Students with medical needs or severe cognitive, behavioral and social disabilities are housed at Austin ISD's Rosedale School.[/caption]A tour provided to the media by Austin ISD staff today showed severe structural deficiencies and educational challenges at Rosedale School, one of the campuses slated for a rebuild if the district's $1.05 billion bond is passed by voters this November.
Students with severe cognitive, social and behavioral disabilities and medical needs are housed on the Rosedale campus. Built in 1939, the building's structural features are outdated and no longer meet the specific needs of disabled students, Principal Elizabeth Dickey said. A need for wider door frames to accommodate modern-day wheelchairs and bathrooms equipped with features for disabled individuals were just two examples of needed improvements cited by Dickey.
"There are a lot of of challenges for our students within this building right now," Dickey said. "Our focus is making students feel safe and helping them to realize they are part of the community so they can learn, but right now our building does not do a whole lot to support that."
Matias Segura, senior project manager for AECOM, the firm responsible for assessing the district's facility conditions, said the small size of Rosedale's campus also presents challenges for special needs students. The school currently sits on 5 acres; however, if voters pass the bond in November, the school will be relocated 2.5 miles north to a new modernized facility constructed on the district's 10-acre Lucy Read Pre-Kindergarten School site.
A changing table for severely disabled students is separated from the rest of the classroom through the use of a gym[/caption]"It's very difficult for these kids to be housed in two-story buildings, so you have to look horizontal," Segura said. "Lucy Read checks a lot of boxes, it's in the neighborhood, it's not too far away. We looked at a lot of options, but that is the one that makes the most sense."
Following a comprehensive assessment of the district's campuses earlier this year, Rosedale School was assigned a failing facility condition score of 32. If approved in November, $40.1 million will be allocated toward the modernized rebuild of the Rosedale campus, which will also include computer lab improvements, student mobile computers and teacher computers.
"This bond gives us the opportunity to create a building specifically designed for our students," Dickey said. "What we do here is amazing and beautiful; we are really thrilled to be a part of this package and for people to be thinking about these kids."
