Opinion : Local effort needed to make IBSSS a Regional Center; meeting Wednesday

Vinton and Benton County need your help!

The Iowa Board of Regents has a task force gathering information on the viability of creating regional service centers. This has the potential to affect the delivery of services currently at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. A public hearing will be held on October 22 from 5:00 to 7:00 at the IBSSS cafeteria over ICN. We need your support by writing letters sending emails and attending the meeting. A petition drive has already begun. It is critical that we support the regional center location at the Iowa Braille School.

To learn more about the issues involved and points we need to touch on in our letters, attend one of two meeting. The Vision Meeting will be held on Oct 4 at the IBSSS at 7:00 AM, enter by the front door. The second informational meeting will be held October 10 at 6:00 PM at the Kirkwood Center, 111 West 3rd Street.

The restructured centers will add deaf and hard-of hearing services to the current services to the blind visually impaired from pre-K to age 21. The two services are currently delivered separately. Having the IBSSS become one of the regional centers would preserve our 147 years’ of IBSSS tradition and history. If the regional center is not located at IBSSS the community will lose this economic benefits that flow from this facility. The Vinton community benefits economically because of number of Americorp/FEMA Corp members’ and current employees’spending in Vinton and Benton County. Vinton-Shellsburg School benefit in several ways including the boys and girls swim teams.

Please write a letter or send an email to the following persons, the first three names are the top priority:

Patrick Clancy, IBS Superintendent Bus: (319) 472-5221, Ext. 1125   Email: pclancy@iabvi.org

Kathy Hintz, Administrative Assistant Bus: (319) 472-5221, Ext. 1125 Email: khintz@iabvi.org

Robert Donley, Executive Director of Board of Regents, State of Iowa Bus.: (515) 281-6426 Email: bdonley@iastate.edu

State Representative Dawn Pettengill Cell: (319) 610-3412 Email: Dawn.Pettengill@legis.state.ia.us

State Senator Tim Kapucian Home: (319) 442-5337 Email Tim.Kapucian@legis.state.ia.us