[Nfbwv-talk] news release

[Sheri Koch]

Interesting article. Thanks Karen for posting it

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 21, 2015, at 8:49 PM, Karen McDonald via Nfbwv-talk <nfbwv-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello, everyone.
> This came from the Charleston Gazette.  Take note that the superintendent is totally deaf.  Could be interesting for us.  The release is below.
> Karen
> 
> 
> State school board hires new superintendent for deaf, blind schools
> 
> By Ryan Quinn
> 
> The West Virginia Board of Education voted Friday to hire a new superintendent for the state Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.
> 
> State education officials said evidence suggests Martin Keller Jr., who will begin leading the Romney schools Sept.  16, is the first deaf superintendent in the schools' history, which stretches back to 1870.
> 
> Keller, 45, will have an annual salary of $110,000.  State school board attorney Mary Catherine Tuckwiller said he'll take over from Mark Gandolfi, the schools' chief financial officer who's been serving as interim superintendent since the June 30 retirement of former superintendent Lynn Boyer.  Tuckwiller said Boyer made $120,000 in the position, and Gandolfi received a $3,000 monthly supplement for serving as interim superintendent atop his roughly $78,200 regular yearly pay.
> 
> Keller, who gave a telephone interview to the Gazette-Mail using a sign-language interpreter, said he's spent 20 years in deaf education, including 14 as principal of various schools for the deaf.  He resigned last week from his position as middle and high school principal of the Indiana School for the Deaf.
> 
> He grew up in Wisconsin and comes from a family of 10, and his parents and siblings are all deaf.  He has five degrees, including a master's in deaf education from Western Maryland College, a master's in education administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a doctorate in deaf education from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.
> 
> He said he'll focus on establishing an extra year transition program that will help students better prepare for college or the workforce before they leave the schools, which serve students ages 3 to 21.  He also wants to establish a STEAM program - science, technology, engineering, arts, agriculture and math - at the schools, alongside robotics and computer coding classes.
> 
> "I'm trying to stay in touch with what the future holds," he said.
> 
> Keller also wants to learn more about educating blind students, and will be visiting the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults in Long Island, New York, to learn to read braille.
> 
> Tuckwiller said 19 people applied for the position and she, state school board member Gayle Manchin, school board Director of Operations Donna Peduto and Julian Woods, who is the state Department of Education's executive director of human resources, screened 10 candidates to select five for in-person interviews.
> 
> A committee - including Manchin, fellow board member Bill White, state Deputy Schools Superintendent Cindy Daniel, Hampshire County Delegate Ruth Rowan, and others, including teachers and alumni of the schools - interviewed the finalists in Romney earlier this month, and the state school board interviewed Keller in closed session at its regular meeting last week.
> 
> The seven voting school board members who called into the teleconference meeting Friday - Tom Campbell and Beverly Kingery were absent - approved Keller's hire in a voice vote with no nays heard.
> 
> Manchin, who headed the interview committee for the search, said Keller impressed her with his experience, vision and ability to be a role model for students.
> 
> "We want to encourage every child to believe that with hard work you can accomplish what you want in life," she said.  "I think, many times, parents and teachers lower expectations for some students, and he is a prime example of less was not expected of him than anyone else, and he rose to those challenges."
> 
> Earlier this year, Gov.  Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed a bill that had passed nearly unanimously in both houses of the Legislature and would have made the schools eligible to apply for grants under the state School Building Authority's "needs" fund, which is about 10 times larger than the fund the schools are currently limited to applying to.
> 
> The governor also vetoed $1.5 million in one-time funding for the schools from a widely supported appropriations bill.  Architects have said the schools need more than $82 million worth of work, and Rowan and White, who is also a member of the schools' Board of Advisers, said the vetoes angered and surprised them.
> 
> In his veto message of the SBA funding bill, Tomblin said he didn't have "a firm understanding of what the Schools for the Deaf and Blind's needs are, to become financially viable well into the future." He asked the state board to "commission an independent, objective assessment of their needs, both facilities and curriculum-related." Manchin said Friday that the board has sent a report to the governor.
> 
> "I actually just found out about some of those issues," Keller said when asked about his plans to fix the schools' infrastructure.  "And I'm looking at establishing a strategic plan with a planning committee so that we can show the value of the residential school program to the state."
> 
> Rowan, the Hampshire delegate, said the schools provide services for more than 700 students across the state, including more than 100 who live on the Romney campus.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Nfbwv-talk mailing list
> Nfbwv-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwv-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Nfbwv-talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbwv-talk_nfbnet.org/slk5111%40hotmail.com