Font ResizeA two-year search for someone to lead the embattled Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) hit a snag this month when one of the finalists landed a job elsewhere.
State education officials have released a new short list, whittled from 12 candidates. They plan to interview four finalists on Thursday; the Utah State Board of Education will likely name a winner at its August meeting.
In the running are two USDB employees, interim superintendent Timothy W. Smith and Jennifer Johnson Howell, assessment and educational resource center program director. Other contenders are Arthur Stellar, former head of a public school system in Taunton, Mass., and Steven W. Noyce, executive director of the Tucker-Maxon Oral School in Portland, Ore.
A decision can't come soon enough for parents who say USDB is in desperate need of reform.
The special needs program serves 2,200 students at campuses in Ogden, Salt Lake City and Orem. Over the past decade, it has weathered fiscal crises and allegations of mismanagement. In 2006, parents sued, accusing a teacher of abusing children. And now infighting over educational strategies and limited resources threatens the institution.
"We have many factions in that school of passionate parents who are advocating for their children, and they don't always agree," said search committee chairwoman Leslie Brooks Castle, underscoring her commitment to hiring a bridge-builder.
Talk of splitting USDB into
New legislation preserved the current arrangement, but directs the new superintendent to appoint associates, one over programs for the deaf and another over programs for the blind.
USDB's troubles could hurt insider candidates, including Smith, who replaced former superintendent Linda Rutledge upon her retirement in June 2007.
But Denise Colton, vice president of Utah Parents of Blind Children, believes there's support for Howell.
Howell's research has focused on the learning needs of hearing impaired children, but she's a "child advocate who goes for excellence and is committed to turning things around at USDB," said Colton.
Newcomer Arthur Stellar has many years of administrative experience, most recently as superintendent over a small school district in Taunton, Mass. He stepped down this summer after the school board voted not to renew his contract, a tenure marked by rising test scores and conflicts with board members and teachers, according to a June 27 article in the Taunton Daily Gazette .
Noyce is no stranger to Utah, having worked as education program director at the Utah School for the Deaf.
His commitment to auditory-oral education is not favored by proponents of sign language, such as Julio Diaz Jr., the father of three children attending USDB's Jean Massieu School, which employs an American Sign Language and English bilingual approach to deaf education.
"I believe USDB needs someone who will forge new ground," said Diaz.
