This story has been updated to include a judge's Wednesday ruling.
Parents with students at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind’s Tucson campus are trying to reverse an expected relocation of the school.
Ahead of a Thursday board vote on the relocation, a Pima County Superior Court judge declined parents' request to postpone it.
Eleven families filed a complaint Monday alleging the unlawful dismantling of programs for blind and visually impaired students. They also accuse the district of failing to provide timely and accessible notice of actions.
The lawsuit — submitted to the Arizona and Pima County Superior Courts — was first reported by Arizona Luminaria on Tuesday. It’s a response to the School for Deaf and Blind’s leasing agreement with the Amphitheater School District that would move the current Tucson campus to a closing Amphi school in Oro Valley this summer.
After more than 100 years on West Speedway Boulevard, the school found it was impossible to stay afloat financially at the historic Tucson location, Superintendent Annette Reichman said. She said a combination of low enrollment — 114 students — and deteriorating buildings on the 56-acre campus has forced the district to act quickly.
But parents are concerned that blind and visually impaired students will not be included at the new Oro Valley campus which is currently Copper Creek Elementary School.
The plan presented to parents is that blind and visually impaired students will move by default to classrooms likely in the Tucson Unified School District while most of their deaf peers would move to the new Oro Valley site. Reichman called these “cluster sites,” but she did not specify at which campuses they would be held.
During a [community meeting](
last month, Reichman said that the 25 students expected to be in the blind program next school year would have the option of moving to Copper Creek as well if it’s the least disruptive option for them.
ASDB spokesperson Tricia Beckham told AZPM that the district is not currently granting interviews. She confirmed that the choice to move to the Oro Valley site or to the cluster sites would depend on each student’s Individualized Education Program.
Liza Smith has three children at the Tucson ASDB campus. She’s also the president of the ASDB Parent Student Organization. In a message to AZPM, she said she supports the parents who filed the complaint.
“I hope the board puts a pause on the vote. We don’t have enough data to determine it’s appropriate to go to Cooper Creek right now. What ASDB is doing is absolutely discriminatory towards blind and deaf students,” Smith wrote.
Meanwhile, parents are fighting the Amphi District’s decision to close four elementary schools, including Copper Creek.
Amphi, similar to ASDB, blamed its enrollment shortfalls partially on declining birth rates and claimed the situation could not be stalled any longer.
Copper Creek parent Halley Lowry filed an Open Meeting Law complaint last month which the Maricopa County Attorney is now handling. She alleges that the district’s notice of closures was untimely and that negotiations with ASDB occurred outside of the public’s knowledge.
In a message to AZPM, Lowry expressed her view on the lease with ASDB which was announced the day after Amphi voted to close Copper Creek Elementary School.
“It just validates for me what we've been feeling all along — that this decision was made well before we were first made aware and any action taken to engage with and involve the community was a complete show,” she said.
The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind board is set to vote on the relocation Thursday in Phoenix.
Thatcher Warrick Hess contributed to this article.
