Text of Dr. Corbett's VLOG on new schools

Hello, my name is Ed Corbett, Superintendent of the Ohio School for the Deaf.  I am happy to welcome you to the new 2007-2008 school year.  We have many exciting plans in the coming months.

Remember, last year we discussed about the new schools by having the blind school moving to the deaf school campus.  We worked on designing, construction and planning, and all that. As you know, I did a number of town hall meetings throughout the state, Zanesville, Cleveland, Akron, Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus and a number of other cities.  I did these to explain to people about the new schools.

As it was, a lot of questions were raised.  One thing was economics and the costs of building new schools.  Then, we looked at the program of requirements where we have had several meetings with teachers and other staff members from both schools.  We had an alumni representative from the Ohio School for the Deaf Alumni Association at the meeting along with some parent representatives.  We discussed what should be part of the new schools program of requirements with a lot of figures as to square footage for the new schools.

Over the summer we faced some serious issues regarding safety.  For example, if the blind school was to be located here, the blind students would have to learn how to navigate on Morse Road to the shopping places on High Street. You know that on Morse Road during the daytime, people do drive by pretty fast – 50, 55, or 60 mph; and suppose if something were to happen, I don’t want to see any of the blind or deaf students get hurt on that street.  Any issues related to safety, we realized that we need to discuss this further with high level state officials.  They are: OBM director, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, OSFC director and with some other people.  They have held their meetings and, today I am very happy to share this information with you all.

I was asked by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Susan Tave Zelman, to join her at the State Board of Education meeting at OSD and listen to what she has to say to the Board members.  You know, the State Board of Education hold their meetings here at our school every month.

Dr. Zelman started her speech with this:  “I’d like to begin today by talking about the construction of the deaf and blind school.  As you may remember, we have provided quarterly status reports on this project.  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 for athletic facilities.

Before a master facility plan can be designed and submitted to the Ohio School Facilities Commission for approval, a site must be selected to build the schools.

There has been a great deal of discussion about which of the existing sites would be best to meet the needs of our blind and deaf students.

Working closely with Superintendents, Dr. Mazzoli and Dr. Corbett, as well as the Ohio School Facilities Commission and OBM, it appears that the best option is to rebuild both schools on their existing sites. What this means is that both schools will be kept separate that meet the unique learning needs of this unique population.”

The next steps right now are for the architects and construction manager to get together again and start planning on scheduling, designs, and drawings to come up with a master plan showing where the new school and dormitory buildings are located at their respective campuses − new blind school/dormitory buildings at OSSB campus and new deaf school/dormitory buildings at OSD campus with a bridge across the ravine.  The design and construction plans are to be approved by the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

You know that we have spent a lot of time and money on meetings to show how the new school will be like.  We now know that there will be a new school and dormitories at OSD campus and a new school and dormitories at OSSB campus.

I want you to know that we have established an advisory committee who will be working together with us from time to time for 5 years.  I have asked the following to represent the deaf school will be:  Dr. Gertrude S. Galloway, retired Superintendent of the New Jersey School for the Deaf who served on our panel as an expert on deafness; Dr. Harvey J. Corson, former Superintendent of the Louisiana, Kentucky and American Schools for the Deaf to advise us on construction plans; and Mr. Joseph Finnegan, Executive Director of the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf to advise us regarding CEASD program standards can be met for the education design and residential living of our deaf students.

I have already asked two alumni members to represent the alumni.  They are Mr. Tom Penny and Mr. Rolland Doudt.  Mr. Penny has enrolled some of his children here at OSD with his youngest daughter just enrolled this Fall.

The advisory committee will advise us as to the master facilities plans.  We do not know what the new master facilities plans will look like but they are coming.

Now, in closing, we will have a NEW DEAF SCHOOL at OSD.