The Arizona State School for the Deaf and the Blind laid out a more detailed plan to close its dorms, mainstream visually impaired students at local schools and relocate its campus in a letter to parents Monday evening.
The emailed letter included minor details for ASDB families and explained a “cooperative site model,” where school districts and ASDB will collaborate. It is working with the Tucson Unified School District to set up the first sites and will start in August, 2026, the letter said.
ASDB will move its hearing-impaired day students to Copper Creek Elementary in Oro Valley next school year. Of its 114 students, about 30 are visually impaired.
Arizona Luminaria requested comment from TUSD late Tuesday but did not receive a response before publication.
ASDB Superintendent Annette Reichman has cited a $3 million deficit, lack of federal and state funds, declining birth rates resulting in lower enrollment, more complicated student needs, and deteriorating buildings and infrastructure as the primary reasons for all the changes.
“To address these challenges, ASDB must have a delivery model that will educate and serve fewer students with less resources,” Reichman said in her letter to parents.
But caregivers say the plan remains vague and leaves them to figure out the details.
“This is just stress,” parent Sierra Vinson told Arizona Luminaria. “We are trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Vinson, mom to Elena, 11, who is blind and autistic, says the family will apply for an Empowerment Scholarship Account to get services for her.
“I know Braille. I know the tactile symbols. I know most of the things,” said Sierra, who worked at ASDB for five years and now works at Arizona Autism. “I can help her with some of that stuff. But it means I have to change my whole schedule, my work schedule. But I’ll do what I have to do to take care of my daughter.”
In her fifth-grade life skills classroom, Elena has transitioned from a stroller or a wagon to walking independently with a cane, riding a bike and sometimes lifting weights, her mom says. Elena came to ASDB in first grade after starting elementary school in TUSD. The new shift will startle her, Vinson said.
“I’ve been trying to talk to her because she’s very schedule-oriented. So, any changes, she gets very upset,” Sierra said. “She doesn’t really talk much, but she understands and she’s already not been wanting to go to school now because I think everyone there is kind of sad.”
In addition to the move and separating students, ASDB will lay off about 60 staff members in Tucson this summer, many of whom work with visually-impaired students.
The 56-acre campus on West Speedway Boulevard was built for about 400 students more than 100 years ago. A second ASDB campus operates in Phoenix. The Tucson campus includes grades K-12.
Tucsonan Koehler resigns
ASDB Governing Board member Bill Koehler resigned last week after the board voted to move the school, separate visually impaired and hard of hearing students and lay off dozens of staff.
Koehler, a former ASDB assistant superintendent, sent his resignation to Gov. Katie Hobbs on Feb. 10. He was the lone Tucson voice on the board at the Feb. 5 meeting where the board voted 5-2 to shutter the Tucson campus and lay off staff.
Koehler and board member Earl Terry opposed the move. Koehler voted no on the layoffs, while Terry abstained.
“I said to myself, I can’t just sit here and watch this destruction and so I tendered my resignation. And then I filed an open meeting law report,” said Koehler, who was appointed by Hobbs in August.
“I did not see a mechanism for a voice. And it seemed important that there be a voice,” he said. “And the only way I could do that is by not being a board member.”
The ASDB board oversees the Tucson campus and the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf. According to the ASDB website, the board is now comprised of seven members and Koehler’s bio has been removed.
Three website bios say their terms expired in early January: Michael Gordon who is listed as a Tucsonan but did not attend the Feb. 5 meeting; Terry, who lives in Phoenix and board President Brittany Buchanan of Phoenix. Board member Linda Bove is listed as a Phoenix resident and bios for Diana Herron, Shauna Tomaiko and Colette Chapman reference the Phoenix area, but do not specify where they reside.
Arizona Luminaria reached out to ASDB administrators for comment on the resignation and a possible replacement but did not receive a response by publication.
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