Letter to Parents of USDB Kids

Dear Parents,

I am writing this letter and posting it on my blog to explain why it would be in the best interest of every parent and every student of USDB to have a new superintendent at the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. I hope, as you read this, you will do so objectively. I will try to keep my biases out of it, and will attempt to give objective reasons why I am concerned about the current superintendent.

Recently, the Utah State Board of Education voted on possibly cutting the USDB budget and closing down the schools, if $20 million dollars needed to be cut. This vote happened on February 4, 2011. On Monday, February 7, 2011, the Advisory Council for USDB held an emergency meeting to discuss the vote by USBE. At this meeting, it was reported by numerous sources that part of what caused the vote by USBE was all the infighting going on within USD. It appears this was only a small part of why the USBE voted the way they did.

According to other sources who are close to USBE, the main reason that the School Board voted the way they did was because they were trying to send a message to the state legislature and governor's office: there is nothing left to cut! Education is down to its bare bones already, and if you want more cuts, then fine, let's cut the one thing that will get the most attention: Schools for deaf and blind kids. Unfortunately, this backfired, and the USBE ended up looking like the bad guys.

There was another reason why USBE was willing to cut the funding to USDB. This reason was alluded to by the Superintendent himself. He mentioned in the meeting with the advisory council that in the few times he had appeared in front of the State Board of Education, he did a poor job educating them on what services USDB provides. This same issue became apparent in the PubEd Appropriations Sub-committee meeting that happened on February 8, 2011. In this meeting, Dr. Schumway, State Superintendent of Schools, deferred to a finance expert from USBE when asked about the possible cuts. This expert said that the reason why USBE saw this cut as a possibility was that most of the services provided by USDB were in fact provided by the school districts anyway, so there was no real need for a separate entity. Mr. Noyce informed the sub-committee that this was not true, that most of the services were provided by USDB through the school districts, but not by the school districts. Sources close to the USBE confirmed that what was shared by Steve Noyce in the sub-committee meeting was news to the Board of Education. They had no idea how USDB operated or what services they provided. By Steve Noyce's own admission, he has done a poor job informing them of this.

This is my first reason for having little to no confidence in Steve Noyce's ability to do the job. He does not know how to work with the State Board of Education. In the 18 months or so that he has been in his position, the communication between the State Board of Education and The Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind has broken down so much, that the State Board has no idea what is happening at USDB. This concerns me as a parent. How can our school get the funding and support they need, if the State Board does not know what they need it for? Steve Noyce should be our voice with the State Board, and he has obviously failed us there. Our superintendent should be there at every meeting making sure he is fighting for us all the time. Instead, Mr. Noyce was not at the USBE meeting because USDB was not on the agenda. As a result, a vote was taken where the door was opened for the end of USDB.

The second reason I have no confidence in Mr. Noyce has been his inconsistency. He has said from the beginning that he absolutely supports parent choice. I agree 100 % with this idea. I positively believe that the people best able to choose the communication path for their child are the parents. No one knows their child better than they do. Mr. Noyce would say publicly that he agrees with that. He has told me that privately. Normally, I would take him at his word. However, his actions speak louder. He believes in parent choice, as long as they choose one of two paths he has set up. He believes in a "one size fits all" kind of philosophy. Every deaf or hard of hearing child fits completely in one of two categories: LSL (Listening/ Spoken Language) or ASL. That's it. There is no in between. Despite what has been said concerning it being the "ASL/English" path, there is no true bilingual option within USDB right now. This is an option that many parents want, but cannot have. My wife spoke with a mother who was frustrated because she chose the ASL path for her child, which has caused problems because she also wants a cochlear implant for her child. She was wanting him to learn both ASL and spoken English. This is not an option within USDB. In fact, Steve Noyce has worked very hard to ensure that the LSL kids are completely separate from the ASL kids. If Mr. Noyce truly believed in Parent Choice, there would be a bilingual option. To make this clear, bilingual is different from TC or SimComm. Bilingual would mean the child would become fluent in two different languages, in this case ASl and spoken English. We need a superintendent who truly believes that each child is different and the services each child receives from USDB should be catered to that individual child's needs, instead of forcing each child down one of two paths. Mr. Noyce does not believe in parent choice, but he says he does. What else has he said, that is not true?

One of the comments made in the advisory council concerning the ASL/Deaf Community was that they needed to know the proper channels to file complaints. They needed to know that a complaint should be filed with the teacher, then the principal, then the superintendent, then the advisory council, before anything should be sent to the school board. This is my third issue with Mr. Noyce. I have voiced my concerns to him in emails. I never received a response. I asked him about an email I sent to him one time, and his response made me believe that he rarely checks his emails. In any case, I never received a response. It was at that point that I sent an email to a member of the schools board. People know the proper channels to go through, but Mr. Noyce chooses to ignore that part of the population which does not 100% agree with him. Then when they complain higher, he gets upset and defensive. He calls them nasty, mean emails, and he calls the people who wrote them fanatics. He is not looking to work with people he disagrees with, instead he goes to work slandering them and tries to drag their names through the mud. In my opinion, we need a superintendent who is willing to work with every part of the diverse population USDB serves. We need someone who is willing to see both sides of an issue instead of blindly calling the other side bad and nasty. We need someone who is more moderate. Steve Noyce has never made an effort to reach out to the Deaf community. He has ignored them from the beginning, and as they voice their concerns, he ignores them.

These are my main concerns with Steve Noyce. These are the reasons I would like to see a change at USDB. He does not represent our kids well at the State level, according to his own admission. He says one thing, but then does another, eliminating my right as a parent to choose what is best for my kids. He makes no effort to reach out and work with the Deaf community, the adults who have been through the education system and only want to make it better for every deaf or hard of hearing child. These three things are unbecoming of any person who would hold the title Superintendent, and we as parents should not stand for it. Whether your child is LSL or ASL, he does not have the children's interests at heart, but rather, as it seems, his own agenda.

I am not a "fanatic". I am a hearing individual. My first contact with the Deaf Community happened about two years ago after we found out our son is deaf. My wife is also hearing. We are hearing parents of two deaf children. We only want the best for them. We feel that anyone who steps in as superintendent and goes to work eliminating options and choices for any parents is in the wrong. Our son, Johnny, uses ASL as his primary form of communication. He also has a cochlear implant. Fortunately for us, he has access to both ASL and spoken English at JMS, but the access to spoken English for him at this point is limited. He is luckier than our daughter. She wears hearing aids and has shown great interest in both signing and vocalizing. She was excelling at both through USDB services until last summer when we were forced to choose one or the other. We chose ASL. Immediately, any oral or auditory services we were receiving ceased. We fought this, all the way up to Martell Menlove, but nothing changed. We were fortunate to find some form speech therapy outside of USDB through DDI Advantage. However, her speech therapist does not specialize in working with kids who have hearing loss, like a USDB therapist would be. She will have access to these therapists at JMS, when she turns three. That would have meant a year without any kind of therapy for her. These are the "choices" Steve Noyce believes in. That is why I do not believe in him.

Sincerely,

Jake Dietz