,
forecast at $282,000 in this fiscal year, Martin said. Expenses this year
were forecast at $343,000.

Both forecasts appear to be about right, she said.

"We knew we were going to have a bad year," Martin said.

Also generating income is a small ownership stake in the Neptune Theater in
Seattle. "A share" of that building was gifted to the Piano Hospital a few
years ago, Martin said; selling it might generate an even nicer nest egg for
the new Emil Fries fund. That will be up to the Fries family members, she
said.

But student tuition has never been a big revenue source. The total cost to
attend the two-year program is now $34,300, which doesn't include room and
board. Historically, most Piano Hospital students are not from the local
area, so they face steep moving and living expenses. That's tough for a
blind person who's pre-education and pre-career, Martin said.

Push, pushback

The flow of new students to the Piano Hospital dried up just when Martin was
making a major push for more.

"Recruitment is the No. 1 thing," she said. "We spent the last year trying
to figure out the best way to recruit. We went all-out."

In addition to cranking out newsletters and other materials full of alumni
success stories, Martin reached out to vocational counselors and attended
conventions of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind, she
said.

"These are the people who need to know about us," she said. "If a vocational
counselor has a client with good mechanical dexterity and a love of music,
we want them to be able to say, 'Have you thought about this school?' I've
really been trying to get across to these counselors that this is a great
vocation for blind people. I really hit it hard."

Her effort ran up against professional resistance. Many of those vocational
counselors told her that virtually any field of employment is now open to
sight-impaired people, she said; some even added that they dislike the idea
of funneling blind people into stereotypical "blind jobs," like piano
tuning.

"If you think about 1949 versus now, there are so many more opportunities
for blind people," Martin said. "They have so many more options, and that's
awesome."

But what about federal labor statistics showing that sight-impaired people
remain woefully underemployed in today's workforce?

"I know," she said. "I don't have the answer. I know I got that pushback.
But I also met counselors who thought our school was the best thing in the
world."

Visionary

Martin and the school's board of directors started discussing a shutdown
about nine months ago, she said. Fries' grandson Doug Hunt, a Lincoln County
(Ore.) commissioner, and great-nephew Richard Rathvon, a corporate vice
president in New Jersey, are members of the board and were "very involved in
what was not an easy decision," Martin said.

The final decision was made Tuesday.

Martin and the board spent Thursday notifying friends and beneficiaries of
the school. There are grantors who may want their money back, she said -
such as the Gibney Family Foundation of Vermont, which has supported
Sylvester's training and transition into the lead teacher position.

"I tried so hard, it just breaks my heart," said Martin. "But I'm pleased to
know that there's going to be a big fund ... benefiting blind individuals in
Emil Fries' name."

"When my grandfather, Emil, founded the school there were very few options
available for blind and visually impaired individuals to find work that
provided true financial independence," Doug Hunt said in a statement. "Emil
was a visionary who helped open the door ... to pursue a wide array of
career options, and we know that he would be proud to have left such a
legacy."

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