Dr. Mazzoli's remarks on the new schools

On Tuesday, September 11, 2007, Dr. Susan Tave Zelman, State Superintendent of  Public Instruction asked Dr. Corbett and I to join her at the State Board of Education meeting at the Ohio School for the Deaf.

Dr. Zelman started her speech with the following statement: “I’d like to begin today by talking about the construction of the deaf and blind schools.  I am pleased to tell you that the programmatic needs have been determined; the architect and construction manager have been selected; and there has been much interest in possible public/private partnerships for both a state low incidence training and resource center, and an athletic facility." 

 Dr Zelman went on to explain that there has been a great deal of discussion about which of the existing sites would best meet the needs of both the blind and the deaf students.   She then announced that a determination has been reached by working  closely with the Superintendents of the schools, as well as the Ohio School Facilities  Commission and  the Office of Budget & Management, that the best option is to  rebuild  both schools on their existing  sites.  What this means is that the academic and residential spaces of both schools will be kept separate to insure that they will meet the unique and fundamentally different needs of their respective student populations.

I would like to commend Dr. Zelman for placing the need of our student populations first when making  this difficult  decision and recommending this course of action.  I would like to thank the OSSB staff for their help and assistance in educating all of us about the needs of blind students and for taking part in the initial planning meetings for developing the program of requirements for the building program.  I would also like to thank the members of the Advisory Committee for their valuable input at the meetings.  

 Those individuals representing our interests on the Advisory Committee include:  Eric Duffy, National Federation of the Blind; Mary Hiland, American Council of the Blind; John Farley, OSSB Alumni Association; Earl Cohen, Cleveland Sight Center; and Mike Hanes, Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired.

This is just the first step in the long journey to build and develop new facilities for both schools that will serve all the blind and deaf students in Ohio for generations to come.

On behalf of the children, parents and staff of OSSB, I thank the State Department of Education, the Governor and the legislature for their continued support in making OSSB the “Gateway to the Community” for the tens of thousands of blind and visually impaired youth that will be served by this new facility over its life.