by George Jared (gjared@talkbusiness.net)

Students with the Arkansas School for the Deaf and the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired will get new facilities. Gov. Sarah Sanders, Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva and other officials announced Wednesday (Feb. 14) that final plans are being formulated to reconfigure a shared campus for the schools located in Little Rock’s Stift Station neighborhood.

A timeline for the construction was not released, but Sanders said she hopes work begins “quickly.” A cost for the project, which will include the construction of new primary learning facilities for both schools with some shared common use buildings, was not released, but Sanders noted that $30 million for this project was set aside by the legislature in 2021.

The facilities are outdated and the infrastructure for the schools is in disrepair. Oliva said they have been working for about a year to formulate a plan. State officials promised many years ago to take care of blind and deaf students in the state and those efforts have fallen short, Sanders added.

Gov. Sanders promises upgrades to deaf, blind school campuses