A number of teachers working with blind students at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind's Tucson campus were notified Friday that they are being laid off, according to sources with professional ties to ASDB.
Of those, teachers who are under contract were informed they will no longer be employed after May, sources said, and will not be offered contracts for the following school year. Staff members who work with blind students who were notified they are losing their jobs include teachers, instructional aides, and orientation and mobility specialists, sources told the Star.
They were given reasons, including budget cuts in the face of a deficit, as well as a declining birth rate overall, sources said.
It was not clear if any layoffs are affecting teachers working with deaf students at ASDB's Tucson campus.
The learning resource building at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, 1200 W. Speedway. The current campus will be leased or sold when the schools move to what has been Copper Creek Elementary School, officials say.
The reported layoffs follow ASDB's decision to close its West Speedway campus and move to the soon-to-be-vacant Copper Creek Elementary School in Oro Valley, one of four elementary schools the Amphitheater Public Schools governing board voted this week to finalize closing.
Tricia Beckham, public relations executive for ASDB, declined to comment Friday on reports of layoffs of teaching personnel, saying it was an "ongoing situation."
A staff-wide meeting is scheduled for Monday, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A community meeting has also been scheduled for Monday, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. It will be held at the Career and Technical Education building on its campus at 1200 W. Speedway.
It's unclear if cutbacks in staff will affect how many students are served at the Copper Creek site.
Asked, for instance, if all blind students will be transferred to the Copper Creek site, Beckham declined to comment, citing student privacy laws and the IEP (Individualized Education Program) law that relates to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which ensures students with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education.
Beckham said ASDB alone doesn't make these decisions and that IEP teams, comprising the school districts where the students' homes are located as well as the children's parents, will make recommendations, and must get parental approval for any decisions made. She said there was no blanket decision made on taking or leaving all blind students as ASDB's Tucson branch moves to its new Oro Valley campus, and didn't comment on any impacts on deaf students.
A lot of the tips media might be getting are not "accurate," Beckham said. That's partly because people involved with ASDB aren't "processing information" well right now, which is understandable since it's a difficult time, Beckham said.
The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind will move this summer from its 104-year location at 1200 W. Speedway, shown here.
It isn't publicly known what will happen to transportation and residential staff at ASDB's Tucson campus, as it offers dormitory housing to students. The Tucson branch of ASDB has offered a day program for students who live at home or off-campus, but also a residential program for students who come from around the state and live in campus dormitories.
The main reasons ASDB will leave the current campus, at 1200 W. Speedway, and lease or sell it to a new user, is declining student enrollment and a goal of right-sizing the campus to meet students’ needs, Albert Duff, director of Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, previously told the Star.
About 120 students are enrolled at the Tucson campus, which is about 25% occupied, Duff said. And since 1990, "we’ve seen a decline in enrollment from about 350 students now down to about 120 students," he said.
As for the West Speedway campus, “The key bullet points are antiquated facilities that at this point have an average age of 51 years; there’s 31 buildings here, it’s 346,000 square feet and only has 120 students,” Duff said.
ASDB, a state agency since Arizona's founding in 1912, has been housed at the West Speedway site since 1922.
