Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind’s Tucson branch will close the West Speedway campus that’s been its home for more than 100 years and move to an elementary school the Amphi district is closing.
The main reason behind leaving the current residential campus, at 1200 W. Speedway, and leasing or selling it to a new user, is declining student enrollment and a goal of right-sizing the campus to meet students’ needs, said Albert Duff, director of Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, or ASDB.
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.
“The Tucson campus was constructed over many years, but the current design was meant for about 400 students,” Duff told the Arizona Daily Star in an interview Thursday. “Right now, we have about 120 or so, depending on the year, and so we’re only 25% occupied. Since 1990, we’ve seen a decline in enrollment from about 350 students now down to about 120 students.”
The Tucson branch will move to Copper Creek Elementary School in Oro Valley, at 11620 N. Copper Spring Trail. Copper Creek is one of four elementary schools the Amphitheater Public Schools governing board voted 5-0 Tuesday night to finalize closing.
Amphitheater Public Schools' Copper Creek Elementary School is closing and the Tucson branch of the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind will lease it and move there.
ASDB’s superintendent, Annette Reichman, posted a formal notice online that she is signing a five-year lease of Copper Creek and will move the campus there this summer, for classes to begin there in the fall 2026 semester.
The Tucson branch of ASDB has offered a day program for students who live at home but also a residential program for students who come from around the state and live in dormitories on campus.
Duff didn’t directly answer questions on whether the Oro Valley campus will have residential spaces for students like ASDB’s current location, and if resources such as transportation will continue to be provided to the students. He said each students’ needs will be considered carefully based on their IEPs (Individual Education Plans required by law for special needs students) and the school will fulfill them accordingly.
He said he couldn’t comment further because of the “legal restrictions for the IEP process with all of our students.”
The Palo Verde dorm at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, 1200 W. Speedway.
The South Navajo dorm at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, 1200 W. Speedway.
ASDB, a state agency since Arizona's founding in 1912, was moved from a University of Arizona location to the West Speedway site in 1922.
After such a long tradition, the decision to move to the Copper Creek site has incited mixed reactions from people involved with ASDB, with some grieving, some sad, some excited and some empathetic and understanding about the change, Duff said.
“We have a variety of emotions that are going around with this, and that is completely understandable and expected,” he said. “This change is not one that we take lightly. It’s not one that we think is not a big change for the community as a whole. It’s a matter of us looking at our current student needs and ensuring that ASDB remains strong and operational for now and in the future to come.”
He said ASDB identified the need to have a “master facility plan” and a “capital improvement plan” in its Tucson location around 2021-2022, which was developed in collaboration with a third-party architecture firm by 2024. The school then submitted the plan to the Arizona Legislature, but since it was an “ambitious plan,” he said, it has yet to be funded due to the school’s and state’s budget constraints as a whole.
Thus, when ASDB found out Amphitheater is closing four of its elementary schools — Copper Creek in Oro Valley, Donaldson in Casa Adobes, Nash in Tucson and Holaway in Tucson — its officials wanted to explore the option, Duff said.
Copper Creek, as far as square footage, general design and ASDB's needs, is very similar to what the school’s management had in its master facility plan, Duff said. Copper Creek’s facility is 106,000 square feet, about the same as the master facility plan’s model estimated at 98,000 square feet.
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.
“So, it’s oversized and unfortunately, it’s reached its useful life. And we’re not receiving funding in order to make massive improvements to the site. The other aspect of it is that we’ve had a changing demographic overall — more needs for some of our students that we’re having to come up with different ways to serve them,” he continued.
The current 56-acre campus in Tucson has operating costs, utility expenses, etc. that continue to increase, Duff said. Additionally, he said its repair and maintenance, security and general operations are costing approximately $3 million annually, with $1 million reserved only for utilities.
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.
With the move, including the projected lease costs and the proceeds from selling or leasing of the current property, ASDB expects to save about $1.5 million annually — “a 50% reduction in operating costs by moving to the new location,” Duff said.
He said there will also be a one-time savings of $45 million since the school won’t need to build a new facility from scratch.
“We’re still going to meet all of our students’ IEPs (Individual Education Plans) and we’re just going to be doing it in a different location that will cause the Tucson campus facility to close, but our operations are not closing,” said Duff. “It’s still strong and still going to serve students in the future.”
