Sanders reveals facility plans
School for Blind, School for Deaf upgrades to be sweeping
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Wednesday plans for a new “state-ofthe-art facility” on the site of the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Arkansas School for the Deaf to serve its students, adding that the state would like to see both schools overseen by a single superintendent while retaining separate principals for each.
Sanders, joined by state Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva, School for the Deaf Board Chairman Robert Fagan, lawmakers and parents of a child attending the School for the Blind, made the announcement during a news conference in the conference room at the state Capitol building in Little Rock.
The governor described the effort, which began late last year when she and state lawmakers toured the schools, as part of a “comprehensive plan” for the campuses that she said would bring changes that were “long overdue.”
The Arkansas School for the Deaf and the Arkansas School for the Blind are state-sponsored schools that provide necessary services for students around the state. The schools are close to one another and often share facilities.
Sanders said community members who provided input through a “survey of the school community” highlighted three priorities: Ensuring the campuses remain at their original location along Markham Street in Little Rock, providing more resources to students beyond the two campuses and addressing critical safety concerns.
To address those priorities, the state “will invest significant resources to build a new state-of-the-art facility on the current campus, combine administrative functions and provide additional high-quality instruction
on a regional basis,” she said. When asked about concerns from the community that the two schools might consolidate, Sanders said she hopes the schools will share a single superintendent.
“We would like to see one superintendent that would focus on the administrative and operations side, and then each school to have their own principal that would focus on specific instruction and help protect the culture of each of the two communities,” she said.
Each facility will have their own buildings on campus, though some services, such as dining and other administrative aspects, will be shared. Sanders said the goal is to improve efficiency and better serve the schools’ students.
Sanders said she wasn’t ready to release cost estimates for the project, or a timeline for its planning and implementation. However, she said roughly $30 million had been set aside by the state Legislature in 2021 and that they hoped to advance the project “as fast as possible.”
Oliva said he believes the schools, once complete, could serve as an example to be followed by similar campuses across the nation.
“There is no reason that this can’t be the flagship program that makes all the other states say, ‘this is the state that did it right; how do we make our programs in our states just as good as theirs?’” he said.
In an interview following the news conference, he said the state wants to “build a comprehensive plan on how we’re going to provide high-quality instruction to students that are deaf and blind while maintaining our No. 1 priority of keeping them safe.”
The state has conducted a comprehensive review of the facilities and their conditions, and worked with architects “to identify buildings that are salvageable, that have good bones in it, or some buildings that it may be more efficient to tear them down and rebuild something fresh.”
The secretary didn’t indicate which buildings are being considered for demolition, though Sanders said during the news conference that the schools’ dorms will likely receive upgrades, rather than being rebuilt.
Addressing fears from community members that the campuses will consolidate, Oliva said stakeholders had emphasized the importance of keeping aspects of the schools separate.
“What we have heard very clear from the stakeholders through feedback that it’s very important to protect the deaf culture and identity, as well as the blind culture and identity, and to understand that types of instruction and education experience services are different. This plan is going to take that into consideration to make sure those needs are met,” he said.
Oliva said he saw no reason the project couldn’t turn the schools into flagships that similar campuses in other states would look to as an example.
Lawmakers, parents and advocates had expressed concerns about the infrastructure of both schools. Among the current facilities’ issues were “crumbling exteriors, leaking and drafty interiors, a vast piece of land overseen by just a handful of staff with significant security, health and safety concerns,” according to Sanders. “To say I was speechless would be an understatement,” she said.
In 2022, then-Education Department Secretary Johnny Key said changes were needed at the schools due to their aging infrastructure. Among the issues he cited were an old electrical grid and old water lines.
In late October, Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, posted on social media about the condition of the facilities following a tour by legislators.
“I’m astounded at the work being done at these schools, both the grace and spirit of the adults & the strength and courage of the students,” Tucker said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Yet, at the same time, my heart sank as we saw firsthand the distressing condition of these vital institutions.”
He said the state had not adequately prioritized the needs of the campuses and that, as a result, the “disrepair and neglect are apparent.”
Speaking in an interview following Wednesday’s announcement, Tucker said that renovating the buildings while constructing a new facility and ensuring Arkansas continues to have a central campus are “huge wins” for the schools’ students.
Despite community members’ fears that the schools will consolidate, Tucker said he remained confident that education “will remain totally separate.”
“Everything that I’ve been told, and everything that I would fight for, is to make sure that the education is tailored specifically to each community and the schools remain separate from an education standpoint,” he said. “I fully believe that will be the case.”
Fagan described the announced project as a “huge gift of love on this Valentine’s Day.”
He said the schools, which are over a century old, have struggled to keep their facilities updated and maintained.
“I’ve heard stories of using duct tape and paper clips to fix things around here,” he said.
Speaking after the announcement, Fagan expressed optimism for the new project, saying that he expected student enrollment at the schools, along with test scores, will rise as a result.
“Kids will feel good about being on campus,” he said. “They won’t be in rundown facilities. They will be educated in the best of the best in the country, and that’s what the governor wants.”
The board chairman said he will travel to Florida with members of the state Education Department “to see how that functions.”
“We’ll be able to bring back some good ideas from them,” he said.
Rep. Tippi McCullough, D-Little Rock, said she is “super excited” for an effort that she described as very positive.
“I’m looking forward to all the stakeholders and everybody getting together to get the best product possible,” she said.
Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, who is chair of the House Early Childhood Committee, said in an interview after the conference that the current plans for the project have surpassed her expectations.
“When I actually saw the plan, it far exceeded everything I’d hoped for and dreamed of,” said Fite, who also spoke during the news conference and is a former teacher of the deaf. “It’s giving us the best of everything that the stakeholders have all said they wanted: to stay in that same location but to have great facilities and to make it not so spread out. It’s just been far too spread out for a very vulnerable population.”
She said that a security guard at the campus has said people “wander onto the campus all the time,” and that a plan for a “pretty but secure fence” is in the works.
“That kids are especially vulnerable, and here we have a place that’s not safe,” she said. “It’s beautiful when you drive by, but as Secretary Oliva said, it’s crumbling.”
SURVEY
The Education Department shared a link to a survey on social media on Dec. 22. The post called for “as many stakeholders as possible, including parents, grandparents, alumni, etc. who have direct ties to these schools” to share their thoughts about the campus. The deadline to submit responses was Jan. 5.
The survey sparked concerns that the campuses might be consolidated, and the Arkansas Association of the Deaf sharply criticized the questionnaire’s distribution.
In a Jan. 4 letter to Oliva, Arkansas Association of the Deaf advocate Jeff Prail said the survey was “not appropriately fitted and formatted” to gather input from the deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind and visually impaired communities. Prail suggested in his letter that the department might have violated Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act, as it did not include sign language videos or audio voice explaining the survey.
“You should know that deaf members, ASD Staff, students, and parents often rely on sign language for visual communication, and the blind community relies on audio voice or braille reading,” he said.
He also criticized the timing of the survey, which he said was “carefully calculated and released during the holiday break,” and urged the state not to consider the current survey, but to redo it in a format that is accessible to both communities.
Kitsonia Hancock, president of the Arkansas Association of the Deaf, said the community “didn’t feel as if we were being listened to.”
Oliva said Wednesday that stakeholder input regarding students’ needs has been an important part of the renovation and construction process. He said ideas and concepts around the project will be presented during the school boards’ meetings, which are open to the public.
“We’re going to be including stakeholders and listening to the experts from those schools each and every single day,” he said.
Tucker likewise said community input is a key part of the process.
“There’s still going to be a planning process for how exactly everything is going to look, and I know for certain that that input will be solicited and valued as we move forward,” he said. “I know folks in the Education Department met with faculties at the schools yesterday.”