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Regents take aim at deaf school | argusleader.com | Argus Leader
With only five students left on the 14-acre Sioux Falls campus, the Board of Regents wants to close the South Dakota School for the Deaf at the end of the school year.
The bilingual-bicultural program, which uses American Sign Language and English, would move to a mainstream school. Meanwhile, students interested in a residential school could be transferred to a deaf school in another state, probably Iowa.
The moves would save an estimated $678,000 next year by cutting the equivalent of 13.9 full-time jobs, according to a budget document prepared for the South Dakota Legislature's joint appropriations committee.
Enrollment at the deaf school campus has been dwindling for years as hearing aid improvements have made it easier for hearing-impaired students to attend mainstream schools. And when the school closed its dormitories and dropped basic classes, families found fewer reasons to sign up.
The bulk of the assistance the regents now provide to hearing-impaired students is at mainstream schools throughout the state. The regents' 12 outreach workers - twice the number from last year - are helping 390 such students this year.
Regents: Numbers create inefficiency
With so few students on campus, maintaining a separate school for deaf students has become exceedingly expensive: $288,000 per student this year, Board of Regents Executive Director Jack Warner told lawmakers last month.
"I certainly get very concerned about what that costs, but more important than costs what we're able to deliver when we don't have a critical mass of students," Warner said in an interview Monday.
The plan to outsource the bilingual-bicultural program looks a lot like what the regents did this school year with the auditory-oral program. The regents are paying the Brandon Valley School District to educate those 11 students at Fred Assam Elementary. No school district has been identified for the bilingual-bicultural program.
Warner said the Brandon Valley program costs the state $48,000 per student, while out-of-state residential placement would cost $90,000 per student.
As for the deaf school grounds, the regents propose leasing portions of it to local government. The proceeds would supplant some of the state general fund dollars that pay for deaf education.
Mismanagement, deaf leaders says
If lawmakers close the deaf school, it won't be without a fight from deaf community leaders, who attribute the school's decline to mismanagement.
Bobbie Beth Scoggins, president of the National Association of the Deaf, said the deaf community was allowed no input on the regents' plans and the campus still could be an important resource for deaf education.
The regents' plan is not well thought-out, she said, arguing the Department of Education is in a better position to make such decisions.
"We need better educational leaders in this state and we feel the Department of Education would have the people on board who... could at least begin to address some of the (issues)," she said.
Senate Joint Resolution 1 proposed amending the state constitution to remove the deaf school from the responsibilities of the regents, making way for a possible transfer to the DOE. But its sponsor, Sen. Al Novstrup, R-Aberdeen, killed the bill last week, saying he's confident the parties can resolve their differences without a constitutional amendment.
"Everybody is willing to talk," he explained.
Nikki Darland, coordinator for the Coalition for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, said keeping the deaf school in the constitution affords those students some protection. Nonetheless, she feels strongly that the DOE should take control.
Sen. Dan Ahlers, D-Dell Rapids, also wants to see deaf education shifted to the DOE.
"The ideal goal, as I see it, would be for a contract between the Board of Regents and Department of Education to assume control of the school," he said.
Warner said that barring a constitutional amendment, the regents will stay involved in deaf education. But that doesn't mean the regents won't collaborate with the DOE.
"We will enter discussions with the Department of Education to see how we can deliver this more effectively," he said.
With only five students left on the 14-acre Sioux Falls campus, the Board of Regents wants to close the South Dakota School for the Deaf at the end of the school year.
The bilingual-bicultural program, which uses American Sign Language and English, would move to a mainstream school. Meanwhile, students interested in a residential school could be transferred to a deaf school in another state, probably Iowa.
The moves would save an estimated $678,000 next year by cutting the equivalent of 13.9 full-time jobs, according to a budget document prepared for the South Dakota Legislature's joint appropriations committee.
Enrollment at the deaf school campus has been dwindling for years as hearing aid improvements have made it easier for hearing-impaired students to attend mainstream schools. And when the school closed its dormitories and dropped basic classes, families found fewer reasons to sign up.
The bulk of the assistance the regents now provide to hearing-impaired students is at mainstream schools throughout the state. The regents' 12 outreach workers - twice the number from last year - are helping 390 such students this year.
Regents: Numbers create inefficiency
With so few students on campus, maintaining a separate school for deaf students has become exceedingly expensive: $288,000 per student this year, Board of Regents Executive Director Jack Warner told lawmakers last month.
"I certainly get very concerned about what that costs, but more important than costs what we're able to deliver when we don't have a critical mass of students," Warner said in an interview Monday.
The plan to outsource the bilingual-bicultural program looks a lot like what the regents did this school year with the auditory-oral program. The regents are paying the Brandon Valley School District to educate those 11 students at Fred Assam Elementary. No school district has been identified for the bilingual-bicultural program.
Warner said the Brandon Valley program costs the state $48,000 per student, while out-of-state residential placement would cost $90,000 per student.
As for the deaf school grounds, the regents propose leasing portions of it to local government. The proceeds would supplant some of the state general fund dollars that pay for deaf education.
Mismanagement, deaf leaders says
If lawmakers close the deaf school, it won't be without a fight from deaf community leaders, who attribute the school's decline to mismanagement.
Bobbie Beth Scoggins, president of the National Association of the Deaf, said the deaf community was allowed no input on the regents' plans and the campus still could be an important resource for deaf education.
The regents' plan is not well thought-out, she said, arguing the Department of Education is in a better position to make such decisions.
"We need better educational leaders in this state and we feel the Department of Education would have the people on board who... could at least begin to address some of the (issues)," she said.
Senate Joint Resolution 1 proposed amending the state constitution to remove the deaf school from the responsibilities of the regents, making way for a possible transfer to the DOE. But its sponsor, Sen. Al Novstrup, R-Aberdeen, killed the bill last week, saying he's confident the parties can resolve their differences without a constitutional amendment.
"Everybody is willing to talk," he explained.
Nikki Darland, coordinator for the Coalition for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, said keeping the deaf school in the constitution affords those students some protection. Nonetheless, she feels strongly that the DOE should take control.
Sen. Dan Ahlers, D-Dell Rapids, also wants to see deaf education shifted to the DOE.
"The ideal goal, as I see it, would be for a contract between the Board of Regents and Department of Education to assume control of the school," he said.
Warner said that barring a constitutional amendment, the regents will stay involved in deaf education. But that doesn't mean the regents won't collaborate with the DOE.
"We will enter discussions with the Department of Education to see how we can deliver this more effectively," he said.
