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July 2018
THE LIONS ROAR
Inside this issue:
PFBC 1
Education Update 2
Superintendent’s Up-
date
3
Outreach 4
ORC/Assistive Tech-
nology
5
Summer Camp 6
Upcoming Events/
Board of Trustees
7
The Lions Roar
People can now connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. WSSB
posts updates to these sites which include daily happenings,
activities, in-clement weather updates, kudos, and other fun and
important information.
To stay updated, you can find us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/sch4blind and Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/sch4blind.
The Pacific Foundation for Blind Children has much to be
grateful for. We are honored to provide assistance to kids and
babies with blindness or visual im-pairments. Due to the generosity
of our amazing donors, we are able to supply adaptive technology,
provide low vision exams and devices, and fund pro-grams that
enabled kids to try sports, music, recreation, and art expression.
We couldn’t be more grateful to our donors, corporate sponsors and
volunteers that allow us to accomplish these wonderful things. The
PFBC Board Members felt it was high-time to hold an appreciation
event specifically to thank our sponsors and celebrate the amazing
work and projects made possible by their kindness. We are pleased
to announce that our first ever “Pacific Foundation for Blind
Children Summer Friendraiser” will be held on August 16 at the
beautiful Lynch Family Estate in Vancouver. The evening will
feature tastings from area wineries, catered appetizers by Beaches,
enter-tainment and a themed-basket silent auction, all in a
luxurious indoor-outdoor setting. To help make the evening
possible, we are blessed to have corporate sponsor-ship from iQ
Credit Union, a long time PFBC supporter; in-kind support from
Stavalaura Vineyards and Windy Hills Winery of Ridgefield, WA, and
Matranga Vineyards of LaCenter, WA; and numerous basket donors.
It’s going to be a great evening! The event kicks off at 5:30pm and
wraps up about 8:30pm. Consider joining us for a fun evening of
celebration, comradery, food and wine, and also learn more about
what the Foundation is currently working on. There is no admission
fee! Each guest will receive five tasting to-kens and more will be
available for purchase. Full pours of wine will be availa-ble, as
well as appetizers and soft drinks. If you are interested in
donating a themed-basket for the silent auction, please contact
JaReda Webb at [email protected] or 360-947-3324. Let your
creativity run wild and come up with the event’s most unique
basket. It’s so much fun to see the variety and cleverness of
donated auction baskets! Thanks for all your past support. We look
forward to visiting with you on Au-gust 16! Have a wonderful
summer!
Pacific Foundation for Blind Children (PFBC) By JaReda Webb,
PFBC Executive Director
mailto:[email protected]
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Page 2 The Lions Roar Page 2 THE LIONS ROAR
The 2017-18 school year marks the 2nd year of WSSB's Short
Course offerings. During this past year, the Short Course program
has served nearly 40 students by providing intensive instruction
that is focused on a specific domain of the Expanded Core
Curriculum in a dozen different course offer-ings. The Expanded
Core Curriculum (ECC) is the cornerstone of the educational
services provided by Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI) and
Orien-tation and Mobility (O&M) Specialists. At WSSB, Short
Course is one method of serving students that do not attend the
year long compre-hensive programs as a day or residential student.
Taught by TVI/COMS Jeff Bowler, WSSB's Short Course is at no cost
to students or districts, and is a supplementary educational option
for students with visual impairments in Washington. Short Course
students are provided with transportation along with full-time WSSB
students, stay in the cottages, par-ticipate in recreation
activities, and are given many opportunities to develop
friendships. The skills learned in the Short Course can be applied
after the course is over, yet, the lasting impact of Short Course
lies within more intangible areas. Computer skills, cooking, and
mobility are hard skills that can be instructed, measured, and
observed later in school or at home. Those are important areas to
see growth in, however, the truly impactful change that Short
Course strives to support include increased self-determination
skills, a reduction in self-limiting beliefs, an understanding of
the impacts of their vis-ual impairments and greater confidence
with utiliz-ing individualized strategies and accommodations. The
role of TVIs is to provide instruction in the ECC, but it can be
challenging to cover all of the areas included within the ECC. One
of 9 areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum is compensatory skills,
which includes modes of communication and braille instruction that
provide access for students to the general curriculum. This is the
most com-monly prioritized area in a students Individualized
Education Program. The other areas of the ECC
are: Technology/Assistive Technology; Social In-teraction;
Career Education; Recreation and Lei-sure; Independent Living
Skills; Orientation and Mobility; Self-Determination; and Sensory
Effi-ciency. Over the past year, WSSB Principal Sean McCor-mick has
visited with many Special Education Di-rectors in Washington to
share about programs held at WSSB's Vancouver campus. Within the
presenta-tion to directors, McCormick provided a brief over-view of
the ECC and then asked the directors which of the 9 areas they
believe is the most important. Nearly every time, the response
includes self-determination or orientation and mobility. The truth
is that all 9 areas are important, however, it is McCormick's
belief that self-determination is the heart of the ECC. It is
critical that students have the wherewithal to make and act on
decisions af-fecting their own life, starting in school so they
learn how to apply those skills as it relates to their disability.
McCormick shared, "while mobility skills are important, a student
needs to have the skills to make decisions about where they want to
go first and why it is important to them." It's obvious to those in
the field of educating stu-dents with visual impairments that there
is always more to be taught, experienced, or supported. WSSB
strives to offer a range of services that may serve individual
student needs that will enhance the learning opportunities
available to them. Some stu-dents benefit greatly from attending
the year-long comprehensive programs at WSSB and some stu-dents
have great success in their local school pro-grams. Short Course is
that in-between that may help bridge a gap for students that could
benefit from having access to both educational opportuni-ties.
Short Course—Long Term Impact By Sean McCormick, Director of
On-Campus Programs
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Most people might consider the summer to be down-time in public
schools, but summer time at WSSB is somewhat akin to juggling. Each
year, we celebrate and simultaneously breathe a sigh of relief when
our graduates walk across the stage signifying the end of one phase
and the beginning of another. This moment also represents the
beginning of a much-deserved break for many teachers and support
staff. For some of us at WSSB, however, the summer signifies an
in-tense series of tasks, repairs, updates, and summer
programs.
First, I would like to recognize and celebrate our four
graduates in the class of 2018: Monique Cerna, Or-yann Fitim,
Rebecca Haglund, and Klaira Perez. I am excited to see what the
future holds for each of our graduates and know that their presence
on campus will be sorely missed. As Oryann said during her
commencement address, she and her “Senior Sisters” are ready for
their next adventure in life.
Now, back to juggling. Each summer, WSSB hosts a myriad of
summer programs. We have our own sum-mer program that focuses on
the Expanded Core Cur-riculum for the Blind. We collaborate with
our won-derful friends from the Department of Services for the
Blind (DSB) to offer the Youth Employment Solu-tions (YES) program
on our campus. In addition, for the first time, the National
Federation of the Blind of Washington will be hosting Washington’s
first Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning (BELL) Acade-my
at the WSSB campus. We also welcome about 50 education
professionals from Washington and Oregon to the “Summer Institute”
to help prepare them to meet the needs of students who are blind or
visually impaired in the public schools.
To keep things exciting, we add a few more balls into the
rotation in the form of campus improvements, re-pair, and
restoration. This summer we hope to com-plete a variety of campus
projects before we welcome students back to campus for the 2018-19
school year. This summer, each of the cottages are being reroofed,
our parking lots will be resurfaced, and we will com-plete a much
needed sewer-line repair. All of that is in addition to the typical
cleaning and readiness efforts we complete in preparation for
another school year.
With all of that in the works, we have also experi-enced a few
staffing changes at WSSB. As some may know, Emily Coleman has
accepted the Outreach Di-rector position at the Texas School for
the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austin, TX. We are excited for
the new opportunities that this move will provide Emily and her
family and wish them the best. WSSB completed a national search for
a new Outreach Di-rector. I am thrilled to announce that Pam Parker
will be WSSB’s new Outreach Director and the State Vi-sion
Consultant. Pam has over 30 years of experience as a teacher of
students with visual impairments and certified orientation and
mobility specialist. Most re-cently, Pam has been serving as the
WSSB Outreach Mentor Teacher for new and soon-to-be TVIs and
O&M specialists in Washington, while also maintain-ing a
caseload of students. Pam completed her admin-istrative training
program through Washington State University.
Juggling so many balls at once can be extremely chal-lenging. I
am confident in our wonderful team of pro-fessionals at WSSB and
know that we will be ready. It will not be long until we welcome
all WSSB staff back to campus. Shortly after that, students will
bring the nervous anticipation and excitement of a new school year
to WSSB. I find that WSSB, filled with the positive energy of our
students and staff, is truly magical. Bring it on. I cannot
wait!
Page 3 The Lions Roar Page 3 THE LIONS ROAR
Superintendent Update-Learning to Juggle
By Scott McCallum, Superintendent
Superintendent McCallum with WSSB students at the 2018 Prom
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Page 4 The Lions Roar Page 4 THE LIONS ROAR
How is it summer already?!? The school year seems to speed up
annually. We just had our end-of-year meeting and celebrated our
staff and stu-dents with reminders about all the good things we’ve
done. We also came up with new ideas for how to do even more for
our students in the 2018-19 school year. We’ve had a busy spring,
which included attending the Pacific Northwest Association for
Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Im-paired
(PNW AER) Conference in Vancouver, WA. We also had many Outreach
staff and stu-dents attend the Track Meet at WSSB. We even had a
few staff show up to the WSSB Prom, who were then out-danced by the
students.
Recently, our team held an event at WSSB for lo-cal families and
students with Cortical Visual Im-pairment. This “make and take”
evening was meant to connect families, provide a teaching mo-ment
outside of school, and to send families home with something
specifically for their kids. They had a lot of fun! We are now
moving into summer and looking for-ward to our 2018 Summer
Institute for Educators, which is already full and still weeks
away. We also use this time to relax and even reconnect with
col-leagues at conferences like International AER. Then, we’ll come
back next year, excited to start the cycle all over again.
Outreach Update-Wrapping Up a Year By Emily Coleman, Director of
Outreach/State Vision Consultant
Congratulations Class of 2018
Congratulations Senior class of 2018 (pictured below) — Rebecca,
Oryann, Klaira, and Monique! We wish you the best in your future
endeavors.
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Page 5 The Lions Roar Page 5 THE LIONS ROAR
Prison Program
New transcribers and apprentices at the women’s prison
are busy learning braille. The veteran transcribers are
mentoring the new hires and everyone is pitching in to
keep production going strong.
Lean Warehouse Project
Kandi Lukowski led a Lean project with the ORC focus-
ing on the Warehouse and moving materials in a more
efficient manner. The warehouse is looking great and Ian
Goodrich is keeping up with the flow of materials com-
ing in and out of the warehouse. Some of the Lean im-
provements include:
Consumables: Bulky kits with lots of pieces are
now consumable. These include the Light Box kits,
Sensory Learning Kits and other popular kits. Light
boxes are frequently damaged in shipping so they are
now also consumable to eliminate damage while
shipping.
Direct Shipping: APH consumable mater ials now
ship directly from APH to the school rather than
coming to the ORC to be re-shipped. This saves ap-
proximately a week of time sending these items
through the post office via Free Matter.
New Mailing Labels: New labels for mater ial re-
turns have information on the type of material being
mailed including large print, braille, braillers and
equipment.
Inventory: We gave away our excess of kit par ts
in conjunction with PNWAER at the Heathman in
Vancouver. People were happy to have kit pieces to
take back to their students. We are also going
through our collection to make sure that all books are
current and still in demand. We are donating some of
our EBAE novels to other organizations.
Brailler Repair: With the extra space in the ware-
house, we now have a brailler repair/cleaning station
in the warehouse and Ian is learning to clean and
repair the braillers in-house.
Re-organization: Desks and furniture have been
moved around to create a better flow. We now have
a separate station for Shipping so that Ian is not con-
stantly interrupted when materials need to be
shipped.
This spring as the school year comes to an end and mate-
rials are returned, we will more fully see the benefits of
Kandi’s Lean expertise and the benefits to both our cus-
tomers and staff.
Ogden Resource Center (ORC) Update By Jennifer Fenton,
Director
Assistive Technology Class By Bruce McClanahan, Assistive
Technology
Last school year, WSSB in cooperation with Special Education
Technology Center (SETC), offered assis-tive technology classes to
teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs) in the state of
Washington. SETC is funded by the Office of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (OSPI) and administered by Cen-tral Washington
University. They support all public school districts in the state
and any student who re-ceives special education services and may
require assistive technology to access their education. Using JAWS
with Visual Impaired Students Central Washington University,
Ellensburg: April 26, 8 participants Federal Way: April 27, 16
participants
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Page 6 The Lions Roar Page 6 THE LIONS ROAR
Seventeen students attended WSSB’s 2018 Empower camp directed by
Jennifer Butcher, TVI. Students had the opportunity to learn daily
living skills, and focus on STEM, body power and recreation.
Highlights and photos below included goalball, swimming, tandem
cycling, hiking to Moulton and Lucia Falls, bowling, and jumping at
a local trampoline park. Students were able to learn valuable
self-defense skills from MMA Prize Fighter, Chris De La Rocha and
Professor Ian Vossler. Every student enjoyed learning how to
partner dance from Footloose Friends dance instructors, Allison and
Greg Krolicki and Gene Applegarth. Students were put into three
groups and chose a theme song and motto. Each group designed their
own team t-shirts to wear while Dragon Boating with Vancouver Lake
Aquatic Center along with Paddle boarding and kayaking with NWABA
at Vancouver Lake. A fun time was had by all!
WSSB’s Summer School—EMPOWER Camp! By Adrienne Fernandez,
Recreation/Volunteer Coordinator
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Page 7 Page 7 The Lions Roar Page 7
The Lions Roar Newsletter is produced three times per year at
the WSSB, 2214 East 13th Street, Vancouver, WA 98661-4120. Phone
360-696-6321 Fax 360-737-2120; E-mail: [email protected]/Website:
www.wssb.wa.gov Scott McCallum, Superintendent,
[email protected] Emily Coleman, Director of
Outreach/State Vision Consultant, [email protected] Sean
McCormick, Director of On Campus Programs,
[email protected] Jennifer Langley, Director of Curriculum
and Instruction, [email protected] Corey Grandstaff,
Residential Program Manager, [email protected] Lori
Pulliam, Director of Transition Services, [email protected]
Jennifer Fenton, Director, Ogden Resource Center,
[email protected] Bruce McClanahan, Assistive Technology
Specialist, [email protected] DeEtte Snyder, B-3 BVI
Coordinator, [email protected] Danya Borowski, Information
Services Manager, [email protected] Janet Kurz,
Publication Editor, [email protected]
WSSB
Ex-Officio Members
Teachers: Jennifer Butcher, 3823 Edgewood Drive, Vancouver, WA
98661, (503) 319-2712 WA Council of the Blind: Joleen Ferguson, 129
W. Chestnut St, Walla Walla, WA 99362, (509) 529-3415 WFSE Local
#1225: Jim Eccles, 2506 E McLoughlin Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98661
(360) 600-5018 Natl. Fed. of the Blind of WA: Marci Carpenter, 3200
California Ave SW #35, Seattle, WA 98116, (206) 604-5507 Parent
Representative: Krista Bulger, 4009 SE 158th Court, Vancouver, WA
98683, (410) 258-5130
WSSB Board
of Trustees
Congressional District 1: Open Congressional District 2: Keri
Clark, 3119 Meridian Street, Bellingham, WA 98225 (360) 441-2010
Congressional District 3: Dennis Mathews , 2000 NE Village Green
Dr, Vanc., WA 98684 (360) 256-6569 Congressional District 4: Reg
George, 110 Plum Lane #1, Yakima, WA 98908 (816) 721-3145
Congressional District 5: Greg Szabo, 4408 North Washington Street,
Spokane, WA 99205, 503-688-0686 Congressional District 6: Nancy
McDaniel (Chair), PO Box 550, Chimacum, WA 98325 (360) 732-0271
Congressional District 7: Open Congressional District 8: Open
Congressional District 9: Michelle Farrell, 921 168th Avenue SE, WA
98008, (425) 894-2576 Congressional District 10: Berl Colley (Vice
Chair), 1401 Northwest Lane SE, Lacey, WA 98503 (360) 438-5783
2018-2019
Upcoming Events
August All Staff Training August 21 On Campus Staff Training
August 22 Teacher Preparatory Day August 23 Student Registration
& Ice Cream Social August 27 First Day of School August 28
September Labor Day September 3 1st Day of Distance Learning
Classes September 4 Goalball Season September 4-November 8 Birth to
3 PIP Day September 7 (10-11:30am) Short Course: Opportunity
Knocks—Opening the door to better low vision access September 17-21
Board of Trustees Meeting September 21 (11am) Staff v. Student
Goalball Match September 26
October Short Course: Camp Magruder zone: Where the forest meets
the ocean October 1-4 NW Environmental Science Camp (Magruder)
October 1-4 COSB Annual Conference October 3 APH Annual Conference
October 4-6 Picture Day October 9 Birth to 3 PIP Day October 12
(10am-11:30am)
