USDB: In Memoriam?

The Utah State Board of Education voted on a measure this last Friday that could possibly put USDB out of business, meaning closing the place down. Of course this is all based on a required base budget going into the legislative session, and chances are there will be enough funding to keep USDB going. For now, however, USDB is on the chopping block. I have spent a lot of time this last weekend and the last couple of days reading about what happened and writing to my local legislators to make sure this does not go any further. I have also attended an emergency meeting of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind Advisory Council, as well as this morning I attended a meeting of the PubEd Appropriations SubCommitte, where USDB funding was on the agenda. The good news is that it sounds like very few of the legislators want to cut any funding to USDB. The bad news is that I am hearing a lot of reports about why this happened. One keeps being brought to the front of the conversation. It has to do with all the infighting. This comes up again and again. The story says that Utah State Board of Education recently received numerous emails concerning the current Superintendent at USDB. According to sources who have neither seen nor read said emails, these were very nasty emails, and very rude. According to sources who have spoken to a majority of the School Board members, the School Board is fed up with USDB, and doesn't want to deal with them. All of that may be true. These same sources are now using every opportunity to point out that this whole situation is the ASL community's fault, because they sent the letters, and according to this source, all they do is complain. This is all done under the flag of unity. It's disappointing. Now is not the time for us to let extremists from either side have the floor. The state is threatening to take away our school completely. Now is the time for us to truly stand united, find a moderate voice, and use it. Let the state legislators know about all of the good things that have come from your experiences with USDB, whether your child is blind or deaf, whether the speak or sign, it does not matter. The bickering and fighting must end now! I understand that later there might be battles, but right now we must come together and stand for the School, not against each other. No school program is perfect, and parents and other concerned individuals should always have the right to make recommendations for how to make it better. Sometimes, though, we need to put that on pause, stop pointing fingers and be one school, one community, or we may lose it all.
I am so thankful for USDB. The programs we have been a part of have made our lives so much better. My son Johnny would not be where he is today without USDB. He has found a piece of his identity there. He has found friends there. He loves it. Likewise, Eliza has grown so much through her experiences at USDB. She is so smart for her age. Most importantly, through USDB we discovered a new way to connect with our kids. These are the positive affects USDB has had on my life. They have done it through programs like the Parent Infant program, where we have had a USDB employee in our home every week since it was discovered our children were deaf. Our PIP advisor, Mindi Allen has been an anchor for us through a lot of stormy weather. She has helped us through a lot. Our kids have also received speech therapy through USDB, from Carrie and Paige, both have been awesome. It is these kind of services that the school districts will be unprepared, and possibly unable to provide. I hope we will take this opportunity to write to the school board here in Utah, to write to the legislature here in Utah and let them know how much good comes from USDB. I hope we will spend our time doing that, instead of going on the internet and writing about how bad the other side is.