SDSD FOUNDATION
INITIAL HISTORY
The Advisory Board of the South Dakota School for the Deaf originally conceived the idea of the South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation. Their purpose was to establish a permanent and separate Foundation to support the school. The Bylaws for the Advisory Board were altered to create a standing committee with three new members charged with the creation of a foundation. The standing committee met in October of 1997 and explored many options and opportunities before finally establishing its Articles of Incorporation in November of 1999 and its 501 (c) (3) status in 2000.
GOAL
The present goal of the South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation is twofold: to build an organizational endowment designed to augment the revenue stream of the South Dakota School for the Deaf, and to provide distributions of funds for worthy causes within the community of people who are deaf and the hard of hearing.
MISSION
The Mission of the South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation is dedicated to providing additional resources, with emphasis on educational resources, to children (birth to 21) who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families, and who are eligible for services from the South Dakota School for the Deaf.
The South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation provides educational resources that supplement state funding of the South Dakota School for the Deaf (SDSD). State funds do not cover all aspects of necessary programming for deaf children in the state.
Some examples of Foundation support include direct funding to students (fees, living support costs, transport costs for school to work experiences); families (out of state travel to a cochlear implant center); unique school programs (Close Up in Washington D.C.); programs to build library resources; improvement of the school physical plant (funds for all new state buildings in South Dakota must be raised locally).
CONTACT INFORMATION
The President (CEO) of the South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation is Craig N. Lindes. Mr. Lindes can be reached at 605-201-3169 (cell). You may write to the South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation 2001 East 8th Street, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57103 for more information. You may also contact the Superintendent of the South Dakota School for the Deaf, Terry Gregersen at 367-5200 (fax 367‑5209), email: terry.gregersen@sdsd.sdbor.edu
ORGANIZATIONAL CHART
The South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation (SDSDF) has four standing committees and a Kresge Project committee. The Executive Committee is the Foundation Board. The other standing committees are for Finance Issues, Developmental Issues, and Foundation Values. Figure 1 below depicts the organization chart for the five committees of the SDSDF.
Mr. Craig N. Lindes, President, SDSDF
Mr. Terry N. Prendergast, Vice President, SDSDF
Mr. Paul M. Esser, Treasurer, SDSDF
BOARD MEMBERS
Charles Brown
Jerry Foy
Linda Hagedorn
Bonnie M. Hawks
Matthew Nix
Carole Pagones
Larry R. Puthoff
Benjamin J. Soukup
Terry Gregersen, Superintendent effective September 1, 2007
Jana Carlson, Executive Director
Service Area
The Service area for the SDSDF is predominantly the state of South Dakota with over half of the families served living in the Sioux Falls area (Minnehaha and Lincoln counties). However, deaf students from other states do attend SDSD and the Foundation will include those students as eligible for support based upon enrollment. Foundation members are considering a future expansion to serve deaf and hard of hearing students from other states in the Midwest region because there are no foundations in the Midwest dedicated to specific support of this particular group of students (deaf and hard of hearing).
Types of Services Provided
The South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation will provide resources that assist the South Dakota School for the Deaf in helping deaf and hard of hearing children and their families who are served directly by the school and who are served by outreach teams from the school throughout the state. While the school has an FTE of 57 staff and a budget of almost 3 million, state regulations prohibit general funds being used to support families and children in some unique ways. Therefore, foundation resources will be used to provide direct and indirect support to these children and their families when state and federal funds cannot . The following are examples of specialized support that only the South Dakota School for the Deaf Foundation can provide.
Students could be supported by:
- Scholarship opportunities for college, vocational specialization, or transition training for the move from school to work.
- Augmenting ongoing teacher training or information for special education situations that may arise or are foreseen in the classroom.
- Interpreter services for local school district drivers education programs or for children attending private schools.
- Charitable funds to provide for personal needs for a student such as clothes, sports clothes and equipment, meals on certain trips, lodging and emergency situations.
- Scholarship funding for annual "Close Up" training trips to Washington D.C. to study federal government processes.
- After school activities that families do not have funds to pay for.
Families could be supported by:
- Specialized parenting workshops (registration and training).
- Transportation assistance to learning camps or summer school programs. (Many camps or school districts are not allowed to bear costs for camps and summer programs).
- Sign language training for families, students and staff in mainstreamed environments.
- Unique technology costs: hearing aides, cochlear implants, FM systems for schools and home that are not covered by school districts or personal insurance.
SDSD could be supported by funding for:
- The building of a new gym, pool and exercise center (although the SDSD gym was built in 1909, present state finances do not allow the building of new structures in South Dakota).
- Outside physical exercise stations.
- A new theatre and meeting center.
The state of South Dakota has approximately 300 children who are affected by hearing loss and recognized as having a hearing loss. Each year the SDSD Audiological Services test over 1,300 South Dakota children (at no cost). The state presently has about 90 profoundly deaf children registered with the state and about 60 of them attend the South Dakota School for the Deaf. The remainders are served by the SDSD outreach team, which includes six staff geographically located across the state (Rapid City, Pierre, Aberdeen, Sioux Falls) in four locations. SDSD is the only state school serving the deaf in South Dakota. While there are three other teachers of the deaf in the state (Rapid City, Aberdeen), 25 of the 28 certified teachers of the deaf in South Dakota work at or with the school itself.
The SDSD has recently established an Alumni Association, and is in the process of establishing a PTA. The school already has a very strong booster club in the form of a Sertoma Charter Club with about 46 members. Over 30 of those members are from the state business community. All three groups are gearing to support the SDSD Foundation and its drive for support.
