D/HH SEAC Standing Committee
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Attendance: Laura Barrett, Jill Bird, Pat Bracken, Mike Brummer, Teresa Coonts, Sue Czaplewski,
Malinda Eccarius, Rhonda Fleischer, Greg Gaden, Sheri Harrington, Frank Hebenstreit, Wendy Herrold,
Tanya Hilligoss, Jill Hoffart, Mary Luhr, Diane Meyer, Nancy Meyer, Donna Moss, Jessica Nickels,
Kathy Northrop, Sara Peterson, Colleen Richart, Vicki Steinhauer-Campbell, Anne Thomas, Deb
Vapenik, Rosie Westerhold, John Wyvill
Interpreters: Kelly Brackenhoff and Nicole Christy
Welcome & Introductions
 Introductions were made by every member of the committee. A sign-in sheet was available to
mark attendance and to update committee members’ contact information. Rhonda Fleischer
thanked Frank Hebenstreit, Norfolk Special Education Administrator, for his time and
commitment to the committee over the years and congratulated him on his upcoming retirement
in December.
Public Posting Information .......................................................................................... Rhonda Fleischer
 A reminder was given that this is an open meeting and there is a time allowed for public
comments. The meeting and agenda were posted more than seven days prior to this meeting on
the NDE website.
Role of the D/HH SEAC Standing Committee ........................................................... Rhonda Fleischer
 A state advisory panel is a requirement of IDEA. The Special Education Advisory Council
(SEAC) is an advisory panel established to provide policy guidance with respect to special
education and related services for children with disabilities. The responsibilities of SEAC
include becoming knowledgeable about research-based educational practices and reviewing
Nebraska Department of Education, Office of Special Education activities designed to improve
outcomes for children with disabilities. SEAC members are selected for a term of four years,
and seek information from the perspectives of their constituency groups. A majority of the
members of the panel are individuals with disabilities or parents of children with disabilities
(ages birth through 26). The members shall be selected so as to represent all eight of the State
Board of Education election districts. Members represent parents and a broad array of
professional expertise. SEAC serves in an advisory capacity to the NDE Office of Special
Education, the Commissioner of Education, and to the Nebraska State Board of Education. The
responsibility of each council member is to advise, (i.e. inform, counsel, recommend, suggest or
guide) the Department of Education, not to advocate for individual issues. Recommendations
are made by SEAC for the consideration and possible action by the NDE Office of Special
Education and the State Board.
 There are eight SEAC committees that are comprised of parents and practitioners from across the
state, and meet throughout the school year, focusing on activities and initiatives related to the
committee’s assigned area of emphasis. The SEAC Committees are:
1. ASD Network Committee
2. Deaf and Hard of Hearing Committee
3. Deaf-Blind Advisory Committee
4. Nebraska Youth Leadership Council
5. Out of Home Placement Committee
6. Response to Intervention Committee
7. Transition Committee
8. Vision Stakeholder Team
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Each committee is responsible for reporting to SEAC. The D/HH committee meets twice a year
– usually in November and March. Most of the committees have a specific and limited
membership. The D/HH committee membership is different. We welcome anyone who has an
interest in the education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. We have a representative
from each stakeholder report at every meeting. Quarterly (prior to each SEAC meeting), Rhonda
sends out a form to the stakeholder group representatives for them to use to report activities of
their group. She then compiles these reports and forwards them to the SEAC facilitator, who
shares them with the members of SEAC. In addition, a representative from each committee
reports annually to the SEAC group about the work activities of each committee.
Nebraska Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (NCDHH) ............................... John Wyvill
 Mike Brummer has been elected as the new NCDHH board chair.
 Crystal Pierce has replaced Ben Sparks at NCDHH as the Interpreter Program Assistant.
 Like the NCDHH’s Facebook page and stay current on what is happening at NCDHH.
 John said this is an exciting and interesting time in the legislative area since there are many
newly elected officials that will be coming on board. He has been meeting with new government
stakeholders and suggested visiting Governor Elect Pete Ricketts page to post information,
funding needs, etc.
 The Interpreter Shortage Interim Study (LR 517) has established four workgroups in the areas of
interpreting, licensure, educational interpreting, and medical/community interpreting. The
purpose of this workgroup is to research, discuss, and provide recommendations regarding the
proficiency/competency of current interpreters and address the shortage of interpreters in
Nebraska.
 John recently met with Tim Lannon, Creighton University president and Jonathan Scherling,
NeAD president. Lannon privately apologized to NeAD and the Deaf Community for the impact
the recent lawsuit had on Deaf Community members.
 John had a meeting with UNMC to address video remote interpreting and the different
complaints there have been regarding medical interpreting in the Omaha area.
Deaf-Blind Project/Low Incidence .................................................... Teresa Coonts & Tanya Hilligoss
 There will be a transition to Unified English Braille (UEB). It is planned for this new code to be
implemented January 4, 2016. The UEB code will be available in all textbooks and Braille will
be transitioning to UEB. The Nemeth code will still be used for math and science but that may
also transition to UEB in the future. It will take a few years to complete this transition to UEB,
and Teresa noted it will be very important that vision teachers have training in this area. A state
team is being formed to develop a State Implementation Plan for UEB.
 Teresa and the state ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) team including a parent, staff members
from MMI, DHHS, and VR as well as the coordinators and director of ASD Network will be
attending the national ASD Leadership Summit in Ohio for meetings and networking with other
states. Together, the states have developed collaborative webinars.
 The state ASD Conference will be held in Kearney April 9-10, 2015. Currently, a call for papers
has been sent out. There are usually around 700 conference participants.
 There are many different trainings and resources listed on the ASD Network’s website
(http://www.unl.edu/asdnetwork/).
 Within the ASD Network, there has been an increase in children with significant behavior needs.
Thus, NDE has hired a full-time behavior consultant, Melinda Henson, to work in collaboration
with the ASD coordinators and director. All referrals will still go directly to the regional
coordinator first and then the coordinator will work through the process and bring Melinda in if
needed.
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The Deaf-Blind Project has new brochures (distributed) and a new website (www.nedbp.org).
They would like to add new pictures to their website – preferably of children. Please email
Tanya any pictures they can use (thilligoss@esu4.net).
The Deaf-Blind Summer Institute was held July 14-17th and had 72 attendees (15 participants
took it for college credit from UNL). Laura Barker and David Brown were the featured
presenters. The overall workshop ratings were very positive with scores between 83-92 percent
for high quality, high relevance, and high usefulness.
The 2015 Summer Institute has been scheduled for July 20-23rd. It will require participants to
complete homework “blind webinars” prior to attending. This helps better prepare the attendees
for the workshop. Teresa is hoping to have Robbie Blaha present about embedding calendars into
effective routines for children as well as another individual from Benetech to discuss DIAGRAM
Center work.
A Deaf-Blind Advisory meeting was held this fall as a webinar. This format was well received.
Another webinar Advisory meeting will be held in the spring.
Teresa mentioned two groups she is serving on including the Transition or School and Career
Ready group and the Literacy Website group. The Literacy Website group has developed a
“Steps to Literacy Checklist” which is posted on the Literacy website’s homepage. This is a
great tool for any student with significant disabilities.
The OSEP Conference was held in July and Teresa attended and co-facilitated a presentation
about professional development. The outcome from this conference was the “Literacy Steps
Checklist” as there was a need to make it more useful for educators.
A new online training called Open Hands: Open Access (OHOA) has been set up for interveners
(the support staff working directly with students with deaf blindness). Tanya piloted this training
as a student. A cohort has been organized, specific to Nebraska, piloting modules 1-4 currently
with Lincoln Public Schools but they are hoping to expand across the state in the near future.
The training is run through Moodle, which is similar to Blackboard. Students are given
homework online and then a facilitated discussion occurs. There are currently 24 participants
completing this training including OTs, PTs, SLPs, classroom teachers, etc. Tanya said it is a
really good training and could be applicable for a wide range of staff.
An “iPad Strategies for Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired and/or Students with
Multiple Disabilities” workshop will be held at Country Inn and Suites in Lincoln on
February 6th and is open to staff statewide. Strategies for how to do accommodations on the
iPad itself will be given. Tara Mason, from Boulder, will be the featured presenter and Tanya is
very excited to have her on board! There will also be two follow-up webinars after the
workshop. Registration is now available (http://www.ncecbvi.org/ipad-strategies.html).
Tanya attended the Law Conference last week and a session that stood out was on website
accessibility. Tanya and Teresa have spoken about changes that need to be made in order to
make websites accessible. Statewide training for districts will be forthcoming.
UNO ............................................................................................... Julie Delkamiller/Jonathan Scherling
 No report provided.
UNL ................................................................................................................................ Malinda Eccarius
 A new Graduate Sensory Certificate has been developed at UNL. This certificate is granted as a
specialization, not as an endorsement (students with this certificate will not be deaf educators or
vision teachers). It is a cluster of 12 credits with coursework in vision, hearing, and a
collaboration of both in order to obtain the foundation and add this specialization to a degree.
The coursework would overlap if a student would then apply for the Masters in Deaf Education
program. Interested students will need to submit a transcript, application, and three letters of
recommendation (the GRE is not required). The certificate has been approved all the way up to
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the university level and a flyer will be available for registration in the fall 2015 once the
committee has given final approval.
NeRID.............................................................................................................................. Sheri Harrington
 The NeRID Fall Conference was held in Omaha with presenter Samantha Terzis presenting
“Bringing the Stage to Life.” The workshop was well attended even though it was the same
presenter as the Regional Programs had present at the summer Statewide Interpreter Workshop.
 NeRID has requested improved communication occur between their organization and the
Regional Programs so that future workshops can be planned without overlapping presenters.
They would also like to know which regional workshops are open to community interpreters and
have requested this information be sent to the following two email addresses:
president@nebraskarid.org and vicepresident@nebraskarid.org. Rhonda Fleischer said she will
send an email to the president of NeRID to encourage better communication both ways.
Nebraska Association of the Deaf (NeAD) ............................................ Jonathan Scherling/Pete Seiler
 No report was provided, but Rhonda Fleischer reported that the Biennial NeAD Conference will
be held June 4-7, 2015, at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln. NDE and the Regional Programs
will be a supporting sponsor.
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) ........................................................................................... Pat Bracken
 Jessica Nickels has been hired as the Omaha VR Counselor for the deaf and hard of hearing.
 VR Act was revised as part of WIOA (Work Innovation and Opportunity Act). Proposed
regulations will be issued in January 2015 with a goal of being finalized by January 2016.
However as of October 1, 2014, many provisions of the act went into effect. Revisions include:
a. Increase VR’s role in transition services. 15% of the program budget must be spent in
pre-employment transitions services. These are services that focus on work-based
learning, counseling on post-secondary opportunities, workplace readiness training, and
training on self-advocacy.
b. Requirement for formal cooperative agreements between VR and state Medicaid and
Intellectual Developmental Disabilities as it relates to supported employment.
i. Calls for VR to play a role in assisting a person under the age of 24 to go through
a series of steps before being placed in a job at subminimum wage (essentially
sheltered workshops or enclaves). The goal is to increase placements in
competitive employment.
c. Increased focus of supported employment services with youth.
d. Alignment of performance measures with Workforce programs.
e. Increased emphasis on services to employers.
 Nebraska VR continues to hold joint collaboration meetings with NCDHH and members of the
Deaf Community. The following collaborations have taken place recently:
a. John Wyvill presented at the Nebraska VR Statewide Training Conference.
b. John Wyvill and Pat approached State Personnel about conducting a training in
conjunction with National Disability Employment Awareness month. This occurred in
October with a half-day training for HR personnel followed the next day by a career fair.
c. Pat is once again a member of the Interpreter Review Board and recently worked on
revisions to the Licensing Interpreter Rule.
Early Hearing Detection & Intervention in Nebraska (NE-EHDI) .................................. Kathy Northrop
 Kathy said it is still a work in progress, but NE-EHDI now has a website
(http://dhhs.ne.gov/publichealth/EHDI/Pages/EHDIHome.aspx). The 2013 Annual Report is on
the site.
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Two task forces have been formed. One is for CMV and the other is to train hospital personnel
who share the hearing screening results with parents. Please let Kathy
(Kathy.Northrop@nebraska.gov) know if anyone is interested in serving on either of these task
forces.
The next HRSA grant requires PDSAs, which are small tests of change (trying an activity on a
small scale and if it works expand it). Those PDSAs focus on 1) Birthing facilities providing
NE-EHDI with a second point of contact including name, phone number, and other information;
2) Outpatient appointment made prior to discharge; and 3) Reporting period hearing screening
results by Early Head Start Programs.
Earlier this year, the NE-EHDI Program received notice that the next round of three-year funding
had been approved by HRSA provided there are federal funds but it came with a $50,000 cut.
Kathy distributed a document compiled by Jim Beavers, Data Analyst for the Program, that
showed the 1-3-6 statistics. One, three, six are guidelines used by all of the states as target goals
for their hearing screening programs. It translates to: screen all newborns by one month of age,
diagnosis for those who refer by three months of age, and if diagnosed with a hearing loss,
enrolled in Early Development Network by six months of age. A question was asked why only
24 out of 50 confirmed babies with hearing loss where referred to EDN. Kathy said there are a
variety of reasons such as parents refusal, medical issues, trouble locating the family, etc.
The other document Kathy distributed shows the January-June 2014 report on births and
numbers not passing, discharged without a hearing screening, follow-up, etc.
NE-EHDI provided funding to Early Head Start Programs for the purchase of OAEs.
Debie Seiler has started a parent list serve for those families interested in receiving information
about community/family events related to hearing loss. Please send her any appropriate flyers
and she will disseminate to the NE-EHDI list serve.
Rhonda Fleischer shared that NE-EHDI will once again help sponsor the Family Collaborative
Workshops with the Nebraska Regional Programs. Karen Putz will be the presenter. She is deaf
and author of the book, “The Parenting Journey: Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children.”
Her website is www.karenputz.com. The following workshop dates have been scheduled and
more information will be available soon:
a. March 21, 2015 – Gretna
b. March 22, 2015 – Kearney
c. May 2, 2015 – Scottsbluff
Transition Summit Team ............................................................................................. Rhonda Fleischer
 The Nebraska Transition Summit Team comprised of Jill Bird (representing the Regional
Programs and parents of children who are D/HH), Rhonda Fleischer (representing NDE), Donna
Moss (representing NASES), Malinda Eccarius & Jonathan Scherling (representing post
secondary), and Pat Bracken (representing VR) will attend the 3rd Summit Team Conference to
be held in Washington D.C. in January. The Nebraska team goal from last year’s summit was to
conduct Person Centered Planning (PCP) meetings on 85% of high school sophomores who are
deaf or hard of hearing. PCP is a team approach (focusing on the student) to set realistic
objectives to help the student reach his or her ultimate goal. Students get to pick who they want
on their team and are encouraged to invite several people who know them well to their PCP
meeting. Each person brings a different perspective to the process since they have different
relationships with the student. Two PCP meetings took place this summer as part of the PCP
training provided by Rhonda and Teresa. Staff members were able to watch and learn the
process. Rhonda said PCP meetings differ from IEPs since the focus is on what the student
wants and information always comes out that family and school members did not know about the
student. An action plan is developed from the PCP meeting. This assists teams to write the post
secondary goals, which are required as part of the IEP transition plan.
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Connected with the PCP trainings, staff members also received information from Mark Mason,
Nebraska Vocational Rehabilitation Program Director of Transition Services. Mark discussed
how VR can help with the transition process for students.
Jill Bird mentioned she would like to discuss ways to collaborate with LPS’s future career
academy as there will be 20 programs offered to junior and seniors starting next fall.
Diane Meyer highlighted PEPnet’s new transition program called “Map It: What Comes Next”
which she noted is a really great assessment for hard of hearing students. She also said that
PEPnet’s iTransition program is awesome (although somewhat tedious) as it aligns to career
jobs. Teresa Coonts said that assessment data is appropriate to include in students’ IEPs.
Hands & Voices ................................................................................... Colleen Richart for Stacy Luther
 The annual Fall Family Bash was held on October 12th with over 80 people in attendance. The
entire event was sponsored by an outside donor. It was exciting to see a lot of new families in
attendance.
 Hands & Voices collaborated with the Nebraska Association of the Deaf and the Hearing Loss
Association of America to come up with a list of questions for the Democrat and Republican
candidates for governor in Nebraska. They sent the questions to the candidates with an open
invitation for a meeting with the candidates to discuss and answer the questions. While they
have not yet been able to engage the candidates in a discussion, the collaboration between the
three organizations is a first and represents a significant step in the direction of working together
toward common goals.
 Four Nebraska representatives attended the national Hands &Voices Leadership Conference held
in Savannah, Georgia, in September. Colleen mentioned that many great conversations took
place and that the next conference will be held in Texas in September 2015.
 In collaboration with NeAD and MRP, Connect Saturday reading activities have continued to
take place this year in the Omaha area and have been well attended. At these activities, a deaf or
hard of hearing adult reads (sign, voice, or both) books to children (an interpreter is also present
to sign or voice as needed). The next Connect Saturday activities will be held December 20th at
10:30 a.m. at Sorenson Library, January 3rd at 10:30 a.m. at Swanson Library, and March 7th at
10:30 a.m. at Florence Library.
 Hands & Voices has been hosting a Saturday morning coffee club the 3rd Saturday of every
month in Omaha. This is an inexpensive and informal way for families to come and visit with
each other. The events have varied in attendance, but the feedback has been positive so Hands &
Voices plan to continue the coffee club next year. The next get together will be held Saturday,
November 15th at the Panera Bread on 132nd and Maple. (Note: there will be no coffee club in
December).
 The Hands & Voices fundraising committee has decided to hold an annual fundraiser on
December 5th (location TBD), instead of various small fundraisers throughout the year. It is
going to expand on the Holiday Open House Fundraiser that was held last year where consultants
from Thirty One, Norwex, Tastefully Simple, Premier Jewelry, Origami Owl, etc. sell their
products and donate a portion back to NE Hands & Voices. Additionally, they were able to get
Ron Kellogg to autograph a couple of footballs that will be raffled off.
Guide By Your Side (GBYS)............................................................................................Colleen Richart
 From August 2013 to November 2014, there have been 24 families referred to GBYS.
 GBYS currently has four parent guides and will be advertising for more guides soon. Guides can
reside in any city in Nebraska but they must have a child who is deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind.
 Colleen provides regular training/information to the parent guides. Please email her if there are
topics you would like her to cover (colleengbys@gmail.com).
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GBYS is working on developing monthly workshops to include parent panels, audiology 101
sessions, etc. to give opportunities for parents to ask questions and gain strategies/ideas.
Continued outreach/collaboration with agencies to raise awareness of GBYS has taken place.
A GBYS and Hands & Voices survey has also been disseminated. There were around 20
responses/suggestions, which will help improve and guide the future of the program.
Mike Brummer asked Colleen what some of the challenges have been for the parent guides.
Feedback Colleen has received from the guides includes parents being resistant, overwhelmed, or
hard to get in contact with – but Colleen emphasized they will keep trying!
Rhonda Fleischer noted the age range of children that GBYS can provide services to has been
expanded beyond age 3. GBYS is funded through Special Education funds so it must be used for
children who have been identified with hearing loss. However, Hands & Voices funds can be
used to help parents through the diagnostic process.
Rhonda Fleischer thanked NE-EHDI for their support in getting referrals to GBYS.
Boys Town............................................................................. Rhonda Fleischer for Frances Beaurivage
 The EIPA Summer Skillshop held last June once again combined interpreter training activities
and ASL immersion. There were around 15 participants and the evaluations were very positive.
NDE will fund this workshop again next summer.
 The Roots & Wings workshop for parents of newly identified students with hearing loss ages 0-3
was held in September at the Nebraska City Lied Lodge facility. This was the first year the
regional coordinators have been invited to attend and they reported they were glad to be there as
it was an awesome experience. Another session of Roots & Wings will hopefully be held this
spring in the western part of the state.
 The Boys Town/Metro Regional Program Annual Holiday Social with Signing Santa will be held
on Saturday, December 13th. Coffee and donuts will be offered from 9:30-11:00 am for Deaf
Community members. Families are invited from 10:30 am-12:00 pm for time with Santa, face
painting, crafts, etc. This is a great community event with typically around 200 people in
attendance. A flyer with more information is now available. RSVPs to Mike Brummer are
required by December 11th.
Regional Program Updates
 CWNP(Sue Czaplewski and Sara Peterson) – CWNP has recently sent interpreters to multiple
training opportunities including a “Silent Weekend” 4-day ASL Immersion Workshop in Florida,
the Nebraska Statewide Interpreter Workshop, the NeRID Fall Conference, and has also
continued individual mentoring with Paula Rutten. They have 3 interpreters attending the
TerpExpo in Denver. Deaf educators have also attended several trainings including PCP
training, the AG Bell Convention in Florida, and a CID Conference in St. Louis. Mike Brummer
and Sara presented “Deafness 101” at the Para Conference and received great feedback. The
attendees found it especially helpful to hear the information on the need for auditory breaks.
Family sign language classes have been held in multiple areas. They are being provided
wherever the family wants to meet, with whoever they want to attend, and with whatever
vocabulary they need to learn which has been a great way to customize/individualize the class to
best meet the family’s needs. Camp Anderson was held in July at Fort Robinson including a day
trip to South Dakota. There were 69 students statewide who attended. Twenty-seven students
from around the state attended Space Camp in October in Hutchinson, KS. Students learned
about space, teamwork, and overcoming communication barriers. CWNP is hosting the
Storytelling Festival “Polar Express” in Grand Island at the Stuhr Museum on December 1st for
students in grades K-6 students. The Regional Programs have started the first Nebraska
Regional Program Academic Bowl team including 4 Nebraska high school students from across
the state. Mike & Sara will be coaching the team and the regional competition will take place in
Kentucky in February.
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NERP (Jill Hoffart) – Kali Frowick, former NERP student, was named NEAC player conference
of the year for volleyball - kudos! Norfolk Public Schools has started having teachers record the
instructions for junior high math lessons on podcasts and they put it on iPads for students to
review each night. Each student can work through the podcasts at his own pace. This has
brought challenges for D/HH students as the captioning was covering the teacher’s examples. So
they have added an interpreter signing the podcast, which has been working well. In fact, Jill H.
shared that this has actually improved math scores for D/HH students as it is much easier to
follow an interpreter on the computer than in an actual math class, when you are trying to look
up and down all the time! Mary Luhr mentioned that one of the students presented to the
Norfolk Board of Education about her experience with the podcasts and it made a big impact on
the board members. There are 87 students in grades 7-12 registered for the November
Independence Daze activity, which will include activities focusing on independent living skills,
self-advocacy, how to maximum the use of your technology, roadblocks and how to overcome, a
panel of emergency workers, interview soft skills, meal planning and budgeting and will also
include the annual dance. The AT Fair was held in Norfolk in early November and focused on
accessibility. A Family Fun Night for little ones was held at a bowling alley and the families
loved it. A Visual Phonics workshop will be held soon. A family sign language class has been
started via Skype. Dr. Rob Colligan has been confirmed as the guest speaker for the
Communication Contest and his focus is on “hearing found” (verses hearing loss).
SNRP (Jill Bird) – The LPS center-based HI program will most likely be moving from Prescott
Elementary to Beattie Elementary next year pending school board approval (announcement
should happen by end of year). The main reasons for this move are due to Prescott’s growing
student population and also the acoustics at Beattie have been tested and are much better than at
Prescott. This will be better for students using hearing technology. LPS has hired another
1.5 FTE HI teachers (Alyse Krejdl and Nao Akieda). ESU 6 hired a new deaf educator, Sheena
Tripp. Monthly audiology team meetings continue to take place. SNRP supported 13 individuals
(8 staff members and 2 families) to attend the AG Bell Convention in June. Each person wrote
an article about the convention. The articles were featured in SNRP’s special edition of the
newsletter this fall (more articles yet to come). SNRP supported 4 staff members to attend the
Supporting Success for Children with Hearing Loss Conference in Minnesota on November 7th
and Jill asked 2 of the presenters to come present in Lincoln this June. SNRP has 3 teachers
pursing a Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) certification. Boys Town has 4 individuals
pursuing this certification as well (Nebraska currently has no teachers with this certification).
Once this first group of teachers obtain certification, then they can provide the mentoring needed
for future teachers pursing LSL certification. SNRP Theater and Cultural Nights at the Lied
have been off to a great start. There are 3 more shows scheduled for this year. There were 186
people at SNRP’s family event at Roca Berry Farm in September. SNRP hosted the statewide
Arts Festival in Roca and it focused on Native American Arts. Students made a variety of crafts
and got to watch a Native American performance. The SNRP Advisory Board met on September
22nd and will hold another meeting in December. Josh Garrett will be providing individual
interpreter mentoring to Lincoln interpreters December 4th and 5th. Noah Buchholz will be
presenting a 4-hour evening interpreter workshop in Lincoln on December 16th focusing on
interpreting children’s stories. Noah will also be presenting a multicultural workshop for
Prescott Elementary during the day on the 16th.
MRP (Diane Meyer & Mike Brummer) – MRP recently held a Visual Phonics workshop and had
25 participants. The SEE Weekend Skillshop was hosted in Omaha and had 56 people attend.
The Spanish SEE workshop that was held on that Saturday was well received. Josh Garrett will
be presenting a workshop for interpreters in Omaha on Saturday December 6th entitled,
“Mentoring: Helping Each Other Reach Your Full Potential.” The Suburban Schools program is
keeping the D/HH students at schools for one extra hour one day a week to teach them sign
language. MRP offered an activity at Bellevue Public Schools (first time bringing the activity to
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a school) and it seemed successful. MRP has also been offering activities in conjunction with
Connect Saturdays. Their sign language classes have about 40 people in attendance. MRP is in
the process of developing a survey, which will ask students about participating in MRP activities.
Mike and Sue Petersen (a deaf educator at Ralston Middle School) are coaching a “Battle of the
Books” team comprised of 3 D/HH middle school students. Their first competition is in January
(competing via video).
Additional Topics
 A workshop entitled, “IEP Facilitation: A Brief Overview” will be held at NCECBVI on Friday,
December 12th. More information including registration can be found online
(http://www.ncecbvi.org/iep.html).
 Rhonda Fleischer mentioned that as a result of LR 517 interpreter meetings, a couple of training
sessions will be developed. One training will be held on August 1, 2015, and will be geared for
parents on the topic of the educational interpreter’s role in the classroom. The other training will
be for administrators and will cover topics such as the role of the educational interpreter and
what interpreters do in the classroom.
Public Comments
 No public comments were made.
Future Agenda Items
 If you have agenda items you would like to add to the next meeting, please email Diane Meyer at
Diane_Meyer@ralstonschools.org or Wendy Herrold at wherrol@lps.org.
Next Meeting
 The next meeting will be held Wednesday, February 18, 2015, at ESU 6 in Milford from
9 am-noon.
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