STILL LOOKING
by Stan Griffin

Marie Sentelik is on a quest.

The executive director of Ohio Valley Voices, a private school that teaches deaf children to speak, is trying to find a new home for her 32 little ones (nine under the age of three). Presently located in a Cincinnati suburb on the grounds of Montgomery Presbyterian Church, the school has outgrown available space.

The city of Montgomery has asked them to move out and set August 31, 2005 as its deadline. (The school staff feels unwelcome there, ever since they expanded into a nearby house and into a modular trailer.) Sentelik has been roaming the countryside looking for a suitable site. So far, she has considered approximately 50 potential locations without success. Here are two examples:

(1) One prospective location was rejected because of neighbor complaints about the two-acre lot (It’s too large and too close to nearby homes) and a potential for increased traffic with its attendant noise.

(2) The school declined another strong possibility when Sentelik learned a cell tower was close by the site. It might possibly interfere with cochlear implant devices worn by many students.

She has seen " ... lots of buildings in industrial parks and lots of basement office space ..." all of which she turned down without hesitation, saying " ... deaf children (aren’t) second-class citizens ..."

Ohio Valley Voices was founded in July, 2000 by a few parents with deaf children. They contacted the Moog Center for Deaf Education in St. Louis for assistance, and they were successful in stirring up enough local interest to open a school in the Cincinnati area. They began with 12 students.

It is a school that teaches both deaf children and those with severe hearing loss (from 18 months through second grade) to speak and understand when others speak to them. Their eventual goal is mainstreaming into traditional schools " ... where they return with self confidence and a positive self-image ... It focuses on early intervention and intensive language therapy." They are funded through tuition, grants, fund-raisers, and private donations.

Staff members at O.V.V. number 10 teachers and four teaching assistants, all trained in teaching children to speak; they are also knowledgeable in technological advances like hearing aids and cochlear implants There is a custom-designed program for each child, all with approval of the Ohio Department of Education.

Sentelik hopes to have a new 19,000-square-foot building with room for 50 children. Its estimated cost is $2,500,000. They have raised $700,000 and have been promised a matching grant from a non-profit St. Louis organization that helps open oral schools for the deaf.

So Marie Sentelik continues her search. Until they have more space, prospective students have to be kept waiting Leaving two- and three-year-olds "out in the cold" is something she has been forced to do – for now.


December, 2004 Update

Ohio Valley Voices, Cincinnati’s only oral deaf school, has found a new home. In mid-December, 2004, they reached an agreement with the River Hills Christian Church at 6642 Branch Hill-Guinea Pike in Clermont County’s Miami Township.

This site was rejected earlier because of the proximity of a cell-phone tower. The school was afraid it would interfere with students’ cochlear implant devices. Development Director Jacqueline Jones said additional tests put those fears to rest.

The two will remain joint tenants for approximately a year when the church will move to a new building now under construction on nearby Price Road.

OHIO VALLEY VOICES SOURCES

"Oral School Outgrows Its Home," by Sheila McLaughlin, Cincinnati Enquirer, August 29, 2004

"School for Deaf Kids About to Lose Its Home," by Cliff Radel, Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 1, 2004

"Neighbors Say They Want School for the Deaf to Move," Nov. 5, 2004, 12WKRC.com

"Ohio Valley Voices: About the School," oraldeafed.org

© Stan Griffin, 2004