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=The Washington State School for the Blind =

The Washington State School for the Blind is located on a 13-acre campus in the Southwest Washington city of Vancouver. It was established in 1886 as the Washington School for Defective Youth, serving deaf, blind and otherwise disabled youngsters from around the territory, which would gain statehood three years later.

From its earliest days as a brainchild of the territorial Legislature to its present status as a national leader in the education and development of the blind and visually impaired, change has been ever present, if not at times coming in fits and starts, at the school, the name of which is usually shortened to WSSB.

This article is extracted from “Unlimited Visibility: A 125-year History of the Washington State School for the Blind” by WSSB alumnus and retired newspaper editor Dan Tolva. The book was published in 2011 by the school as part of a yearlong celebration of its 125th anniversary.

Territorial roots
Much of the history of the school’s first 50 years comes from a masters thesis written in 1936 by Don Donaldson, a WSSB alumnus who passed away in 2009 at the age of 97 after making a name for himself as a teacher, administrator, author and world traveler.

As early as 1861, Donaldson wrote, Washington Gov. Turney asked the territorial Legislature to enact measures to provide for the care of the physically and mentally handicapped. “As enlightened men, and Christian legislators,” Turney pleaded, “you should make a suitable provision for unfortunate fellow beings, either deaf or dumb, blind, idiotic or insane. Such provisions for such unfortunates would gladden the hearts of all true philanthropists, and be hailed as an omen of that true and genuine religion which ‘boasteth not itself,’ but delighteth in doing the will of our Father who art in Heaven — a religion that should characterize the conduct of all who enjoy the many blessings of the nineteenth century.”

(The official Donaldson was referring to was L.J.S. Turney, who was filling in for Gov. William Wallace, who had resigned to serve in Washington, D.C., as the territory’s representative to Congress (“The History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845-1889” by Hubert Howe Bancroft and Frances Fuller Victor, p. 219). The Encylopedia Britannica lists Turney as acting governor from 1681 to 1862, when President Lincoln appointed William Pickering to serve as territorial governor.)

A school is born
Little more was done in the interest of the deaf and the blind until the territorial legislative session of 1885-86. At that session, Gov. Watson C. Squire in his message to the Legislative Assembly pointed out the need for a territorial school for handicapped children. “It is the conceded province and office of the Commonwealth to help educate and care for those of its youth who are thus afflicted,” he stated.

The Legislature responded to the governor with a measure that he signed on Feb. 3, 1886, which established the Washington School for Defective Youth for education of deaf, blind, and feeble-minded children of the Territory of Washington. The bill stated that the “school shall be free to all resident youth in Washington Territory, who are too deaf, blind or feeble-minded to be taught by ordinary methods in the public schools: Provided, they are free from vicious habits and from loathsome or contagious diseases.” The school’s location was set in Vancouver, which had its beginnings in 1825 as a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trading post.

The state took steps immediately to organize the school. It found a small class of deaf-mute children in Tacoma, maintained by charitably disposed persons and taught by a Presbyterian minister named W.D. McFarland, which it adopted as the nucleus for the new school.

With furniture and teacher, this class of seven deaf-mutes was transferred from Tacoma to an abandoned hotel (The “Alta House,” according to a history posted on the state School for the Deaf’s Web site) at the foot of Washington Street near the present-day approaches to the Interstate Bridge.

The school moved to a frame court house building in the middle of town on West Reserve Street on March 11, 1886. The first classes were most likely held at this location, WSD’s Web site relates.

More moves
Meanwhile, a commission of three members was appointed by the governor to select a suitable site for the new school. On Feb. 24, 1886, the commissioners met in the First National Bank of Vancouver and unanimously chose a 129-acre site about a mile outside of the city limits of that day. WSD’s Web site describes the property as being in the Brookside addition on the west side of Burnt Bridge Creek on what is now Fourth Plain Road.

The commissioners noted that the land could be had for $2,000 and was “finely watered by a pleasant and never failing stream, which passes over its entire length, and, in our judgment, is well calculated for such gardening and farming purposes as the success and best interest of the school requires.”

Citizens of Vancouver donated a 100-acre farm adjacent to the selected location, bringing the entire property of the school to an appraised valuation of $5,000. It was on this land that a two-story school-and-dormitory building was constructed the following summer, according to Donaldson.

When the handful of deaf students returned to Vancouver in August 1887, to begin their second school term, they found a completely changed institution. There was a new location for the school, a new building, a new director, several beginning pupils, and — perhaps the most surprising — a little blind classmate, Donaldson wrote.

A new leader
“The first director, Rev. W.D. McFarland, had resigned in June 1887. The trustees were particularly fortunate, however, in obtaining the services of James Watson, an administrator of distinction and experience who had taught at a school for the deaf in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. His wife, the daughter of the founder of the first school for deaf in Canada, had also been a teacher. To Mr. Watson should be given credit for the success of the Washington School for Defective Youth during its embryonic years,” Donaldson wrote.

Aided by a $500 loan from friends of the school, including two of the trustees and one member of the locating committee, and with state funds the building was so far completed by the beginning of the second term that the rented lodging-house in the center of Vancouver was abandoned for the new structure.

This building was less than 40 feet square, had two stories, and was connected to a small farmhouse. In it the students lived, ate, slept, and attended classes. So ill-planned was this new structure that even before the end of the first term of occupancy, Watson submitted the following complaint to the Board of Trustees:

“Owing to the combustible nature of the building, the lack of proper fire appliances and the fact that during the cold weather we are compelled to have so many fires in stoves and open grates, a great deal of anxiety is caused. I would express the hope that during the cold season of the next session a night watchman will be employed, whose duty shall be to visit the various parts of the building at stated intervals, and thereby reduce the danger as far as possible. Fire escapes have been placed leading to the ground from windows of the dormitories occupied respectively by male and female pupils. These offer a ready means of exit in case of emergency,” Donaldson recounted in his 1938 thesis.

Further, Donaldson wrote, the school building was not the only thing to which the director objected. Apparently the furniture that had been transferred from Tacoma with the first class and later placed in the new home, had now become dilapidated.

Watson wrote in his report of 1889: “I would recommend that iron bedsteads be procured to take the place of those in both the boys’ and girls’ dormitories. They have become so rickety, being of wood and of cheap grade, that it is almost impossible to keep them together.”

Twenty pupils attended the second term, of which 19 were deaf-mutes and one a blind youth. Five of these nineteen deaf children came from one family, the Wade family of Montesano. The only blind student enrolled was a boy from Tacoma named Harry E. Applegate. Although the school was not in a position at the time to receive blind children, the parents of this youth were so insistent that their son be given an education that Watson felt constrained to give him the benefit of such advantages as the institution could offer. Embossed books, valued at $25, were donated by the Perkins Institution of Boston for his use, and became the initial equipment of a department for the blind.

New buildings
Early in 1888, the Legislature unanimously approved $30,000 for the construction of new buildings on 17 acres that had been swapped for the Burnt Bridge Creek site. That acreage, located at what is now Evergreen Street and Grand Boulevard, is the present site of the School for the Deaf.

The new location already had quite a history. It was the site of the first Hudson’s Bay Fort Vancouver. Marilyn Moore, a volunteer worker at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, said the location was selected in 1825 because it afforded a fine view of the Columbia River, handy for spotting any potential attackers. But the fort was moved to its current location to the south and west, closer to the shores of the Columbia just east of the present-day Interstate-5 Bridge, in 1829. The new location was twice the size of the original site, with plenty of room for orchards and gardens.

The site that would become the School for Defective Youth fell under control of the United States in 1846, when a treaty fixing the U.S.-Canadian border at the 49th parallel went into effect, Moore said. It was there that a large building, designed by a Michigan architect, was constructed, and was first occupied at the beginning of the term in 1889.

The U.S. census of 1890 revealed that there were 52 deaf and 78 blind youths under the age of 21 residing in the state; 28 of the deaf-mutes reported were or had been pupils at the school.

The school’s department for the blind had but four pupils in 1891. These students were taught by the instructor of the most advanced class in the department for the deaf. The next year, the class of blind students numbered 10, and it became necessary to hire a special teacher; the teacher, Miss H.C. Pettit, remained the only instructor of the blind for the next seven years.

Several of her blind pupils showed considerable musical talent; others made noteworthy progress along literary lines, one of these being Robert B. Irwin, eventually to serve as executive director of the American Foundation for the Blind.

A new campus
The Legislature of 1891 granted $20,000 for land and a building to be used as a school and home for the feeble-minded. On Dec. 8, 1892, a department for the feeble-minded as a branch of the State School for Defective Youth was opened at the present site of the School for the Blind. The law transferring the feeble-minded children to Medical Lake and separating them from the School for Defective Youth was passed in 1905; but the transfer could not be made until May 1906, when the buildings at the new location were completed.

The Legislature also changed the name of the Vancouver facility to the State School for the Deaf and the Blind.

The termination of the State School for Defective Youth also marked the end of Watson’s career as director. Watson directed the school for 19 years.

Not long after it was established, Washington’s School for Defective Youth produced its first graduate, Robert Irwin, who would go on to be a true pathfinder in the field of educating the blind.

On the move again
Thomas P. Clarke took over as director on Jan. 1, 1906. He found the institution “hardly credible.”

Donaldson’s thesis recorded Clarke’s impressions:

“One hundred and thirty deaf and blind children were crowded into a building originally planned to accommodate about half that number. There were no halls above the first floor, a condition which caused great inconvenience since the schoolrooms were all on the third floor. To get in and out of their classrooms, the girls from the highest grade in the department for the deaf had to pass through every classroom; the blind children either had to do likewise or climb down a fire escape to get out of doors,” Clarke recounted.

Through Clarke’s insistence, the 1908 Legislature placed the State School for the Deaf and Blind under the complete management of the State Board of Control, changed the opening and closing date of the term, stated the qualifications of the superintendent, and provided separate appropriations for the deaf and blind departments, Donaldson recorded.

Removal of the blind students to the buildings formerly occupied by the feeble-minded necessitated the appointment of a principal to head the department for the blind. George H. Mullin, for several years a teacher in the department, was appointed principal of the blind in 1908.

On March 8, 1911, the Legislature approved $50,000 for the building and furnishing of two dormitories — one for the boys and the other for girls — on the site already occupied by the school.

Completed in 1912, these dormitories were three story, box-shaped brick structures, set closely together, with the administration and school building sandwiched between the two. Each dormitory when filled to capacity could accommodate about 50 persons; in each are 15 bedrooms of several dimensions, shower rooms, club rooms, linen rooms and play rooms.

The dorms were used until the 1970s, when they were torn down after being replaced by other facilities.

The enrollment of the school in 1912 numbered 35, 21 boys and 14 girls. Twenty-four of these pupils were in the primary department, eight in grammar school, and three attended the Vancouver Public High School, Donaldson recorded.

Schoolwork did not go beyond the eighth grade. Instruction in the literary department was divided between two teachers, neither of whom had previous preparation for the work. No physical education program was followed, a situation severely criticized by Gov. Hay’s investigation committee. Piano tuning, net work, chair caning and weaving were subjects offered by the industrial department.

The Legislature of 1909, although providing separate appropriations for the departments of the deaf and blind, did not create two institutions. One superintendent, Clarke, headed both schools, with George Mullins as the principal of the department for the blind. Actually, the two departments were conducted separately; but they were not legally divided until 1913 when the Legislature passed a law providing for complete separation of both schools.

The Hall administrations
The law creating the Washington State School for the Blind went into effect at the close of the school term in June 1913; On Sept. 1, W.B. “Will” Hall, superintendent of the Kansas School for the Blind, was appointed by the State Board of Control to become superintendent of the Washington school after a search for a qualified administrator had led to practically every state in the Union. Hall, then 48, was recognized as one of the most progressive men in work for the blind in this country. A graduate of the Kansas Normal School, he had served many years as a teacher, as a superintendent of public schools, and later as superintendent of the Kansas School for the Blind.

It was his endeavor “to bring about a systematic and accurate teaching in all departments of the school” and to provide for the educational needs of the talented and mediocre. He wrote in his first report that “The bright children are now better provided for than they ever have been. We know that the mediocre children are receiving far more intelligent help and attention.” For the first time, piano rebuilding was taught at the school. Physical education was given a place in the curriculum; chicken raising and gardening were encouraged.

Hall urged the Legislature to provide a fund to enable needy blind students to attend college. Donaldson recorded Hall’s argument:

“Such provisions would simply give the blind youth a pair of eyes and place him on par with his seeing brother. It would also give inspiration to youth of ability for scholarship in our school and say to him: ‘The windows are open, the light of Knowledge will be brought to you by a great State, attain!’ ”

Hall’s wife, Sadie, later wrote of her and her husband’s years at the school and recorded the couple’s early goals for the budding campus: “1. Administration building; 2. A shop for boys’ work; 3. Facilities for a girls’ industrial unit; 4. More land, (there was a trifle less than five acres); 5. Books and pianos; and 6. More teachers.”

Most of those goals would be met over the next few years. Acting upon a request that Will Hall had made two years before, the Legislature of 1915 appropriated $75,000 for the construction of an administration and school building. The Administration Building was constructed just to the south of the 1892 main building, which was demolished to make room for an adjoining kitchen facility, storerooms, bakery, employee dining room, and cook’s quarters. (This plan of a separate kitchen, connected to the main building by a passageway, was to keep all odors of cooking out of the main building, Sadie Hall recalled.)

The new building, informally referred to as Old Main or the Main Building over the next decades, would also include a small elevator to transport heavy and bulky braille books from floor to floor. Some students had fun stuffing their smaller comrades into that elevator for a real vertical venture.

Sadie in charge
Will Hall died suddenly, on Oct. 20, 1915, while playing tennis. Sadie Hall was then appointed superintendent of the school and wasted no time in bringing her late husband’s vision for the campus to fruition. Before her marriage, Mrs. Hall had been a primary teacher; after her marriage she had served as matron of the Kansas and Washington schools for the blind.

She later wrote: “All the plans for the new Administration building had been made and accepted to the last detail the very day Will left us. My task was very definite, that of seeing they were carried out.

“The date for the breaking of the ground was set for Dec. 1, 1915. As the weather was usual Washington weather, cloudy and rainy, everything moved on schedule. The real dedication of the building as a public ceremony, was not held ’till early fall of 1916, when the basement was enclosed and the first floor ready for cement.”

That basement would house another element of Will Hall’s vision, an adequately equipped girls’ industrial department.

An industrial shop for boys, costing $10,000, was erected in 1918. Here the varied activities of the boys’ industrial department were taught: chair caning, piano tuning and repairing, carpentry, basketry and wickerwork. The building still serves as an arts and crafts facility, with female students now included.

Completing Will Hall’s vision for the school, land was added that doubled the size of the 5-acre campus. And what Sadie Hall described as a “fine pipe organ and concert grand piano” were obtained for the second-floor auditorium, or chapel as it was called then.

The Chapmans
The resignation of Sadie Hall in September 1920, so she could remarry, brought Herbert R. Chapman, an educator who had dedicated his life to the betterment of the visually handicapped, as superintendent.

Donaldson wrote that Chapman sought to raise the scholastic standards at WSSB in like manner; and this he was successful in doing so. Immediately upon assuming office, he introduced a complete high school course of study patterned after the course prescribed for the public schools of the state. The high school was organized to permit its students to follow the same general courses offered by public schools, while at the same time allowing the pupils to pursue vocational subjects, according to Donaldson.

Greater emphasis was placed upon industrial training and music than ever before. Two looms were purchased, and rug weaving was introduced for the first time. The pre-vocational and vocational departments offered to the boys woodwork, hammock tying, chair caning, broom making, piano tuning, and repairing; to the girls, domestic science, dress making, knitting and crocheting, basketry, ironing and loom weaving.

The music department gave instruction in piano, organ, violin and voice. A special teacher in dramatics and vocal expression was employed to give lessons weekly to all students.

Chapman died on the evening of Oct. 15, 1926, after a long illness. Jeanne E. Chapman was unanimously appointed by the Board of Control to take her husband’s place. Under her leadership, WSSB students participated in such organizations as the Girl Reserves, the Junior Red Cross, the Torch Honor Society, local clubs, and churches, the Portland Junior Symphony, and the National Athletic Association of Schools for the Blind.

Another dream of Herbert Chapman also came true through the efforts of his widow. Chapman had realized a need for a building where little blind children of the school could live, work and play in an environment conducive to learning; Jeanne Chapman succeeded, in 1937, in having such a building erected, at a cost of a bout $72,000.

The structure, later called the Primary building was dogged by problems, including unwanted moisture and mold. The building was torn down in the 1990s, and an outdoor running track has taken its place.

Success stories
Donaldson’s thesis featured a survey of WSSB graduates covering the period from 1924 to 1934, including the first 10 classes to be graduated after the establishment of an accredited high school department. Donaldson’s research revealed that 51 students were awarded diplomas for having successfully completed the requirements of the regular course of study. Twenty-four of this number were girls, and 27 were boys.

Nearly half of the entire group — 24 — had pursued some form of higher education after leaving school. In 1934, the date of the study, 10 were attending normal schools, colleges or universities; six had already graduated from normal schools or universities; three had taken the course on the Education of the Blind at Harvard University; three had completed short-term business college course; and two had studied at the Cornish School of Music, in Seattle.

Thirty-nine of the 51 persons graduated from the school during this 10-year period were employed, and most of those were entirely self-supporting. Students from this group became musicians, educators, piano tuners, makers and sellers of brooms; a physiotherapist; a hotel worker; braille transcribers; and homemakers.

In 1935, the Department of Finance, Business and Budget was created to replace the Department of Business Control. Jeanne Chapman left WSSB in 1946.

Years of turmoil
Now the story of WSSB really gets interesting, marked by years of controversy under the stewardship of Marian Grew, who was hired as superintendent in 1946.

Grew was fired twice and reinstated twice, only to be fired for a third and final time in 1955. As local writer Catherine Lee put it in a history published by WSSB in 1986, its 100th anniversary, Grew “left the school under a cloud.”

Lee credited Grew with instituting a summer program for the parents of blind preschool children, prompted by a post-World War II boom in the premature births of babies who lost their sight due to the administering of too much oxygen in their incubators.

Robert Mealey, who came to WSSB in 1946 as a teacher and eventually served as principal for two years before retiring in 1985, called Grew “the best superintendent ever.”

Mealey said Grew’s close ties to public schools benefitted WSSB students, and he, too, cited her establishment of the summer-school program for parents of the blind.

Mealey blamed politics and pressure from outside sources for much of Grew’s troubles. Nevertheless, supporters and detractors alike agreed Grew could be stubborn when pressed.

A time line of WSSB’s history produced in 2009 noted that Grew began the development of the cottage system, which would eventually replace the boys and girls dormitories built in 1912. She made a strong case for doing more than simply housing her charges.

“We need rooms, not barracks, and recreational and living facilities for the children that live here. We need to do away with custodial care as soon as possible,” Grew told a local newspaper in November of 1946.

Grew, according to Lee’s report, was an early proponent of “mainstreaming” — sending WSSB students to public schools near their own homes. During her tenure at WSSB, most elementary and high school students took classes at Vancouver public schools.

She also insisted that WSSB teachers extend their training and take greater advantage of memberships in professional organizations. She won accolades for her drive to improve scholastics at WSSB

But none of these accomplishments could rescue Grew’s job.

Sour notes
Lee’s report gave no more details about the turmoil that marked Grew’s tenure. The rest of her story — and that of the school – is found in the 2011 book “Unlimited Visibility: A 125-year History of the Washington State School for the Blind” by WSSB alumnnus Dan Tolva.

Ken Serviss, who attended WSSB in the 1930s and 1940s, and who was an associate of one of the main characters in the Grew melodrama, told Tolva that her abolition of piano tuning and other more traditional manual-skills programs for the blind, such as chair caning, in favor of emphasizing scholastic development upset many, including WSSB alum and vocational teacher Emil Fries.

Serviss remembered that Fries had been a rival for Grew’s job as superintendent but was passed over, a point of resentment for many who suspected Fries had lost the job because he was visually impaired.

Disgruntled alumni kept up the pressure to remove Grew. The Associated Press reported that the former students’ association meeting in Wenatchee, headed by the aforementioned Don Donaldson, called for Grew’s dismissal.

Despite the opposition, an editorial of the day supported Grew and suggested that other political factors might have been working against her:

But the die was cast. On July 28, 1955, the Spokane Spokesman Review reported that the state director of institutions, Dr. Thomas H. Harris, attended a closed-door hearing in Vancouver on Grew’s termination, but that no details of the meeting were available. In the end, Grew was fired, and there are reports that she had to be escorted off the campus.

The Berhow years
In September 1955, Byron Berhow became superintendent of WSSB after serving as principal at the Minnesota School for the Blind for 22 years.

Enrollment was 60 to 75 students when Berhow arrived, Lee recorded, and he began changing their regimen quickly. To quote Lee, “More emphasis was placed on the ability to do things.”

Thus, Berhow instituted more instruction in woodworking and the use of tools, and mobility instruction was begun on a limited basis. Boys’ houseparent Richard “Gus” Gustafson did triple duty teaching cane travel and piano tuning.

Berhow expanded the role of WSSB’s music program, taught by Robert “Sparky” Sherman and Nadyne Lessard. Lee reported that the program had until then served mostly to entertain the students. But musical instruction intensified to the point that WSSB was able to field a troupe that traveled to the Lions International convention in Chicago in the summer of 1967

Berhow fully developed the residential system envisioned by Grew, overseeing the construction of Cottage 1 (now called Watson Cottage), Cottage 2 (Clarke Cottage), Cottage 3 (Hall Cottage), and Cottage 4 (Chapman Cottage), smaller, more home-like facilities with their own kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms and bedrooms.

On the academic front, Berhow brought in an old friend of WSSB to serve as principal: Don Donaldson, who had gone on to distinguish himself as a public school teacher and administrator, and an advocate for the education of the blind. Donaldson served as principal until his retirement in 1973.

New buildings and programs
In the fall of 1959, classes shifted from Old Main to the just-completed Robert Irwin Educational Building, a sprawling, single-story edifice featuring a state-of-the art auditorium with cushioned seats. Only students who for decades had endured the wooden-slat folding chairs of the auditorium in Old Main can appreciate what an improvement this was.

In 1964, the John F. Kennedy Physical Education Center opened with a bright new gym, swimming pool, wrestling and weight rooms, and classroom space. The gym was one of the first buildings in the country to bear the name of President Kennedy, who was assassinated the previous November.

From the standpoint of the blind, the gym had its good and bad points. Good were toe-activated buttons on the basketball court’s free-throw lines that sounded buzzers on each hoop. Bad was the roof-support pole smack in the middle of the foyer, which at least had a bench around it to soften the effects of collisions.

A ranch-style house for the superintendent and his family was built just east of Old Main and the old boys’ dorm. The Berhows and their predecessors had lived in an apartment on the west side of Old Main. Under succeeding superintendents, the house served as a center to teach domestic skills to WSSB students. It has since been moved off campus.

A fifth residential building, Ahlsten Cottage, was built to house multiply handicapped youngsters.

Also on Berhow’s watch, the number of deaf-blind and multiply handicapped students increased. The school won national acclaim with the release of a film, “A Day with Debbie,” chronicling the life of Debbie Curry, a young and spunky deaf-blind girl who learned to read and write braille, and communicate via sign language and by putting her hand on the mouth of her “listener” to pick up the vibrations caused by speech.

Near the end of his career at WSSB, Berhow told The Vancouver (Wash.) Columbian that he was proud of all of the new construction that had taken place since 1955. But even more important to him was the change of direction education for the blind took after he came to WSSB.

“In the past, this school was designed for blind children with no other problems. Now we accept severely retarded children here. The school has gone into the area of universality. We serve a universal host of blind children,” said Berhow, who asserted that all blind youngsters in the state should come to the school.”

During his 18-years tenure, the school:


 * Re-established high school program.


 * Offered special education for “slow learners.”


 * nstituted instruction and therapy for the severely limited blind.


 * Upgraded of school’s music department.


 * ncreased extracurricular activities and a Sunday bus service to local churches. And


 * Established a ham radio program, now featuring an on-campus FM radio station.

WSSB’s student body grew from 75 pupils in 1955 to around 130 at the time of his departure. He retired in July 1973, but there was no immediate replacement. For several months, Leonard Long from the Department of Social and Health Service’s Olympia office (DSHS was now in charge of the school) ran things.

Berhow died in 1995. One of his legacies is the Byron Berhow Family Scholarship, offered through the Clark College Foundation for blind and low-vision students who have graduated from WSSB.

Brothers on board
In November of 1973, DSHS picked Dr. Roy J. Brothers as superintendent. According to Lee’s history of the school, Brothers added a physical therapist, speech therapist, and a psychologist to the staff. Also new was a carpenter skilled at building specialized equipment and furniture for the disabled.

Under Brothers:


 * WSSB saw an influx of multiply handicapped youngsters as the Department of Social and Health Services embarked on a program of cutting down the number of state institutions.


 * A low-vision clinic program was established.


 * More emphasis was placed on independent living, career development and work experience.


 * Certain services, such as meal preparation and maintenance, were consolidated with similar functions at the State School for the Deaf.


 * On July 1, 1986, the School for the Blind was split out from DSHS to become its own agency, reporting directly to the governor’s office. The governor appointed the school’s Board of Trustees, who were voted upon by the state Senate.


 * In 1989, WSSB won accreditation by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.


 * Increased partnerships with outside agencies such as the YWCA began.

But the changes probably noticed most by WSSB students were the ending of most weekend stays on campus in 1981, and increased emphasis of the 24-hour Individual Education Plan (IEP) in 1987.

Heretofore, students who couldn’t easily get home on the weekends stayed on campus as cottages were kept open and fully staffed. But it was determined that sending students home on Friday afternoons and bringing them back on Sunday evenings saved money. Furthermore, the thinking went, students could maintain their family and community ties better with more frequent visits home.

Teamwork
The effort to improve IEPs, spearheaded by then-principal Dr. Dean Stenehjem, set up teams of administrators, teachers, houseparents, counselors, other specialists and parents to evaluate each student’s needs and capabilities, set specific social, educational or vocational goals, and follow up with regular meetings to assess progress and make changes as needed in each youngster’s program.

At the beginning of Brothers’ tenure, the issue of mainstreaming resurfaced as a hotly debated topic in the blind community. Supporters argued for placing blind and visually handicapped youngsters in public schools near their homes as soon as possible, offsetting many of the programs at WSSB through improved special-ed programs in each school district. Critics contended that local school districts had neither the resources or the talent needed to meet the special needs of blind students.

Fading in and out of this controversy were occasional calls from politicians and others to close the schools for the blind and deaf because of their admittedly expensive natures. All of those calls came to naught.

In 2011, Brothers recalled his tumultuous tenure:

“The challenges of the 1970s and 1980s … were about a changing student population, learning styles, developing relationships with the public schools and defining a new role for the School for the Blind. In 1974, my first year as superintendent, the June graduating class turned out to be the largest of the following 34 years. Over the years one of the popular questions regarding the school was “‘What’s the population of students this year?’ Many individuals would equate budget with the number of students served, not the quality of educational opportunity being provided.

“Another philosophical issue of the ’70s was ‘mainstreaming.’ Special-education students were being placed in regular classrooms without the full support they needed. How was a 6-year-old blind child going to learn braille … when there was no teacher available within his school or even the district?”

Brothers wrote that WSSB’s role changed to that of a resource facility working cooperatively with public school special education, but that perhaps the most significant change to take place was leaving the Department of Social and Health Services to become a separate state agency. “Once the separation took place we had greater flexibility to reach out to blind and visually impaired students throughout the state,” Brothers wrote.

Entering the millennium
Brothers retired as superintendent in 1990, and WSSB Principal Dr. Dean Stenehjem was promoted to take his place.

Stenehjem sought to extend WSSB’s outreach into the surrounding community and across the state. From 1990 to 2009, the school’s off-campus case load rose 600 percent in the number of students served in school districts across the state.

One of his first efforts was to embark on a major planning effort to map strategic goals and development for the campus and its students. From this came such steps as:


 * Developing more partnerships, including linking up with local police, recreational groups (including a scuba-diving club), and public agencies around the state and country.


 * Further involving parents and other “stakeholders” in developing and carrying out programs for WSSB students.


 * Strengthening 24-hour programs to promote independent living.


 * Creating the Braille Access Center in conjunction with the state’s Printing Office. This helped Washington become the first state in the nation to provide braille materials on demand for blind consumers. From 1993 to 2003, some 8 million pages of braille material had been produced. During that period, the state Legislature had approved a bill requiring that all blind students be taught braille.


 * Created the Technology Resource Center for the Blind on campus, providing specialized training to and loaned equipment for outside school districts.


 * Developed the prison braille transcript program.

Building and modernization
Between 1990 and 2009, Stenehjem oversaw an ambitious modernization and building program that essentially changed the face of the campus.

A day-care center was constructed on the northwest corner of campus, the crumbling Primary building was torn down and a track put in its place, and the Irwin Building was extensively remodeled to add air conditioning, eliminate hazardous materials and improve its energy “footprint.” Environmental concerns would play an increasingly important role in renovation and construction at WSSB over the next few years.

The 1916-era Administration Building, also known as Old Main, got a facelift in the late 1990s that refurbished the stately structure’s outside brick facade, removed hazardous materials, expanded and revamped offices, and added two buttress-like structures at the east and west ends of the building to increase earthquake protection.

Students themselves managed to get in on this building boom. Under the direction of shop teacher Ned Olson, they helped construct a gazebo — a small, covered rest area — along the walkway between the Irwin building and Old Main. The structure became known as “Ned’s Shed.”

In 2003, a building was completed on the east end of campus to house the Instructional Resource Center. WSSB’s Web site describes the center as supporting the educational needs of blind or visually impaired students in the state of Washington. Services are available to public and private (non-parochial) schools and agencies providing educational programs of less than college level for those students.

The building was named the Ogden Resource Center in honor of Val Ogden, a longtime state legislator and supporter of WSSB. It houses equipment for producing braille materials and a climate-controlled area for storing braille publications that can be provided at quick notice.

In the spring of 2009, work was completed on a replacement for the 45-year-old Kennedy gym building, which had suffered from its beginning from structural and materials deficiencies, and was in need of upgrading to protect against earthquakes.

The new 25,000-square-foot Kennedy Fitness Center houses a full-sized gymnasium, salt-water pool, fitness center, recreation room, office, and classroom and meeting space. The building’s design employs passive solar techniques to enhance lighting, and a ventilation system that takes advantage of ambient outside conditions to help circulate and condition the air inside, according to Stenehjem. These features earned the building nationally recognized LEED Gold certification.

Ï===What’s next?===

In 2011, as WSSB celebrated its 125th birthday, Stenehjem wrote of his tenure:

“Since 1990, services provided by WSSB have been expanded by over 600 percent to blind and visually impaired children, families, and those providing services to the blind.

“I have always been a strong believer that students, families, and (school) districts need options in how students are served, based upon data reflecting the effectiveness of those programs and services. My goal is to provide people these options, and help develop high quality services that are effective, efficient, and that lead to independence and successful outcomes for students.

As for the next 125 years, Stenehjem stresses the need to stay focused on the student, not on the system of service delivery. Systems must be designed to change due to technological breakthroughs and societal demands. If, Stenehjem argues, systems continue to evolve with a focus on high expectations, success, the promotion of confidence building, and advocacy skills, students will be successful and continue to have more options in careers and pathways as time progresses. That portends transformation for WSSB and other similar institutions.

“First and foremost the residential schools throughout our country need to continually change if they are to remain a viable option for students. Those schools that diversify their services based upon the student’s needs will continue to provide valuable services for years to come, and those that don’t will probably no longer exist,” Stenehjem wrote. And that change could mean a new name for WSSB, a name to better describe the school’s expanding delivery of services statewide, even regionally. Stenehjem believes the campus itself could retain its WSSB label, but the school as a complete entity should be called something else. He didn’t list any specific suggestions.

Stenehjem expects WSSB, or whatever it might be called, will need more resources (that’s administratorspeak for money) to improve the school’s ability to teach specific disciplines such as science, music, math and assistive technology to students around the state. Students also must be able to attend WSSB’s on-campus program for intensive short-term learning opportunities that help them gain a high level of specialized skills in a fraction of the time that can be attained in the local district.

Technology will continue to assist blind students in accessing information in ways that have never been possible in the past, Stenehjem predicts. This means the school has to keep up with tech developments.

The closure of the Oregon School for the Blind in 2009 offers an opportunity for WSSB to assume regional leadership in educating the blind, Stenehjem argues, and he has been talking with officials from other states about the possibility of extending WSSB’s services beyond Washington’s borders. Already, WSSB’s budget has been bolstered by several hundred thousands of dollars each year paid by Oregon to educate some of its displaced students. That money has helped offset budget cuts mandated by Olympia as a slumping economy chipped away at state revenues.

“I do believe that in the near future, service delivery will not have state borders, many services will be offered online, and the world will become our classroom. Let’s see what the next 125 years bring,” Stenehjem concluded.