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March 24, 2006 Minutes

Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) was held in Room 116 of the Administration Building, located at 1100 West 45th Street, Austin, Texas on March 24, 2006.

Call to Order: Frankie Swift, Board President, called the meeting to order at 10:25 AM. In addition to Ms. Swift, the following board members were in attendance: Debbie Louder, Mary Sue Welch, Gene Brooks, Jamie Wheeler, Toby Galindo, Jesus Bautista, and Donna Clopton.

Introduction of Audience: Others in attendance at the meeting included John Botti, Susan Houghtling, Dr. Philip Hatlen, Malcolm Cleveland, Russell Gregorczyk, Debra Nesbitt, Dr. Lauren Newton, Ken Miller, Barney Schulz, Carol Vaughan, Miles Fain, Shelly Allen, Garner Vogt, James Lambert and Cyral Miller.

Award of Certification of Appreciation to Outstanding TSBVI Staff: This item was postponed until the May meeting of the Board.

Consideration of Approval of Minutes of January 27 and January 28, 2006 Board Meetings:  Donna Clopton moved that the minutes be accepted as submitted.  Debbie Louder seconded the motion.  The motion to pass was unanimous.

Report from the Finance and Audit Committee

Report from the Internal Auditor:

Report on the audit of the Weekends Home Program: Russell Gregorczyk presented his report on the audit of the weekends home program. He reported having found that the weekends home costs are not all budgeted in the same place- some are in the general revenue, and some are in the legacy fund.  Others still are not budgeted at all in weekends home, such as fuel costs and maintenance.  He found that in order to streamline the weekends home budgeting, the three ½-time escort staff that are budgeted in Garner Vogt’s budget could be budgeted in weekends home. 

The program costs around $433,000 per year estimated gross costs.  The net cost for FY 2005 he estimated to be $387,000.  He said that if the program were eradicated, there are many work shifts that would have to be covered to attend to the needs of the students who would be staying on campus— approximately 47.5 shifts.  The cost of staffing those weekends would incur an additional yearly cost of about $500,000.  He said that it would not save money to cut the program back—it would cost more.

Mr. Gregorczyk said that by law, both the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf are to be reimbursed by school districts for transportation costs incurred in bringing the students here and sending the students home when we are closed.  He found that we are not recouping all of these costs from the school districts, which he estimates to be about $67,000 over the eight periods each year that we are closed. 

The audit report includes suggestions for raising the amount that we charge districts for the weekends home program by an average of about 58%.  He indicated some concern that districts would not want to send their students here because of these costs.  Ken Miller said that he did not find it likely that many districts would balk at the costs, because they would spend a lot of money taking care of transportation and escorts on their own.  Mr. Gregorczyk suggested notifying the districts of these price increases soon so that they can budget for them.

Dr. Hatlen said that he and residential program supervisors Garner Vogt and Shelly Allen are pleased with the audit recommendations, and that they will prepare a management response and mail it to the Board with a new copy of the audit report within the next few weeks.

Mr. Gregorczyk further reported that some school districts are refusing to pay for their contractual transportation costs. He suggested pursuing those fees with the help of school attorney Carol Vaughan.

Mr. Gregorczyk estimated that using charter buses would cost an extra $100,000 per year.  He found that the way that the school is currently handling the program is the most cost-effective. 

The school uses Southwest Airlines online booking system when possible, for the students who live further away than a four-hour bus ride. Using frequent flyer miles allows us to get about one in every eight trips for free. He found that using Southwest is cost effective.  He also suggested looking into using frequent flyer programs for the other airlines, which we use when a Southwest flight is not available.

Dr. Hatlen suggested, in response to Mr. Vogt's and Mrs. Allen's praise of Southwest Airlines, that the Board submit a certificate of thanks to the management and flight attendants of the airline.

Mr. Gregorczyk reported having assessed the safety of the students while traveling via bus as part of the audit.  He found that the weekends home staff had the same training as the residential staff in CPR, first aid, and behavior management.  Also there are cell phones, fire extinguishers and other safety equipment on the buses.  He suggested holding evacuation drills for the buses and adding fire/hypothermia blankets and seat belt cutters as inexpensive ways to increase the safety of the buses.

He reported that the response to his survey on the weekends home program was meager from TSBVI staff, and about 30% from the parents.  The most common comment from parents is that the students could benefit from coming home every other weekend instead of every weekend. 

Mr. Gregorczyk reported that one parent had expressed concern about their child having soiled him- or herself when the child got off the bus.  Dr. Brooks expressed his dissatisfaction that students were taken on bus rides for four or five hours without restroom facilities on the buses. Ms. Allen said that to her knowledge, the students do not go more than two hours without a restroom break, and that these breaks serve as a learning experience for the students.  Also, she reported that the program needs buses now, at full capacity, so she would not support the idea of adding restrooms to the buses that the school is purchasing.  Mr. Vogt said that it is critical to view weekends home as an educational experience.  The restroom stops are used as a learning experience and to promote advocacy in the community.  Dr. Brooks expressed his belief that the frequency and the duration that we spend transporting our students on school busses which were designed for local transportation needs, and not long distance travel is inhumane.

The Board directed TSBVI to prepare a feasibility and cost evaluation for retrofitting buses with restrooms.

Mr. Gregorczyk reported that Mr. Vogt and Mrs. Allen had expressed that they had little or no budget flexibility in deciding exceptional instances when students may stay on campus. He said that raising our transportation fees would help raise additional money so that they could add staff for these types of situations. Mr. Vogt offered the example of a healthy student whose whole family is sick and asks that the student stay at TSBVI. 

Consideration of approval of Investment Report: Barney Schulz reported on the status of the school’s investment activity. The short-term investment balance as of February 28, 2006 was $253,857.10.  The average annualized yield for the account was 4.59%.  The annual yield as of March 23, 2006 was 4.64%, representing a slight increase.  The amount of interest that the school had received for the first six months of this fiscal year was $4,924.79.  Donna Clopton moved to approve the investment report. Toby Galindo seconded the motion.  The motion to pass was unanimous.

Approval of receipt of gifts and donations of over $500: Malcolm Cleveland distributed a list of the donations that the school had received since the last report. Dr. Hatlen said that the large number of gifts for the Junior/Senior Prom was the result of two newspaper articles, but that no one on campus had admitted to having contacted the newspapers about the prom and the fundraising efforts.  News releases such as those are supposed to go through his office or through Community Outreach Coordinator Gloria Bennett.  Dr. Hatlen asked the Board for approval of the $11,518 received for the prom and the $550 for the student ski trip.

Debbie Louder moved that the Board accept the gifts and donations. Jamie Wheeler seconded the motion.  The motion to pass was unanimous.

Approval of request for expenditure of gifts and donations: The donations received were designated for a specific use, so no approval was necessary.

At 11:28 AM Ms. Swift called the meeting into recess in order to attend lunch with the TSBVI student council.

Frankie Swift called the meeting back into session at 1:10 PM.

Discussion of diversification philosophy in regards to assets of the Bert E. Broday Jr. Trust: Mr. Schulz reported that Wells Fargo Bank, managing trustee of the Bert Broday, Jr. Trust (the Trust) had asked the school whether it would support a motion to diversify the assets of the Trust.  The assets primarily consist of ExxonMobil stock shares.  The Trust generates a majority of the income for the school's legacy fund.  The Trust, which terminates in AD 2026, owns 427,000 shares of ExxonMobil stock, ownership of which is shared equally between the American Heart Association (AHA) and TSBVI.

Mr. Schulz told the Board that he would like to ask Wells Fargo to propose a diversification plan to the school.  He suggested that the Board could receive this plan at a full board meeting or a Finance and Audit Committee meeting.  Wells Fargo indicated that they would be able to present a plan on or after April 19, 2006.

Mr. Schulz also suggested hiring a professional investment counselor.  He and Mr. Cleveland suggested contracting with Craig Hester, who is on the ERS Board of Trustees.  He was a senior analyst at TRS, and now has his own company Hester Capital Management. Mary Sue Welch said that the school is going the right direction in asking for the help of an investment professional.

Mr. Schulz said that in order for any changes to the trust to take effect, a court must approve those changes. The AHA would also like to look into diversification, and has expressed to us that if our goals for diversification line up with theirs, they would want the trust to stay together rather than be divided into two trusts. About $160,000 in income comes in to TSBVI each year from the Trust.

Mr. Schulz said that Wells Fargo investment banker Scott Tucker felt as though it would be their fiduciary responsibility to inform the charities that they would not be opposed to diversification if the charities were to propose it.  

The Finance and Audit Committee decided to meet for three hours on Tuesday, May 23, to hear the presentation from the Wells Fargo investment counselor.

Update on Roscoe Wind Farm proposal: Mr. Schulz reported having visited the wind farms, during which trip he met the man who is creating the windmill farm and the farmer who farms the property on which the wind farm would lie.  He is still not certain whether there would be windmills on the property, but the business model of the wind farm is such that the owners of the lands incorporated into the wind farm would share equally in profits on the basis of their acreage.  The Roscoe Wind Farm as proposed would be the largest wind farm in the world, and would probably generate more revenue from the property than leasing it out for farming.

The cost to participate at this point is $2/acre; we have 160 acres.  This would get our foot in the door to take advantage of this revenue opportunity.  Mr. Schulz indicated that the school plans to go ahead and pay the initial investment of $2/acre.  He said that they are not certain yet that the wind farm will be built, as it will take the cooperation of all of the landowners in the proposed wind farm in order for the project to go forward, and some of them seem to feel that the land should only be used for farming. 

Update on the management response to the State Auditor's Office Audit on Financial Systems: Mr. Schulz reported that he has a new budget assistant in his office who is performing clerical tasks such as developing budgetary reports for management.  His office has been trying to ensure that the managers have the data they need to determine whether their budgets are accurate. 

Mr. Schulz reported that he has found that creating a policy tying the staff numbers to student enrollment was not proving as easy as the State Auditor's Office (SAO) may have hoped.  For instance, whether the school has an enrollment of 140 or 145 next year, the staffing needs will likely be the same.  He said that Dr. Hatlen, Mr. Miller and he are working to draft a policy.

He indicated that most of the other recommendations have been implemented or are in progress. Procedures for procurement card and expenditure monitoring are nearly finished, and are expected to aid in completion of a policy.  There is a plan in progress to update the accounting system. Mr. Cleveland indicated that he had met with the Department of Information Resources (DIR) and that they have told us that we are now free to negotiate with vendors without further approval from them.  There are four vendors that he will contact.   The cost is likely to be $60-70,000.

Mr. Schulz recommended that the Finance and Audit Committee add to their next meeting's agenda a review of some of the budget reports so that the committee knows what types of reports the management team is receiving.

Mr. Schulz reported that TSBVI has hired Mike Wolszon as the new Information Resources Manager (IRM).  He previously served as IRM at the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC).  He starts here on April 3, as he wished to give TAHC a full month notice.           

Report on book sales: Mr. Schulz offered the semiannual book sales report, and presented the report in print and braille to the Board.  In the first six moths of this fiscal year, we have sold $123,004 of publications, bringing the total publication revenue since 1999 to $1,593,668.

Report from the Personnel Committee

Consideration of approval of human resources policies: The Personnel Committee moved that the Board approve Policy DFE Termination of Contract: Resignation. No second was needed, as the motion came from committee.  The motion to pass was unanimous.

Discussion of superintendent’s performance appraisal process and performance appraisal training: The committee would like to have training on the superintendent's performance appraisal, after which they will determine how the process could be altered. Debra Nesbitt will present training options to the Board in the May meeting.

Consideration of approval of proposed renewals and nonrenewals of staff contracts: The committee recommended approval of the proposed renewals and nonrenewals of staff contracts as presented.  Ms. Clopton mentioned that special programs teacher Krista Lussenhop and outreach staff member Craig Axelrod will be leaving, but had not yet tendered their resignations.  The motion needed no second as it came from committee.  The motion to pass was unanimous.

Follow-up on Board concerns about internal vs. external posting of teacher vacancies: Ms. Nesbitt reported to the Board that the committee determined that the most effective way to reconcile the Board policy with the state law that requires that we provide adequate opportunity for in-house candidates without excluding consideration of teachers from throughout the state is to single out teacher positions specifically to have simultaneous 10-day internal and external postings, except for openings in lead teacher positions.  This reflects an exception to our general posting rule for teacher positions.

Report from the Program Committee

Consideration of approval of the School’s calendar for 2006-2007: The Program Committee moved acceptance of the school calendar and the submission of the waiver request to TEA.  The motion needed no second as it came from committee. The motion to pass was unanimous.

Consideration of approval of goals, objectives, strategies and performance measures for the 2007-2011 Agency Strategic Plan: Ken Miller told the Board that any suggested changes that we would like to make to the goals, objectives and strategies for the strategic plan must be made to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) by April 7.  The strategic plan is not due to the LBB until the summer, and it lays the groundwork for the school's Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR).

Mr. Miller introduced a proposal to eliminate the measure under Objective A.1 that evaluates the satisfaction of parents, students, and LEAs with how the student progressed in the regular school year.

Ms. Wheeler suggested reducing the target percentage of respondents reporting "very satisfactory or above."

Dr. Hatlen suggested changing the wording of the measure from “very satisfactory or above” to “satisfactory or above.”  He also recommended that we measure and report customer satisfaction with each of the ten major areas of instruction within Comprehensive Programs.

Ms. Wheeler moved to change the wording of the second measure under Objective A.1 to read “95% of responding LEAs, parents, and students will rate the students’ progress in Comprehensive Programs as satisfactory or above,” and to add a measure evaluating student progress in each of the ten major areas of specialized instruction provided by Comprehensive Programs, with a target average of 70% of respondents indicating satisfaction with each of these instructional areas.  Mrs. Welch seconded the motion.  The motion to pass was unanimous.

Dr. Hatlen said that the school would be willing to work with the Board to revise the surveys that the school sends out.

Discussion of development of the Annual Improvement Plan for 2006-2007: Debbie Louder reported that the committee reviewed a draft of the annual improvement plan, and asked that some changes be made.  The plan will be presented for approval at the May meeting of the Board.

Report from Outreach Director Cyral Miller: Ms. Miller distributed a written report to the Board on the Outreach department's action plan in the area of personnel preparation, and presented the major topics included therein.

• She related to the Board the efforts of staff member KC Dignan in increasing the recruitment of more VI professionals, especially those of Hispanic, African-American, and other minority origin.  Dr. Dignan has been exploring various job fairs and university recruitment opportunities, and will report the results of her activities to the Outreach personnel preparation advisory group in the fall.
• Ms. Miller noted that the Administrator Toolbox is being updated considerably, to be completed by this summer.
• Ms. Miller said that the Mentor Program is now eight years old.   Ruth Ann Marsh has assembled a committee to help develop a process of evaluation for upgrading the program. 

Status report on Summer 2006 Programs: Dr. Newton distributed a report on the status of the 2006 Summer Programs.  She indicated that the courses that will be offered will likely be those that are currently planned.  She also pointed out that their enrollment reflects a jump in attendance by secondary academic students, who have applied for new programs such as rock band, braille music, and tech camp.  This is the group that Special Programs was targeting for increased enrollment.

Report from Comprehensive Programs Principal Miles Fain: Mr. Fain summarized the Comprehensive Programs portion of the Programs Committee meeting.  The committee heard presentations from staff and students involved with the Experiences in Transition (EXIT) program.  One component of the EXIT Program is the independent living lab, which was implemented last year.  The lab is an opportunity for students to gain practical experience in independent living by dwelling in an apartment with minimal staff support.  Mr. Fain expressed a desire to expand these programs, in order to prepare to help a wider range of students in their transitions to adult life. He also said that they hope to build another studio apartment in the independent living area of campus.

Presentation from Architectural Firm for the Bond Projects: Paul Woodard of Halff Associates gave a slide presentation on the process and some of the possibilities involved in our capital improvement project.  Mr. Woodard said that he sees his role of project manager as one of ensuring that the professional team is working together well to accomplish the project.

Mr. Woodard reported that the first phase of the project is the master planning, which will be followed by building programming and then construction.  The first buildings to be constructed will be two new residences; their locations will be determined during the master planning process.

He said that the president of his company will periodically send the school a report card to fill out about how they are doing.

Dr. Hatlen indicated his pleasure with the preparedness of the architecture firm.

Consideration of Approval of Emergency Operations Plan: Mr. Fain reported that our emergency procedures committee will work with the Central Texas School Safety Consortium to develop the annexes (or attachments) to the emergency operation plan.  These attachments will provide guidelines for how to handle specific emergencies on campus, such as a terrorist threat.  We will then take those and adapt them to meet the needs of our campus.

He said that there is a tremendous amount of training that now needs to occur based on the plan and the annexes, with the Board, the management team, and the staff taking part.  He suggested that the Board look over the emergency operations plan in detail.  Dr. Hatlen commended Mr. Fain and Ms. Vaughan for their work in putting the plan together in a very short time. Ms. Louder moved to approve the Emergency Operations Plan as presented. Ms. Clopton seconded the motion. The motion to pass was unanimous.

Report on Status of Completion of Action Plans in the 2005-2006 School Year: Dr. Hatlen asked the Board to postpone the discussion of this topic until the May meeting of the Board.  He said that he would send to the Board updates on the status of action plans that pertained to him, which are missing from the current board packet.

Report on Status of Internal Audit Recommendations: Dr. Hatlen said that he will report on the fraud prevention and fraud risk audit at the next meeting, and that the school is otherwise current with reports on audit recommendations.

Status of All Blind Children of Texas Charity: Mrs. Welch reported the following: All Blind Children of Texas (ABCTX) has about $28,000.  There is a new curtain in the Goodenough Performance Hall, which was partially paid for through the Goodenough Fund of ABCTX.  This spring there will not be a fundraising concert because teacher Shannon Darst, who was helping to coordinate it, is not able to perform those duties at this time.  There may be a concert in the fall at the Broken Spoke.

Two factors have helped raise a great deal of money for ABCTX.  Gail Dalrymple's father passed away, and they asked that people donate money to the school in his memory; this brought in $2,187.  Also, Don Welch asked that donations be made to the school in lieu of gifts for his birthday.  $2,160 was donated to the school from the guests of this birthday party.  Another friend of Mrs. Welch may arrange such a party in the future as well.

Badgerdog.com, ABCTX and the Austin Community Foundation are helping to fund a creative writing program at TSBVI this summer.  There are 11 students enrolled, and there is a waiting list.  This summer's class has been named after Mrs. Welch’s sister Helen Sandal.

ABCTX has sold over 4,700 wristbands so far. 

Report from the Superintendent:

Superintendent's travel: Dr. Hatlen reported having gone to a conference in California where he honored Lowenfeld and Akeson at the Lowenfeld-Akeson Center.  He also went to Nebraska City, Nebraska.

Campus visitors and activities:  Dr. Hatlen reported the following: The African-American History Program took place on February 28. The Junior/Senior Prom is scheduled for April 1.  The Junior/Senior Banquet takes place on April 11. TSBVI will host the SCASB conference championship April 27-29.  Public performances of the school musical "Into the Woods, Jr." will take place on May 4,5,6,10, and 11; the May 5 show will be audio described.

Progress report on procedures required in policy: Dr. Hatlen had nothing to report on this item.

Use of facilities by outside groups:  Dr. Hatlen reported that the Low Vision Task Force met on campus, and that the Austin Philharmonic used the Goodenough Performance Hall for a concert.

Monthly reports of web site visitors:  Dr. Hatlen said that the website received 280,712 hits in February.  If sustained, this rate of visitation will result in almost 3 million hits this year.

Review of Consultants’ Contracts Approved at the Administrative Level – Contracts Greater than $600 and Equal To or Less than $10,000: The only contract approved at this level was for the strategic planning consultant Cynthia Martin's participation at the board retreat in January.

Discussion of Future Board Meeting Topics:

• There will be a presentation of cost for restrooms added to weekends home buses in May.
• The Board asked for a report each time they meet on the status of the capital improvement projects.  Dr. Hatlen announced that there will be a facilities planning area on the TSBVI website, that will allow the Board to keep up with the progress of the improvement project.
• The Board will decide in May what their involvement will be in the planning process for the campus improvement bond projects.  Dr. Hatlen invited board members to call him or Mr. Lambert if they have ideas about the project.

Announcements: The new director of health services is Monte Chambers. 

The TAER conference is in two weeks.  Ms. Louder is selling the envelopes with a special stamp that will be sold.  There are only 150 of them.

Ms. Louder said that she loved the TSBVI Sesquicentennial video, and that she wanted it to be shown at the upcoming TAER conference. The Board would like to have copies of the video on DVD.    Ms. Swift said that it was too long.

Adjournment: Ms. Swift adjourned the meeting at 4:35 PM.

Frankie Swift   Date
Board President

Gene Brooks   Date
Board Secretary

John Botti    Date
Recording Secretary

BOARD DIRECTIVES

March 24, 2006

• Prepare a feasibility and cost evaluation for retrofitting buses with restrooms.
• Management response to Weekends Home audit emailed to Board
• The Finance and Audit Committee decided to meet for three hours on Tuesday, May 23, to hear the presentation from the Wells Fargo investment counselor.
• The Board would like copies of the TSBVI Sesquicentennial video on DVD.

Future Board Meeting Topics:

• Report on Status of Completion of Action Plans in the 2005-2006 School Year
• Report on the fraud prevention and fraud risk audit
• Report on the progress and plans of campus improvement project (recurring item)
• Finance and Audit Committee: a review of some of the budget reports so that the committee knows what types of reports the management team is receiving.
• The Personnel Committee would like to have training on the superintendent's performance appraisal, after which they will determine how the process could be altered. Debra Nesbitt will present training options to the Board in the May meeting.
• The board will determine if July 28, 2006 will work as a board meeting day.
• Ms. Louder asked that items that require a great deal of deliberation be placed earlier in the agenda.
• The Board would like to meet the new IRM at the May board meeting.
• There will be a tour of the weekends home buses in May.  Dr. Hatlen suggested pulling one out in front of the main building.