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Schools for Deaf, Blind win funding support - Salt Lake Tribune
The state Board of Education pledged its support Friday of a quest by the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) to request state funding for a permanent building.
Timothy W. Smith, superintendent of USDB, asked for the board's help in the school's long quest to find a permanent home. The school serves about 2,100 students - some of them in regular schools and others in a program that operates in leased space - and has asked the Legislature every year for 10 years for a permanent arrangement.
The school has leased the Libby Edwards Elementary school at 1655 E. 3300 South for six years from the Granite School District, but has high hopes of purchasing and retrofitting the building in order to place students from its Jean Massieu School of American Sign Language there next year. Last year the school requested $14.9 million from state lawmakers for a school of its own, but was turned down. Smith told board members that if the school doesn't get an amount significantly less than last year's request during the next legislative session, circumstances will worsen.
"If the Legislature refuses what we're proposing, to be honest, I don't know what we're going to do," Smith said. "We believe this is the best proposal we have."
The board voted unanimously to support the school's request to lawmakers. Because the USDB is considered both a state agency and a school, it cannot bond and collect money similar to other schools, but must go to lawmakers every year to explain its needs and request money. As a state agency, it's also vulnerable to budget cuts.
The board also decided to request a 4.8 percent increase in the weighted cost per pupil (WPU) for the education budget that Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will send to the Legislature next year. That amounts to approximately $108 million in new money the board would like added to the state's education budget, not accounting for any change in the number of pupils, said Greg W. Haws, chair of the board's finance committee.
The state Board of Education pledged its support Friday of a quest by the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) to request state funding for a permanent building.
Timothy W. Smith, superintendent of USDB, asked for the board's help in the school's long quest to find a permanent home. The school serves about 2,100 students - some of them in regular schools and others in a program that operates in leased space - and has asked the Legislature every year for 10 years for a permanent arrangement.
The school has leased the Libby Edwards Elementary school at 1655 E. 3300 South for six years from the Granite School District, but has high hopes of purchasing and retrofitting the building in order to place students from its Jean Massieu School of American Sign Language there next year. Last year the school requested $14.9 million from state lawmakers for a school of its own, but was turned down. Smith told board members that if the school doesn't get an amount significantly less than last year's request during the next legislative session, circumstances will worsen.
"If the Legislature refuses what we're proposing, to be honest, I don't know what we're going to do," Smith said. "We believe this is the best proposal we have."
The board voted unanimously to support the school's request to lawmakers. Because the USDB is considered both a state agency and a school, it cannot bond and collect money similar to other schools, but must go to lawmakers every year to explain its needs and request money. As a state agency, it's also vulnerable to budget cuts.
The board also decided to request a 4.8 percent increase in the weighted cost per pupil (WPU) for the education budget that Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will send to the Legislature next year. That amounts to approximately $108 million in new money the board would like added to the state's education budget, not accounting for any change in the number of pupils, said Greg W. Haws, chair of the board's finance committee.