HB1367 Timeline

This vlog explains the events occured during the time before and up to what led to the birth of HB1367, beginning with the time we struggled with unfair and lack of deaf representation on the school board.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• seesay
• jay
• krieger
• hb1367

[bpickell12]

Below is my transcription of the video. I have done this in cooperation with J Krieger and a couple other deaf people. I hope this makes it accessible for those who do not sign as the issue is important.

[bpickell12]

Transcript of HB 1367 Timeline Video

I would like to share the timeline of events from the time from when the Indiana School for the Deaf (ISD) school board had several vacancies up to now, with HB 1367.

[bpickell12]

In the past, there were typically two or three, sometimes four, Deaf representatives on the school board, then as people left the board and vacancies were not filled it whittled down to one Deaf person. The board does not have the ability to fill vacancies. It can make suggestions to the governor but ultimately it is solely the governor’s decision to appoint new board members. There are some guidelines, such as one member must be a parent of a deaf child, one of them must be an LEA, and so on.

[bpickell12]

With the board vacancies, often the board would just barely have enough members present to meet the quorum; sometimes there were not enough present to proceed with the meeting.

On many occasions, suggestions have been made to the governor about highly qualified deaf people who could serve on the board, such as business owners and other ideal representatives. The governor continued to leave the seats vacant.

[bpickell12]

This was until, out of the blue, last year the governor filled the board with several appointments. Three of the vacancies were filled with people who have strong ties to Hear Indiana: Scott Rigney, Lucy Witte and a third one whose name escapes me. We were all puzzled as to where they came from. Where were the Deaf members? The governor did appoint a Deaf person, Ann Reifel, but where were the others? Of the many qualified people who were deaf and recommended, why were none of them appointed?

[bpickell12]

Why were so many appointees affiliated with Hear Indiana? Two more non-voting members were then appointed to the board. One of those positions tends to be filled by a legislator and for a long time, Greg Porter, a Democrat, served in this position. Since the governor is Republican, Porter was replaced by a Republican representative, Cindy Noe. Additionally, Adam Horst from the Office of Management and Budget was appointed.

[bpickell12]

We, the community, were upset and decided to protest. We had a rally at the Capitol where many people spoke and demonstrated their opposition. We sent letters and met with the governor, but he refused to remove the appointees. We tried to talk directly with the three appointees and asked them to step down so Deaf people could be appointed.

[bpickell12]

They refused until finally one of them did step down. Nonetheless, the board continues to only have one Deaf member. Things have kind of just carried on since then.

Ever since the protest at the Capitol, the governor has been angry about the attention and the media that we generated. So he ordered an audit of ISD—is this really related to the protest, I don’t know, but the timing is interesting.

[bpickell12]

Pete Miller was sent to investigate ISD’s budget, the buildings and the programs and evaluate how well the state money was being used as well as looking for places where money could be saved. That was fine, and we welcomed him in. He interviewed parents, staff, students and community members so often that he needed a time extension. After all these interviews, it seemed like Pete was learning and understanding better about Deaf people, ASL, the issues, oralism, etc.

[bpickell12]

He heard parents telling stories of their children’s failures with oral programs and then transferring to ISD. It seemed like things were going well and we were looking forward to the results of this investigation.

Finally, it was announced that the results of the OMB review and findings would be shared on January 9. I knew they shared it with the school administration, but am not sure about the school board.