KSSB Leadership

Jon has extensive experience working with students who have multiple disabilities, students with visual impairments, including deaf-blind, and the systems that are meant to serve these low-incidence populations. After four years serving as a special education teacher in Kansas schools, Jon worked for five years as an Assistive Technology Specialist at the Missouri Technology Center for Special Education, located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Jon also worked as a Technical Assistance Specialist for the National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) for 14 years. NCDB is a national technical assistance agency funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to provide leadership and support to all 50 state deaf-blind projects across the United States.

In 2013, Jon was hired as the Director of Instruction at KSSB. He was named interim superintendent in the summer of 2017, and is presently serving as the superintendent.

Aundrayah Shermer, has been a Certified Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments and a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist for the past 28 years.  Aundrayah received her Master’s degree from Northern Illinois University and took her first teaching position with the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, IA where she worked in outreach serving several regional areas throughout Iowa.

Aundrayah and her family relocated to the Springfield, MO area in 1998 to raise her children near their grandparents.  In Springfield, Aundrayah worked 16 years serving as a TSVI/COMS for the Springfield Public Schools and many surrounding regional school districts.  Aundrayah also worked with Missouri State University for 10 years training and preparing future TSVI’s and COMS.

In Spring 2014, Aundrayah was offered the Director of Field Services position at Kansas State School for the Blind.  She and her family relocated to Kansas during that summer, and she has enjoyed her many opportunities to grow in her professional position since that time.

Aundrayah’s life-long passion is serving in whatever capacity needed to meet the needs of individuals who have a visual impairment.  Young or old… teacher, mentor, advocator, and parent all describe her commitment to the field.

Pam Arbeiter is a Certified Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments and a Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialist (COMS). She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary and Special Education from Southeast Missouri State University in 1995 after completing her student teaching in Swansea, Wales. She received her Master of Arts degree in Special Education from Michigan State University in 2002. Pam is currently completing post graduate work in Administration at Fort Hays State University. Pam started teaching students with special needs in 1995, and has extensive experience working with students, families, teachers & school districts in both rural and urban areas.

Throughout her career, Pam has worked in a variety of capacities including classroom teacher, itinerant teacher, private contractor, and educational consultant. She provided professional development and technical assistance to schools in the southeast region of Missouri through the Blindness Skills Specialist Program; worked as a TSVI / COMS for Missouri First Steps serving children birth-3 yrs; served as a TSVI & COMS at the Missouri State Schools for the Severely Disabled, and assisted with mobile low vision clinics via the Children’s Low Vision Project (CLVP) at Lighthouse for the Blind-St. Louis. Pam is a Past President of the Missouri Chapter of AER, and was the Chairperson of the Missouri Assistive Technology Council. She has given presentations at many local, state & national conferences including the Kansas Vision Symposium, The Power Up Assistive Technology Conference, Missouri Council of Administrators of Special Education Conference, Kansas Association of Special Education Administrators Winter Conference, and the Southeastern Orientation & Mobility Association Conference.    

After moving to the Kansas City area in 2016, Pam worked on the Early Intervention and O&M Team at the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired. She joined the Kansas School for the Blind in 2019 serving as a Regional Field Service Specialist. In that role, she was an instructional coach & mentor serving as a resource and providing professional development & technical assistance to educators in the Northeast region of Kansas. Pam is also a mentor for the Kansas eMSS mentoring program at Pittsburg State University. She has been the co-coordinator of the Extended School Year Program at KSSB, served as the chair of the Kansas Vision Symposium, and has worked on many other special projects at KSSB.  Pam has really enjoyed being a chaperone for students going to Space Camp, and to Make 48 Inventor Competitions. Pam lives in Lee’s Summit, MO with her husband Tim, and has two adult daughters.

Erin Meyer, has been in the educational field since 2001. She started as a special education teacher in resource and center-based classrooms for students with learning disabilities and autism. Erin received her master’s degree from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her master’s paper was on her first visually impaired student and research on brain formation.  After working in the special education field for eight years, Erin has been working with different itinerant teachers of students with visual impairments and certified orientation and mobility specialists.

Erin completed her certifications in 2009 and immediately started in the vision field. She began as a private contractor with school districts across northern Missouri and the Kansas City area. After 2020, she worked full-time in a Kansas school district before her path led her to Kansas State School for the Blind in 2023. On the weekends, she has been a coordinator of a program for visually impaired students in northwest Missouri for the last four years. The program involves having the student participate in a variety of activities and environments, including trips to Nashville and San Francisco.

In 2025, Erin was offered the position of Extended Day Director at KSSB. She feels that the dorm director position, while challenging, is an opportunity to provide systematic instruction to students in the daily living and expanded core curriculum skills with her fantastic team. Erin says this is the best job she never knew she always wanted! Her ultimate work focus is to provide people with visual impairments access and the successful opportunity for students to care for themselves in the adult world of work and community connection. She resides in Gladstone with her wonderful husband, Johnathan, and we are the proud parents of three fabulous adult children, Sebastian, Jocelyn, and Tynan.

This board meets twice a year: once in the fall and once in the spring. It serves to review the school’s activities and initiatives. The board provides feedback on ways the school can promote adherence to the mission, and it provides perspectives from consumers, parents, and teachers from the field.