NEWS AND VIEWS

 

 

 

Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends of TSB,

 

It’s hard to believe that we’ve completed the first half of our school year. Our present enrollment stands at 182 students on campus and approximately 800 others served by our Outreach and Resource Library programs.

 

 

                      Now for the NEWS!

 

 

BON VOYAGE MS. FLAHERTY:

 

      Ms. Ramona Flaherty retired from TSB in December after over 30 years of dedicated service to our students. Ms. Flaherty worked as an Educational Assistant to students with multiple challenges.  Her humor, caring nature, and “can do” attitude will be missed.  She plans on spending

“quality time” with her family, doing some of those things you never get around to when you’re working full time and enjoying more of those Alaskan fishing trips with her husband.  Ramona, keep in touch. You will always be part of our TSB family.

 

 

COTTAGE HAPPENINGS

 

      The months of November and December are traditionally an exciting time of the year at the Tennessee School for the Blind. Our students have worked hard from the beginning of the year to develop their skills in activities of daily living.  Recently, all cottages earned the privilege of demonstrating these skills by being given the opportunity to go out to local restaurants and order from their menus.

     Cottage students have participated in many holiday activities, including seasonal decorating of the residential areas.  Many of the needs of our students have been met by generous donations from the following clubs, organizations and churches; Two Rivers Baptist Church, Bob Parks Realty, Kwanis Club of Donelson, Sun Trust Bank, CNA Insurance Company and Mr. Chuck Wells. These supporters have given parties, donated gifts, but most importantly, given of themselves to our students. 

 

 

THE SPORTS SCENE

 

Our forensics teams are revving up for the 2003 season of competition.  Our junior team remains under the direction of Ms. Jean Chance. She is planning to once again host a Metro Nashville Junior meet on our campus.  Our high school team has a new coach this year following Ms. Short’s    retirement last spring.  Coach Hilary Murtagh is also our new high school English instructor.

Our cheerleaders and wrestlers are in mid-season. Wrestling has, for many years, been a major sport for our students. It is a sport in which athletes with vision loss can be on an equal footing with their sighted peers.

      Mr. Alexander is once again coaching our mat men. What we lack in numbers we make up in spirit. Our team members this year are; 95 lbs Ronnie Palmer, 103 lbs Chris Heisler, 125 lbs Joey Banks, 130 lbs David Gray and Mitchell Strickland, 135 lbs Bruce Seale, 145 lbs or 152 lbs Timmy Graybeal, 171 lbs Kevin Dowdy, 189 lbs Johnny McCloud, 215 lbs Josh Brooks and Zac Winton and our manager this year is Daniel Pack.

The cheerleaders are really in fine form this year. Ms. Short’s retirement left another coaching vacancy, but our new coach, Ms. Deidree Reese also an early childhood teacher, has “cheerfully” risen to the challenge. 

      Each week Coach Reese and the squad travel to the Tennessee Cheerleading Company in Hermitage, where they are training for their annual competition. In between time, the girls practice in our auditorium each day.   The cheerleaders began supporting our wrestlers at matches beginning the first week in December.  They will compete in the NCASB.  Cheerleading Tournament held in Kansas City, Kansas, during mid January.  The girls will compete as a squad and also an Outstanding Cheerleader from our school will be named to compete in a separate competition.  This year’s squad members are:  Jessica Beecham (captain), Sarah Brooks (co-captain), Ashley Flanary, Janikquea Journey, Amanda Shirley, and Amanda Williams. GO TIGERS!!

Always looking for another way to motivate our students, Mr. Joe Gregory has organized TSB’s first bowling team to compete in the TSSAA. In addition to regular matches, they will be competing in the District #9 tournament on January 9th. Our inaugural team members are; Michael Griggs, Susan Gwinn, Daniel Pack, Janikquea Journey, Zac Winton, Justin Smith, Jeremy Neal, Josh Brooks and Sarah Brooks, The team is in the building process this year but already the scores are rising.

 

 

MUSIC NOTES and MORE…

 

      Talk about singing our praises. Our voice students are extremely talented and have been tremendously successful.

Here are the results from the Mid-state/All-state and Freshman Honors Choral auditions.

Meredith Burton and Aimee Henley (Sopranos) will perform in the Mid-State Women’s Choir.

Meaghan Bynum (Alto) will perform in the Freshman Honors mixed choir.

Lorrie Neal (Alto) and Ashley Thomason (Soprano) will perform in the Freshman Honor’s Treble Choir.

These choirs will be performing on January 30th at David Lipscomb University.

      Ms. Atsedes and Ms. Denning are to be congratulated for their part in the accomplishments of these students.

TSB’s Tiger Band and our Combo, under the direction of Mr. Joe Gregory, are having a fantastic year.  The Combo gave a performance for the Nashville Leadership Education Day meeting. The Band played in the Nashville Veterans Day Parade. Next year Mr. Gregory says our students will march in the parade. Folks, I would not bet against it.

Each year I think the TSB Chorus just can’t get any better. It somehow does. The chorus has performed for several clubs and schools in the mid-state area including a multi stop visit to the Department of Education.

      Ms. Denning has had to make some tough decisions as to which performance invitations to accept. One we are grateful she could accept is the annual Bob Parks Realty Auction. This year this event raised over $9,000 for The Friends of Tennessee School for the Blind Foundation. Thank you, Bob Parks Realty and a special thank you to our long time friend, Ms. Pat Galvin.

      While we are talking about music and taking a moment to say thank you, The Lion’s Day program on December 13th was one of the best ever. The students expressed their gratitude in music and deed far beyond any words I can place here. Among the Lion’s many expressions of support for our efforts and the students we serve was this year’s Christmas gift to every student of fifty dollars and a box of chocolates. Thank you, Lions, for your love and support during the holidays and through out the year.

      One last musical note, pardon the pun. 

Wow!! What about that beautiful holiday program on December 20th? Practically every student at TSB had a part in the production. If it didn’t warm your heart, you just were made without one. If you weren’t fortunate enough to have attended you can view some snap shots of the program and several other events such as Lion’s Day, the Challenge Aspen trip, the Huntsville Space Center Trip, the Pumpkin Patch visit, our 9/11 Observance, and more on our website under “pictures”, then to “photo albums”.  Direct links:  Off campus, On campus.

 

 

YES THEY CAN

 

      One last bit of bragging before I close.  Each year The Council for Exceptional Children solicits nominations from every school system across our state and nation for the coveted “Yes I Can” awards. These awards are presented to recognize outstanding achievement by students receiving special education services.  I am proud to announce that this year TSB has TWO state level winners who will be among Tennessee’s nominees for national honors.

Ashley Jackson is an elementary student from Nashville challenged with a profound hearing loss as well as blindness. She received the nomination for “academic achievement”. 

Darrell Bowles is a freshman from Knoxville who is challenged with total vision loss.  He received the nomination for “achievement in technology”.

These students will be recognized and receive beautiful trophies at our state’s Special Education Conference in February.  Congratulations, Ashley and Darrell.

 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE:

 

      Please excuse me for being a little long winded, but believe it or not I’ve had to edit out quite a bit. There are so many things of which to be proud at the Tennessee School for the Blind. Not the least of which are the accomplishments today and in the future of our students. Each child at TSB is truly a “special” child, each student possessing his or her unique special needs and special talents. It is our blessing to play a part in their development and education.

 On behalf of the staff and faculty of TSB we trust that you have had an enjoyable holiday season and wish for your families a prosperous and peaceful New Year.      

       

 

Respectfully,

Jim Oldham

Interim Superintendent

Tennessee School for the Blind