Board of Trustees Meeting
June 17, 2014
MINUTES
Board members in attendance: Tom Sonneborn, Norb Johnston, George Balsley, Ruth Moore, Jan
Caswell, Jesse Woosley, Claire Sanders, Bruce Beston, Janice Noble (by phone), Phil Bravin (by phone)
Staff members: Bill Gurney, April Chase
Interpreters: Virginia Clark, Wendy Schneider
Note taker: Kris Lemire
Meeting began at 2:20pm
1. Welcome
Tom Sonneborn welcomed everyone.
2. Public Input
Patrick Harris, Coordinator of the ACCESS program, shared his concern that after July 1 st, he will be the
only Deaf Program Manager/Director at VCDHH and encouraged the Board to consider bringing more
Deaf people to be employed here. Patrick also commented that his program is running well and looking
to expand. He would like to continue using the library and snack bar for clients to build their skills.
Keri Darling from DVAS discussed the standards of consultants in Vermont. She stated that all of the
Regional Consultants are hearing and some are promoting mainstreaming and oral education and she
would like to see more balance and be sure that Consultants are up to date on knowledge and skills.
Jesse Woosley, Board member, suggested advocacy training for the Consultants. Keri agreed and
stated that the Consultants would need to be open to that, as well.
Pam Hoover, Regional Consultant, commented that she has worked at VCDHH for 14 years in various
positions ranging from direct 1:1 teaching to working in the Consultant Program. Pam stated that she is
still perplexed that there is such misunderstanding about the Consultant’s role – they are hired by public
schools and a large part of their job is to work with equipment, train teachers on equipment, and to help
students to advocate for the equipment they need. She welcomed anyone to come shadow her to see
what a typical day for a Consultant is and said she would be happy to present that to the Board or
community.
Nick Lalanne, representative of the southern region of Vermont for the Vermont Association for the Deaf
(VTAD), commented on the feeling that Vermont is in need of advocacy. Nick was asked to step up to
become a trainer for advocacy and wants to work closely with VCDHH and the Board to make sure our
Deaf children have the opportunity to have bright futures. Jesse Woosley asked Nick if he had interest
in joining the Board. Nick said he would think about it.
Ed Peltier, Executive Director of American School for the Deaf (ASD), commented that the Conference
of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf (CEASD) and the National
Association for the Deaf (NAD) have found that the largest challenge is that the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) does not address unique communication needs of Deaf children. It
favors mainstream placements and in turn the education of the Deaf is challenged by IDEA. Ed was on
the Board of CEASD for six years and most schools for the Deaf are a part of CEASD. He introduced
an opportunity to get involved and be an advocate for the CEASD Child First Campaign to make
changes to the law and ensure IDEA appropriately addresses the needs of Deaf children. Jamie
Tucker, graduate of Austine School, has helped to lead this campaign. Ed suggested going to Senators
Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy and challenged everyone at the Board meeting to get on board.
3. Approval of May 2014 Minutes
A motion was made to accept the May 14, 2014 minutes by Norb Johnston. Jan Caswell seconded the
motion. All in favor. Minutes approved.
4. VIRS Update
Nancy Groff, Director of the Vermont Interpreter Referral Service (VIRS) reported on the program. She
explained that VIRS takes requests for ASL interpreters from all over Vermont, western Massachusetts,
and New Hampshire for things such as college classes, medical appointments, meetings with lawyers,
court cases, weddings, funerals, family gatherings, etc. There is a huge variety and every request is
different. There are 25 certified interpreters from Vermont and a larger pool from New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, New York, and sometimes Rhode Island (total of about 40 interpreters – mostly
freelance) and still sometimes assignments cannot be filled. Sometimes qualified pre-certified
interpreters are used. The fill rate for assignments is 99% and VIRS is very proud of that. In this fiscal
year, there were 5393 clocked hours of interpreting, last year was 7003 hours, and the year before 2997
hours (the lower number could be because of a transfer of the database system – regardless the
number of hours varies each year and goes up and down). The referral fee for using VIRS is $40 per
interpreter per day and the non- profit referral fee is $35.
5. Governance
Will Pendlebury, Chair of the Governance Committee, was not present. Bill Gurney gave the update.
There were three nominations for new Board members – Bruce Beston, Janice Noble, and Ed Peltier.
Norb Johnston said that he and Will interviewed Bruce. Bruce is well qualified – a member of the Deaf
community, well educated, and works in finance. Norb also commented that he would be an excellent
Board member and Finance Committee member and should be welcomed enthusiastically. Bill Gurney
said that he has known Janice Noble for about 20 years. She recently retired from her job as the
Director of Special Education in Worcester, MA and is a strong advocate for Austine as a placement.
Janice knows Austine School well and understands the needs of families which will be helpful to us
going forward. Bill also commented on Ed Peltier saying that he is well known in the Deaf Education
community. He is a former President of VCDHH/Austine School followed by his return to American
School for the Deaf (ASD) as their Executive Director. Ed will be retiring August 1 st and cannot join the
VCDHH Board until that point.
Bruce Beston, Janice Noble, and Ed Peltier were all unanimously elected to join the VCDHH Board.
6. President’s Report
Bill Gurney, VCDHH President, reported that was a busy month since the last Board meeting. It was sad
as staff, students, and alumni came to the realization that we were approaching the end of the school
year. Bill believes that the students had as good experience in the past month as they did at any other
time at Austine. Staff members went out of their way to make it a special time for the students and help
them understand what was happening. Jesse Woosley’s speech at graduation was also a wonderful
message to them. Plans for camp are going well and Kris Lemire has done an incredible job. Clint
Woosley plans to return for the beginning of the summer to help with camp and numbers are expected
to be steady (youngest group is still a bit behind in enrollment, but there is still time). There is a new
Lions Club chapter on our campus and Bill thanked Mike Carter and Kris Lemire for their work in getting
the Brattleboro Area Lions Club up and running which will be very beneficial for our camp.
Austine students, staff, and alumni were involved with the Strolling of the Heifers Parade. Mike Carter
and Mare Lunderville both helped to make this happen and Bill believes that Austine had the most
cheers of all as participants moved up the street.
Bill talked about the opportunity he had to be involved in the annual Adventure Day with the Regional
Consultants. It was an amazing day and hard of hearing students from the state had the chance to
come together. They were able to express feelings about challenges they face every day and spend the
day playing games together.
Bill commented on Karen Sansoucy, Director of Education, and Dr. Ray Stevens, Director of the William
Center, being involved with student transition from Austine into other schools and programs and their
help bridging the gap between schools and parents. As of the meeting, all of the students were
accounted for and almost all were in their school of choice. Bill has been working with a collaborative in
Massachusetts to bring three or four of our students together with the possibility to return to Austine in
2016.
Ruth Moore praised Bill for his hard work and asked if he has received letters from the community with
concern about Austine and the William Center closing. Bill responded that he has not had an
correspondence from the community in about three weeks. Will Pendlebury and Bill attended an Alumni
meeting where they spoke and answered questions so it’s possible that letters have slowed because of
that. Mike Carter, former Alumni President, commented that a letter was received that has not been
responded to – Bruce Hubbard is the new Alumni President and he plans to respond.
Bill explained that there is the Save Austine Committee (SAC) that is alumni based and there will be
another committee forming soon called “Austine 2016”. Phil Bravin asked for more information
regarding the Austine 2016 Committee. Bill responded that he will be leading the group and it will be
composed of some alumni and some staff members – approximately 10 members planning to join. Bill
is eager to have other members involved and the progress will be reported to the Board on a monthly
basis.
Jan Caswell announced that SAC requested that she be a liaison for SAC and the Board and she
wanted input from other members if they felt this was appropriate. She wants to be realistic that when
Austine re-opens it will not be like Austine in 1975. Austine needs to re-open to serve the current
community. Tom Sonneborn appointed Jan to be the representative of the Board for SAC based on no
objections.
Executive Session was called at 3:15pm.
Adjournment 5:15pm.