by Paul Olson
NDVS/SB Superintendent
I am excited to share that a diverse group of leaders in North Dakota have agreed to serve on a council to provide valuable input and help guide NDVS/SB in our effort to be continually improving. The Guide Council will meet via video conference several times a year to discuss and provide thoughts on the bigger issues we face as an organization. Any comments and suggestions will be brought back to our Staff Council and Visions Team for consideration to help us in policy development, or even the smallest changes to make on how we can serve children and adults better.
To ensure good communication and collaboration with a variety of other organizations, the heads of several partner agencies will participate. They are:
- Mike Chaussee with ND Assistive
- Trampes Brown with the ND Association of the Blind
- Dr. Renae Bjorg, UND Professor in Special Education/Visual Impairment
- Lacey Long with the ND DeafBlind Project
- Aimee Volk with ND Vocational Rehabilitation
- Tracey Zaun with Sheyenne Valley Special Education Unit
We are also recruiting two parents and another person with a visual impairment at large who will rotate off the Council after two years. There are people in mind at this time that we are hoping to agree and be a part of this informal group of counselors.
In effect this is an advisory committee, but I chose to name this group the "Guide Council" because we hope to truly have it function in a guiding capacity, and, in that regard, the participants will act as trusted counselors for our school, providing honest feedback on what we might do to maintain and improve our services.
I look forward to many productive conversations with our newly formed Guide Council in the years to come.