History of the Joint Campus Concept

The Ohio State School for the Blind and the Ohio School for the Deaf were founded in 1837 and 1829 respectively.  The purpose of the schools has always been to insure the best possible educational programs are available for children and youth with visual and/or auditory impairments wherever they might reside across the state.  The current school buildings were completed in the early 1950’s and today, more than 50 years later, very few changes have been made to the facilities of the schools despite the fact that monumental changes have taken place in the approach to educating and the capabilities of our students.  In fact, only within the past few years have efforts been made to minimally address even the issues of the Americans with Disabilities Act despite the fact that a number of our students require wheelchairs.

With nearly 350 years of operation between them as completely separate and distinct facilities, the Ohio School for the Deaf (OSD) and the Ohio State School for the Blind (OSSB) are taking the historic step of working toward a single campus for both schools.  During the past two years, the Ohio State School for the Blind and the Ohio School for the Deaf have been taking steps to consolidate several of the operational aspects of the two schools.  The consolidation so far has been focused in the areas of Student Health Services, Human Resources and the Business Office of the two schools.  Through these consolidations, both schools will operate in a more efficient and effective way and reduce operational costs. 

The operational consolidation that has taken place to date, however, has been limited due to the physical separation of the schools.  We are reviewing other possible areas of consolidation such as building maintenance and grounds, food services, technology and campus security, but all of these consolidations can only fully come to fruition if the school facilities are collocated.

Building the new schools on one campus will allow for significant savings on infrastructure and construction costs, and it will open the door to a wide range of possibilities to share facilities and staff.  Combining the support and administrative operations of the schools will allow for significant reductions in what are today duplicative operating costs and allow us to provide new and improved programs and services to our students..

The core academic and residential components of each school, however, must remain separate in discussions of future planning due to the fundamentally different needs of deaf and blind students, but most other areas will be considered for some kind of sharing.  This need to have the actual education of Deaf and Blind children occur in an environment that is either purely visual in the case of deaf learners or purely auditory in the case of blind learners is the single most important aspect of the schools, and what insures the state is providing the full continuum of services to its deaf and/or blind children.  We cannot consolidate the actual classrooms or dormitories of the schools. 

Our ability to provide this focused environment is mandated in state and federal law which requires a full continuum of services for students with disabilities.  The goal and desire of our staff is the same as every other teacher in the state; to create successful and happy adults.  We would all be pleased if every deaf and blind student was able to succeed in their local public school, but that is simply not the case.  The reasons students come to us are as varied as the students themselves.  Common causes include the local school district not being able to afford Braille materials or qualified and licensed sign language interpreters, or perhaps the student has additional disabilities that simply surpass the ability of the local teaching staff to effectively deal with when they only see one of these students every five years.

In the 2005-2006 school year, OSD served 145 students from 72 school districts in 44 counties throughout Ohio.  In addition OSD served over 350 students statewide through its interactive video distance learning and outreach summer camp programs.  OSSB served 130 full-time students and 200 more including outreach efforts and summer camp programs.  The OSSB students come from 52 different counties and also represent 72 school districts, though not the same districts as OSD.  Approximately 150 students between the two schools are enrolled in the residential program during the school year and live on campus 5 days per week.  The other students are transported to OSD and OSSB on a daily basis by the local school districts.  All of these students, families, counties, and school districts have a vested interest in what happens to our schools, as do the thousands of alumni who have passed through our halls and the entire community of deaf and blind adults across the country. 

OSSB and OSD completed a facility modernization and improvement feasibility study, conducted under the direction of the Department of Administrative Services and the Office of the State Architect, in June 2001.  The study proved the economic justification to replace the schools by meeting the Ohio School Facilities Commission’s (OSFC) “2/3 rule”. 

OSFC schedules public schools for replacement once the cost to repair and renovate the facility exceeds 66%, or two-thirds, of the complete replacement cost.  Both OSD and OSSB met that criterion in 2001.  As time passes, the cost to repair, renovate, rehabilitate, maintain, and, more recently, heat the schools continues to increase, making the argument for replacement more powerful with each passing year.

The 2001 feasibility study was based around the premise that the two schools would each build new facilities to serve their unique populations, and the 2/3 justification was based upon the cost to build 2 completely separate campuses with no shared facilities.  The primary difference between that recommendation and our current request plan is that we are now planning a single campus for both schools with virtually all support and back-office functions being consolidated and shared.  The 2 schools, however, will remain seperate and distinct.

There is a national movement toward moving state residential schools like ours onto a single campus.  Over a dozen states have already done so and more are discussing it or preparing to do so.  Although this trend is still being debated within the educational community, it is without a doubt the most prudent and fiscally responsible choice.  The largest problem many educators have with these plans is that they are frequently dictated by accountants and auditors.  The perception is that these deaf and blind children are seen simply as items on the balance sheet. 

OSD and OSSB have been following this national debate for some time, and, with the approval of the State Department of Education, we have begun preliminary design work on a new, combined campus.  By taking the initiative to begin this process without waiting for the state fiscal watchdogs to recommend or even require it of us, we hope to send the clear message that we can be good stewards of the taxpayers money and still provide the deaf and blind children of the State of Ohio with the finest support and education available to help them become productive citizens.

Although the residential schools part of our agencies will continue to be the core of our identity and a vital part of our future, the Department of Education made the historic decision in 2005 to break down the four walls of our institutions and challenged us to guide and teach educators across the state in the areas of educating blind and deaf children and young adults.  This responsibility used to belong to a separate agency (The Ohio Center for Autism and Low-Incidence, OCALI), portions of which have now been absorbed into OSD and OSSB. 

An important part of our plans is the construction of a single statewide outreach center devoted to researching and improving the education of the deaf and blind in their local school classrooms.  Discussions are also underway to bring the state’s outreach services for autism and other low-incidence handicaps into the same facility, which would make it a true center for collaboration and an invaluable resource to public schools across the state.

The construction of a single campus for OSSB and OSD, along with the combined Outreach center, will likely take place in phases over the next 5 to 7 years.

As we look to the next 50 plus years, our mission remains, our methods and means are better than ever thanks to modern technology and continuous innovation and applications of best research findings into practice.