October 25, 2019
Those present for today's meeting were as follows:
Amy Deegan, ISBE
Arlana Henley, Parent
Mark Peters, ISVI Alumni and Chairman
Sheila Stephens, Assistant Superintendent
Alex Karda, ISVI Student and Student Council Member
John Thien, Representative of Lion's Club and Advisory Council Secretary
Kerrie Rawlings, DHS Education Liaison
Sue Brosmith, Retired ISD/ISVI Educator and Advisory Council Board Member
A motion was made by Sue Brosmith to approve the minutes, 2nd by John Thien and unanimously passed.
A motion was made by John Thien and 2nd by Sue Brosmith to approve the Agenda as written and unanimously passed.
Chairman Peters noted there were no conflicts of interest.
Assistant Superintendent Sheila Stephens gave the first report, highlighting staff reports. She told the group that Educational Principal Aimee Veith and Vocational Principal Barbi Ballard were unavailable for today's meeting and she would report in their absence. In Mrs. Veith's absence Asst. Superintendent Stephens reported from a written report submitted by Education Principal Veith. She said we are into goalball season and conference was scheduled in early November. She said students are excited about a trip to Springfield to be a part of Senator McClure's High School Advisory Council. Four students attended this meeting and they participated in some critical thinking projects. They will meet quarterly. The students reported enjoying this very much. She said ISVI continues to look for paraprofessionals, if you know of any have them call Aimee Veith. Asst. Superintendent Stephens reported on the Al Eberhardt Tournament was a huge success. ISVI did not win but they had a lot of fun. Wisconsin was the winner. Asst. Superintendent Stephens went onto report on Vocational Principal Barbi Ballard's report. She said we have 12 students in evaluation, the most on record in many years. Two students will be starting in the next two weeks, three in January. The numbers are growing. Asst. Superintendent Stephens went on to report that some students are working, some are interviewing. The Work Program is structured differently this year, different students work each semester. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said the ramp is done, there is just a little bit of finishing to do. Chairman Mark Peters said it looked nice. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said all three entrances are now nearly done. She gave accolades to the whole team for keeping students safe but especially Mike Foster with twelve new students along with regular students having to learn the new routes. She said it took a lot of teamwork to get students where they needed to be safely. Soon we will be back to normal. Some new projects are in the bidding process. She said the Business Office continues to work closely with Engineering and other state agencies to get those projects up and rolling. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said Nurse Supervisor Cyndi Spreen recently attended the IDPH Workshop about new State Updates and Guidelines. We will meet soon to be sure we are in compliance. She said Housekeeping continues to work overtime cleaning with all these projects. Outreach Coordinator Michelle Clark continues to work on the North and South Parent Conferences. She works closely with Aimee Veith on Opening Doors. This year Opening Doors will be May 31st through June 3rd. This year we start on a Sunday. She said feedback from parents last year is they wanted an extra day to spend with professionals. Michelle Clark and Starr Lippincott attended the Quincy Conference and Peoria Conference sharing information about ISVI. She said they handed out over 200 ISVI pamphlets at Quincy Conference. She said it's a great place to bring attention to ISVI. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said in Personnel we do still have some vacancies, but Deb Morris is working to fill them. She is getting ready to post for a social worker again and crossing fingers for applicants to that. In Residential Mrs. Pollard is working to improve the Book Mobile Program. They bring books to campus two times a month and Residential continues their weekly trips to Walmart and other stores. ISVI recently hosted a concert by Ioana Gandrabur, a blind guitarist. Asst. Superintendent Stephens asked Student Council member Alex Karda her thoughts on the concert. She said she really liked it but liked her talking more, that she could speak to her as a blind person. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said the Wi-Fi cable has been run through the building. IT is working hard to get it up and running. She said we are looking at updated JAWS and Zoom Text programs for our students. Looking at getting that up and running.
Kerrie Rawlings, Education Liaison for DHS said she is working hard on grant for CTE. She said there are new requirements this year, you have to complete a needs assessment working with parents and students and local businesses to do a CTE assessment of what's needed to do the application, but it is good for four years. She said the Nutritional Program now allows 94% of the students to get free lunches and recently applied for a $50,000 grant for needed equipment in the Dietary. She said Governor Pritzker started a new initiative setting aside state money for K-12 if you qualified which will save ISVI money, ISVI jumped on that. She said there was a lot going on with grants right now for fiscal year 2020. She said she was glad to be on board and learning new things every day.
Student Council Member Alex Karda gave her report. She said they had three meetings so far this year. Leo Tomich is President, Alex is Vice-President, and Bernie Roach is Secretary and Treasurer. They are going to have Officer voting in November of this year. She said the students reported that prom was more fun this year than after prom, but Alex said she thought prom was a little more fun this year too. This year's prom theme is decided, and they will begin working on decorations. The theme is "Through the Decades". She said they have some community service projects in mind. She said they had enough money to get stuffed animals for kids in the hospital over the holidays. She said they would have to see what else they can come up with for other community service projects. She said Goalball had 6 boys and 6 girls, and track had 4 girls and 6 boys. She said they had some new student led activities, Fighting the Torches vs. Technology, Braille for Beginners. Chairman Peters asked when you say student led activities do you mean students are doing it all or is there staff guidance. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said students make the plans and do the work, but adults are there in case there are any questions.
Asst. Superintendent Stephens said she had no reports from the Parent Association. She asked Council Person Arlana Henley if she had any information on the Parent Association and she replied "no".
OLD BUSINESS:
Professional Library: Asst. Superintendent Stephens said resources for this Library have been ordered and they are looking into other resources. She said she would like to remove this from Old Business, we have the ball rolling. It was agreed this could come off the Agenda.
Wi-Fi Project: Asst. Superintendent Stephens said the Wi-Fi cabling has been run and you can see the process in some areas. We are waiting for access to be added. This project looks to be completed by the end of the school year. Council Person Sue Brosmith suggested Wi-Fi project be removed from the Agenda, but Chairman Peters felt it should stay on the agenda until completed to which Councilman Thien agreed. It was agreed the Wi-Fi project would remain on the Agenda.
ISU LVB: Asst. Superintendent Stephens said she was excited to update the group; ISU finally has this program fully online for licensing beginning in 2021. She said ISU was preparing to make that announcement. She said this could be taken off the Agenda as well.
Advisory Council Member Update: Asst. Superintendent Stephens said she did not have any discussion on that. She said she didn't think she would have the answer they were looking for. She said they continue to look. They contacted two parents last spring, but they had other obligations. She said she and Serena would get together and work on that.
Discussing Potential New Officers: Asst. Superintendent Stephens said we can take that off and Conversation Concerning New Members.
New Business:
Chairman Peters said he wanted to bring up a conversation he had with a couple of students that are attending college classes and it would be great if they could have access to school computers later in the evenings in order to do their homework. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said they have greater access than other students. She suggested Mr. Peters have them get a hold of the Administration, we would like them to come and justify it to us. We have some students that are very active and need the extra time. Student Council Member Alex Karda said people say they usually like to work late, and it cuts off at like 9:30ish. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said she thought it was 10. Alex said she had heard some students are working along and it just shuts off and they lose their work. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said it sounded like there were a couple of things they needed to talk about like saving as you go along and paying more attention to the time. She suggested they make a note of their concerns and bring it to their Administrators and student meeting.
Asst. Superintendent Stephens told the group that SIP is revisiting our school mission and vision statements. AdvancED had suggested we revisit that. She said it was not something that could not be done overnight. She said they will be looking for feedback from stakeholders, students, staff and other agencies. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said she expected within the next quarter some of the group may be getting a survey.
Chairman Peters asked if there was any more New Business. Amy Deegan from ISBE said she just wanted to mention that she had the distinct pleasure of coming to ISVI and she definitely recognized the hard work, the incredible students, all the work and amazing things going on, she said really quite wonderful to see that and all the hard work everyone is doing.
Asst. Superintendent Stephens said students have a volunteer who works with students, Lana Shea, who is a tech computer whiz. She loves to share her talent and volunteers at ISD and ISVI working with the little ones. She talked about watching them on video using their critical thinking skills with the pc in the Robotic Program. She said they will be competing with other schools all over the state. She said the kids love it. Asst. Superintendent Stephens said she would provide a link so that everyone could watch the videos, they are great.
Councilman John Thien, on behalf of Lion's Club, reported the Low Vision Clinic had a good turnout. He said they served 33 kids and had some new ones that we hadn't had before. He said we still need to get the information out to people about the Low Vision Clinic, a lot of people don't know about it. He said they are thinking about doing evenings in the future so we could get people that work all day.
Chairman Peters said he had nothing to report on the Alumni Association. He asked the group if there were any other news or concerns.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 10:52 a.m. on the motion of Councilwoman Sue Brosmith and 2nded by Councilman John Thien.
