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http://www.dailypress.com/news/loca...29,0,6388342.story?coll=dp-headlines-virginia
Virginia is continuing with its plan to consolidate its two residential schools for deaf and blind students onto the existing campus in Staunton, but the General Assembly still must decide whether to fully fund the project.
The state's new budget provides $2.5 million to plan for renovating and adding buildings at the 168-year-old Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton. The preliminary work will help determine the project's full cost in time for the 2007 legislative session.
"It could very easily be that once the plans are developed and they hit us with the number, it might be, 'This might be more than we afford,"' Del. Phillip Hamilton, R-Newport News, and one of 11 legislative budget negotiators. Providing full state funding for the project "is possible but not guaranteed," he said.
The General Assembly this year passed legislation to combine the educational programs of the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled in Hampton and VSDB-Staunton onto the Staunton campus. The state Department of Education would work with local agencies to have a regional day program in place by June 30, 2008, for students who don't move to Staunton.
Sen. Emmett Hanger Jr., R-Mount Solon, and a strong backer of the Staunton consolidation, said he expects the General Assembly to fund the project in the upcoming session.
"We would not plan the project if we weren't going to pay for it," said Hanger, who said that consolidation funds weren't allocated in the current budget because the cash won't be required until the next budget period.
But under the legislation, fate of the Hampton campus isn't clear.
One option the budget language provides is that the state could transfer the property to a nonprofit or public group to provide services to the students who currently attend.
A telephone message left Thursday for Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, wasn't returned.
Finance officials at the Department of Education consider it premature to speculate on what ultimately will happen at the two locations, spokeswoman Julie Grimes said.
Declining enrollments and increased maintenance costs prompted the consolidation, and the General Assembly in 2004 allocated $61.5 million for the combined facility. The state Board of Education considered a developer's proposals to renovate either the Hampton or Staunton schools or build a new campus in another area, but the issue was bounced back to the legislature after all cost estimates far exceeded the budgeted amount.
The schools have educated thousands of young Virginians with impaired hearing and sight but have seen steady enrollment declines since the mid-1970s, after federal special-education law began requiring that local school districts integrate more students with disabilities into regular classrooms.
Years ago, each school enrolled about 500 students, but 120 now attend the Staunton school, which gets $7.1 million in annual operating funds. Seventy students attend the Hampton school, which gets $6.6 million annually.
Hamilton acknowledged that General Assembly members--and taxpayers--might take issue with spending tens of millions of dollars to build and operate a state facility that will serve fewer than 200 students, an enrollment that state education officials anticipate will continue to fall.
"Closing has been considered, but to this point in time, proponents of maintaining at least one school have prevailed," Hamilton said. "We have the obligation to provide services to blind and disabled students--and those services are going to be more expensive from a cost-per-pupil expense--but cost has to be a consideration."
But Hanger is convinced that families with deaf or blind children who have children in regular public schools would benefit from a residential-based education, and "when we put together a first-class program, more school divisions and parents will send children there."
Virginia is continuing with its plan to consolidate its two residential schools for deaf and blind students onto the existing campus in Staunton, but the General Assembly still must decide whether to fully fund the project.
The state's new budget provides $2.5 million to plan for renovating and adding buildings at the 168-year-old Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton. The preliminary work will help determine the project's full cost in time for the 2007 legislative session.
"It could very easily be that once the plans are developed and they hit us with the number, it might be, 'This might be more than we afford,"' Del. Phillip Hamilton, R-Newport News, and one of 11 legislative budget negotiators. Providing full state funding for the project "is possible but not guaranteed," he said.
The General Assembly this year passed legislation to combine the educational programs of the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled in Hampton and VSDB-Staunton onto the Staunton campus. The state Department of Education would work with local agencies to have a regional day program in place by June 30, 2008, for students who don't move to Staunton.
Sen. Emmett Hanger Jr., R-Mount Solon, and a strong backer of the Staunton consolidation, said he expects the General Assembly to fund the project in the upcoming session.
"We would not plan the project if we weren't going to pay for it," said Hanger, who said that consolidation funds weren't allocated in the current budget because the cash won't be required until the next budget period.
But under the legislation, fate of the Hampton campus isn't clear.
One option the budget language provides is that the state could transfer the property to a nonprofit or public group to provide services to the students who currently attend.
A telephone message left Thursday for Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, wasn't returned.
Finance officials at the Department of Education consider it premature to speculate on what ultimately will happen at the two locations, spokeswoman Julie Grimes said.
Declining enrollments and increased maintenance costs prompted the consolidation, and the General Assembly in 2004 allocated $61.5 million for the combined facility. The state Board of Education considered a developer's proposals to renovate either the Hampton or Staunton schools or build a new campus in another area, but the issue was bounced back to the legislature after all cost estimates far exceeded the budgeted amount.
The schools have educated thousands of young Virginians with impaired hearing and sight but have seen steady enrollment declines since the mid-1970s, after federal special-education law began requiring that local school districts integrate more students with disabilities into regular classrooms.
Years ago, each school enrolled about 500 students, but 120 now attend the Staunton school, which gets $7.1 million in annual operating funds. Seventy students attend the Hampton school, which gets $6.6 million annually.
Hamilton acknowledged that General Assembly members--and taxpayers--might take issue with spending tens of millions of dollars to build and operate a state facility that will serve fewer than 200 students, an enrollment that state education officials anticipate will continue to fall.
"Closing has been considered, but to this point in time, proponents of maintaining at least one school have prevailed," Hamilton said. "We have the obligation to provide services to blind and disabled students--and those services are going to be more expensive from a cost-per-pupil expense--but cost has to be a consideration."
But Hanger is convinced that families with deaf or blind children who have children in regular public schools would benefit from a residential-based education, and "when we put together a first-class program, more school divisions and parents will send children there."