After a month to reflect since officials voted to close the Tucson campus of the Arizona State School for the Deaf and the Blind and lay off about 60 employees here, students, staff and families shifted the tone at Thursday night’s Board of Directors meeting in Tucson.
Parents, teachers and staff asked the board questions about a proposed new teacher pay structure, talked about their experiences and asked how administration, staff and families can work together and move forward.
“You are individuals who have changed the shape of our communities, inspired others to dream big. You are amazing people,” ASDB teacher Kasey Hopper told the board at the Berger Center for the Performing Arts. “All we’re asking is to work with us. WE are amazing people. WE dream big.”
The vision for ASDB is evolving: The school, opened in 1912, will shut down its 56-acre campus on the west side and move deaf and hard of hearing students to Oro Valley on July 1. The move will force many students, including those who are blind or low vision and those boarding at ASDB, to find a different school.
ASDB says it will offer cooperative sites at Pueblo High School and Morgan Maxwell K-8 in the Tucson Unified School District, said Jason Lilly, director of itinerant services at Thursday’s meeting.
The site announcement and the plan for students was rolled out Thursday to about 60 teachers, staff, students and family members. It was greeted initially with silence — a stark contrast to last month’s meeting in Phoenix where hundreds attended. Later, current and former students spoke to the board about their experience.
“We need to protect my blind friends,” ASDB alumna Kristine Hodgkinson told the board. “I am feeling sad.”
As Hodgkinson left the podium after 40 seconds, she high-fived her parents and four more people in the Berger Center aisles.
ASDB says it supports more than 900 students with its itinerant services: American Sign Language interpreters who typically travel to different sites and work with students.
“TUSD provides services to students who are blind or who have low vision at multiple campuses through an itinerant service model,” TUSD spokesperson Karla Escamilla told Arizona Luminaria on Thursday. “Students who will be placed at Morgan Maxwell and Pueblo High School will receive a higher level of support through daily instruction from a teacher of the visually impaired, orientation and mobility services, and access to braille and enlarged print.
“These sites were selected based on the capacity to accommodate students’ needs and an enthusiasm to support visual, cultural, and individual student needs,” she said. “TUSD and ASDB will collaborate with community organizations to provide specialized staff development and support for both students at staff at these two sites.”
The Tucson ASDB campus has 115 students in grades K-12, and about 30 of those learners are blind. ASDB also has a campus in Phoenix.
Last month, 15 families filed a lawsuit, saying the transition violates state and federal law. The complaint alleges the school did not give families enough input and notice and says the ASDB administration moved forward with plans to close programs for blind and visually impaired students while “maintaining or prioritizing programming for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.”
ASDB Superintendent Annette Reichman communicated to families in January about the move. She 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.
On Thursday, the board voted 5-0 to table a vote on teacher pay for next school year. It has 30 days to revisit the issue of annual step increases and shifting to a new teaching salary pay schedule.
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