Diane Heldt, CR Gazette –
Some graduates and supporters of the Iowa School for the Deaf say it is not acceptable for the school to have a superintendent who is not fluent in American Sign Language.
Opponents of the school’s administrative change, to be discussed today by the state Board of Regents, plan to present the board with an online petition signed by more than 450 people as of Tuesday afternoon.
The deaf community hasn’t felt included in the proposed change and does not support appointing a superintendent who does not know sign language or have a background in deaf education, said Joseph Lewis, 2005 class valedictorian of the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs. Lewis also is chief operating officer of Deaf Youth USA.
“In general, the deaf community is really outraged,” Lewis, 25, said via an interpreter Tuesday. “Many deaf institutions, the directors or presidents usually have some kind of experience with deaf education or know sign language or have a background in it.”
The proposal would appoint Patrick Clancy, now superintendent of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, as superintendent of the School for the Deaf. He would hold both positions. The two special schools are governed by the Board of Regents.
The school’s outgoing superintendent, Jeanne Prickett, knows American Sign Language and had a background working and teaching in deaf schools when she became superintendent in 2003. Prickett is resigning at the end of March to become president of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.
Clancy said he knows a few words in sign language, though he expects to pick up more working at the school.
He said he understands the concerns of the deaf community, alumni, students and parents regarding his ability to communicate directly with the students, but he expects to bridge that gap in other ways, such as relying on school staff and technology.
“Ways that are less ideal, but we’ll be able to manage,” Clancy said.
While he hasn’t worked in a school for the deaf, Clancy said he has spent about 40 years working in special education, and that includes working with students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The Council Bluffs school has about 100 students, many of them residential.
“I have some kind of experience, though not the same kind of experience as my predecessors,” he said. “I think this (appointment) is more about my leadership experience than about my experience as a leader of deaf education.”
While Clancy brings some strengths, such as his familiarity with the regents, education in Iowa and the Area Education Agency system, Lewis said, Clancy’s lack of background in deaf education likely translates to a lack of understanding of deaf culture. .
A Marion native now living in Washington D.C. after earning a degree from Gallaudet University, Lewis recalls when he attended the School for the Deaf and the superintendent would often stop by the tables at lunchtime to sign with the students and engage them in conversation.
“It was nice because the superintendent was there to support us and could actually understand us,” he said, adding he doesn’t think school staff can fill that personal-connection gap for a superintendent who cannot sign.
The online petition, a charge being led by Lewis and three other deaf school supporters, says the challenges deaf students face are very different from those faced by blind students.
The petition calls on the regents to open a dialogue with deaf students and parents and to establish a search committee to fill the superintendent job.
