Search Begins for Next School for the Deaf Superintendent


Article Body

News Release

Contacts: Robert T. Tad Perry, Executive Director

tadp@sdbor.edu

Janelle Toman, Director of Information & Institutional Research

janellet@sdbor.edu

 

T: 605.773.3455

F: 605.773.5320

www.sdbor.edu

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   Thursday, May 17, 2007

 

Search Begins for Next School for the Deaf Superintendent

 

ABERDEEN, S.D. – The South Dakota Board of Regents has begun its search to find the next superintendent of the South Dakota School for the Deaf. Supt. Maureen Schloss, who has headed the Sioux Falls-based school for the past three years, is returning to her faculty position at Northern State University this fall.

 

“Maureen has provided exceptional leadership at the School for the Deaf. Her work has been exemplary and we could not be more proud of what Dr. Schloss has accomplished for deaf education in South Dakota,” said Regents President Harvey C. Jewett. “At the same time, we understand and support her desire to return to a faculty appointment in the School of Education at Northern State University.”

 

Jewett said the regents will begin the search to replace Schloss immediately, with the expectation that the process can be completed prior to the start of a new school year. Regents’ officials met last week with the South Dakota School for the Deaf Advisory Committee to review the search process.

 

Jewett has appointed Regent Randy Morris to chair the search process. Regents Carole Pagones and Richard Belatti will also serve on the search committee, with Jewett serving as an ex-officio member.

 

The regents also appointed a Search Advisory Committee chosen from nominees submitted by the school’s constituent groups. The appointees are:

·        Michele Foy and Kim Barron, parents of students at the School for the Deaf and members of the SDSD Advisory Committee;

·        Brenda Sosa, Joanne DeBee, and Alicia Winkleman, all teachers at the school;

·        Blake Nitko, a SDSD student and vice president of the student body;

·        Judy Bakkene, a senior administrator and 20-year employee of SDSD;

·        Nancy McKenzie, a secretary in the business office and chairperson of career service employees at the school;

·        Mark Gunderson, president of the SDSD Alumni Association;

·        Craig Lindes, president of the School for the Deaf Foundation;

·        Tom Kober, president of the South Dakota Deaf Association and vice president of the SDSD Advisory Committee; and

·        Mike Fitzgerald and Greg King, representing the Sioux Falls School District’s special education department.

 

Screening of applications will begin in June. Candidates should submit a cover letter; complete resume or curriculum vitae; and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of five references to Executive Director Robert T. Tad Perry, South Dakota Board of Regents, 306 E. Capitol Ave., Suite 200, Pierre, SD 57501-2545.

 

Schloss joined the Northern State faculty in May 2004 as a professor of education, following a distinguished teaching and research career at Buffalo State College, an institution of the State University of New York system. She is certified in elementary education, special education, and deaf and hearing impaired. She began working as interim superintendent at the School for the Deaf in August 2004, and was named to the post on a permanent basis four months later.

 

The School for the Deaf currently serves 274 students, including 49 on campus and 225 through outreach, either in home-based intervention or mainstreaming in the local school districts. The superintendent provides leadership to a staff of 58 and manages an annual budget of $4.2 million.

-30-