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Livro Comemorativo dos 70 anos da Fundação de Rotarianos de São Paulo - Uma história de ideias e ideais

140 of José Ermírio de Moraes Filho, much attention was given to the preparation of the team, which involved lectures held by experts, encouragement for the staff to attend and participate in congresses, and massive investments in training. That period also saw the creation of ITAE (Educational Advance Technology Institute), which provided teacher training and improvement courses, as well as refresher programs for employees. Just in 1995, more than 200,000 man-hours were dedicated to those training and refresher courses for teachers, technical teams and employees, who attended and took part in more than two hundred events, among courses, seminars, congresses, workshops, lectures and study groups. In that renewal process, the education for the deaf also made great strides. “We started to work only with preschool-aged children. After that age, they’d be sent to special-education schools or classes maintained by the City Hall or the State Government. As a result, we no longer had multi-serial classes, having the children divided into two age groups,” says Sabine Vergamini. At Lar Escola Rotary, for its part, the focus was changing. Its trade school activities —including the printing, arts, tailoring and sewing, typing and weaving workshops—, which were complementary to the social work service, gradually gained more importance. Upon completion of their courses, students were now entitled to certificates that were valued in the marketplace, and a new structure was put together following the opening of a new building —which was named after Helena Pereira de Moraes, as a tribute to the mother of José Ermírio de Moraes Filho and his brothers, who had contributed funds for its construction. In the meantime, many changes were taking place at the Colégio as well. To begin with, in 1989, two icons of Rio Branco had retired after dedicating their whole lives to it: Soledad Santos and Nórton Batista. The former had been with the primary school for 60 years, most of which as principal. The latter had already spent five decades there, including his time as a student — and go on to serve the Fundação, becoming, shortly afterwards, the 1st vicepresident of its Board of Directors. But there were substitutes to match them, who handled the task of keeping up the good work. The activities carried on by Soledad in primary school were allotted to two professionals recognized for their contributions to Rio Branco: Maria Olívia Montenegro took over the department of administrative services, and teacher Vilma Rocha was put in charge of the pedagogy department. Teacher Primo Páscoli Melaré was chosen to take Nórton Batista’s position as the Colégio’s principal. The change was an opportunity for reviewing and, in some cases, renewing practices and concepts, along the same lines as what was being done at the administrative level. “We were given really great assistance by teacher Primo Melaré, who supported the changes for realizing they were necessary,” says Maria Olívia Montenegro. That process would be continued and deepened in the following decade, as it is described in next chapter. It was also in that period that the Fundação saw the rise of a personality that would be of paramount importance from then forward: Eduardo Pimentel. In 1993, after serving successive terms as secretary and vice president of the Superior Council, he took over its presidency, a position he would hold for four years, until he was assigned new responsibilities. Agreements and partnerships to boost performance With the intent to extend the reach of their actions in society and create more opportunities for their students and professionals, the institutions maintained by Fundação de Rotarianos de São Paulo have always sought to have a closer relationship and enter into covenants or agreements with other organizations recognized for their quality and relevance. For students, the partnerships struck by Colégio Rio Branco or Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco have been ensuring access to language courses and certificates from renowned schools and agencies or participation in admission exam preparation or student interchange programs with prestigious international institutions from countries such as United States, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Finland, China or Israel. In realm of arts, that is also true and extends to Centro de Educação para Surdos Rio Branco students through a partnership with the Museum of Modern Art, which expands the scope of curricular and artistic contents in interaction with works of art and art experts. Agreements with various institutions also provided


Livro Comemorativo dos 70 anos da Fundação de Rotarianos de São Paulo - Uma história de ideias e ideais
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