1997 Award Recipients
SCHOLARSHIP
The annual ACRES conferences serve as the vehicle for presenting annual ACRES Awards and Scholarships. This year's recipient of the scholarship was Ms. Barbara Adams of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. She has been teaching children with severe disabilities for 16 years in the Roaring Forks School District. Many of her students have visual impairments or blindness and have had to rely on itinerant vision consultants who visit the students once every three months. Ms. Adams plans to use the scholarship to earn a masters degree in the area of teaching students with visual impairments in conjunction with an orientation and mobility (O&M) endorsement at the University of Northern Colorado.
EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD
The ACRES 1997 Educator of the Year Award recipient was Mr. Stevan Kukic from the Utah State Office of Education. Mr. Kukic has not only been a contributor to the field, but also to ACRES for many years.
NATIONAL AWARD FOR EXEMPLARY RURAL SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Preservice/Inservice Training
The award for Preservice/Inservice Training was conferred upon the Iowa Early Childhood Special Education Regents Universities Graduate Program, coordinated by Dr. Donna Raschke, Dr. Al Healy, and Dr. Joan Clary. This program uses a new fiber optics linkage to help prepare early childhood special educators across the state. The project combines the best of the resources of the three regent universities in Iowa and makes these available to the participants in rural areas.
Infant and Early Childhood Intervention
The Infant and Early Childhood Intervention award was given to the Arch Ford Educational Service Cooperative Early Childhood Special Education Program, coordinated by Judy Clay of Plumerville, Arkansas. This project brings special education to three to five year old children in 34 school districts in 8 counties of Arkansas. Many of these children live within districts in which a large portion of the residents live below the poverty level; these districts could not afford to provide the full array of services if it was not for the cooperative project.
Vocational Training and Transition
The winner of the Vocational Training and Transition award is the Hamburg High School Program supervised by Dr. Robert Shell of Hamburg, Arkansas. The Hamburg Transition Program begins in preschool and uses a portfolio process which follows each student throughout his or her entire school experience. They serve students from four consolidated communities in the Mississippi Delta Region, covering the third largest geographical area in Arkansas. The program staff have developed extensive linkages with local, state, and national agencies as well as with local businesses. Their program model is "Challenge the Challenged" and their goal is to enable students to have a dream and provide them with the strategies, knowledge, and work experiences that will lead to lifelong successes and the actualization of their dreams.
Services to the Handicapped in the Least Restrictive Environment
The recipient of the Services to the Handicapped in the Least Restrictive Environment category award was the High Plains Educational Cooperative directed by Gary Burkhart of Ulysses, Kansas. The High Plains Cooperative is a special education interlocal formed by 17 school districts with 285 staff members in the southwest corner of Kansas. The total student population is approximately 10,000 spread over a 10,000 square mile area. Their goal is to serve special education students within their local schools by not using categorical labels and using community services when appropriate. They were pioneers in the use of interactive television and have been recognized as being a program on the cutting edge in special education. Look for articles featuring these exemplary programs in an upcoming issue of the Rural Special Education Quarterly (RSEQ).
© 2006, American Council on Rural Special Education