Friday, June 7, 2013

New Leader at State Deaf School

Joel Coleman
The Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind have a new superintendent. State Board of Education member Joel Coleman will resign that position next month so that he can take over leadership at the schools which have about 1700 students attending at three campuses. Coleman will make $130,000 a year. He's taking over for the retiring superintendent, Steve Noyce. The board decided not to reappoint Noyce but has not said why. Noyce was criticized by some parents when he started four years ago for being overly focused on spoken language over sign, something Noyce denied.

 The board voted unanimously for Coleman today to take the helm, who has a master's degree from Brigham Young and teaches in the Mormon seminary program. Members also considered the Utah director of Title I, Karl Wilson, who was once the state director of special education. The third candidate was executive director of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and Center for Community and Professional Services, Larry Taub.