SEAL

The position of State Education Advocacy Liaison (SEAL) was just transitioned from Catherine unger to Nancy Kuhles.

The following is a summary of current events submitted by Catherine Unger, prior to the end of her term as SEAL.

Prior to the SEAL meeting at the Schools Conference, I had done an e-mail update of the Fund for Improvement of Education (FIE) grant Nancy Kuhle and Chris Verre-Tierney secured by request of Eileen Crowe. I also included the BHSM proclamations, etc that Janine Baldis had accomplished. I attached an interview (of sorts) with Nancy as well as a sample of the notice Janine sent out regardign BHSM.

This was sent to Eileen who sent it to the ASHA Leader. They did not contact me about it, but Janet Deppe (School Finance Committee) asked me to write an article for the finance website. I have sent this to you and will finish this and send to Janet for final editing as soon as the feedback is returned to me. 

 I participated in a regional meeting at the Schools Conference, by request of Susan Karr. Eileen Crowe asked me to summarize some of things Nevada was doing regarding the Coalition, etc.

I attended the SEAL meeting and forwarded an extra copy of the notes to Nancy which included handouts on negotiation with a questionaire that helps the reader determine their negotiation strengths. Finding there was the availability of a $75-$150.00 grant for SEAL activity, I contacted Nancy and sent out the plan to Eileen Crowe. Thanks again for your help with faxing the the mini-grant signature page to Eileen Crowe!! 
 
I sent a flash drive of School Services handouts/resources to Nancy, made Eileen Crowe aware she was the new SEAL, and notified Nancy of who to contact to get her SEAL contact information updated.
 
While at ASHA I met a young man who represents a company who designs telepractice video system communications. I put him in contact with Christine Verre-Tierney, with her permission. I had remembered how telepractice was addressed in the Coalition Matrix as an "eventual" initiative.

I have been contacted by the School Practitioners Input Group regarding caseload guidelines in Nevada--secured the NAC information and sent it to them. They also requested feedback as to what I value about ASHA. I offerred feedback. I am a volunteer member of the SPI Group.

I was contacted by the ASHA Finance folks. They requested an email contact for our Superintentdents so they could send them a survey.  As I understand it, the survey was asking questions about if the ARRA funds were being spent to support Sp-Lang. Services and how they might be. I accessed the list throgh the NVDOE and sent it to them. Nancy emailed Rorie Fitzpatrick to let her know they would be sent out so she would be in the know.

I have been in contact with Neil Snyder, Director of Political Advocacy, regarding Loan Forgiveness for SLP's and Aud's. I have sent on to Nancy the websites he forwarded me to review. I found out that Nevada is the only state listed that does not track professional shortages. As it appears the loan forgiveness may be tied to shortages in high needs areas, I am not sure what if any impact this will have once the current 2008 bill is appropriated funds to back it up. For example, if there is no state data collection system to document"shortages" in what carreer fields, will this affect our future professionals from being eligible for these grants in Nevada. I attempted to get that information, but was lost in a phone tree infinity that did not yield any results. Neil Snyder suggested that if I found a link, Nevada SLPs/ Coalition may want to write a grant to pay for the data collection system to be put in place. Something to think about....It would be a disappointment if we were the only state to miss the loan repayment due to a lack of state-level data collection.  I do not think this would support the Coalition goal of recruitment. 

Eileen has asked me to do a 30 minute summary of being a SEAL at the November convention.