By Felix Hoover

For YourNewsColumbus.com

Posted 05-31-09

 

 

The recent groudbreaking for the new Ohio State School for the Blind gave the audience a lesson on the institution's history and an introduction to its California-bound band.

 

Cynthia Johnson, the school's interim superintendent, gave opening remarks in the ceremony, which began at 11:30 Tuesday, May 26. A similar program had taken place an hour earlier at the Ohio School for the Deaf, 500 Morse Rd.

 

The total price for replacement of the two buildings and upgrades, including construction of a connector bridge over a ravine that separates the two campuses, is $44 million.

 

"This is the beginning of something good for you and the child who will come after," said Gov. Ted Strickland, one of several government and education officials on the program.

 

He urged students to continue their education beyond high school and to keep their marketable skills in Ohio.

 

Other officials on hand included State Sen. Ray Miller; State Reps. Kevin Bacon and John Patrick Carney; Deborah S. Delisle, superintendent of Public Instruction; Deborah Cain, vice president of the State Board of Education; and Michael Shoemaker, executive director of the Ohio School Facilities commission.

 

Students and dignitaries picked up shovels and pitched dirt in the ceremonial groundbreaking. Activity was audio-described so all present could feel connected to what was happening.

 

The band played before and during the School for the Blind's program, which was held about three football-fields' length in front of the current building at 5220 N. High St. The talented instrumentalists have been chosen to play in the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1 in Pasadena and have raised about $70,000 of the $120,000 needed for the trip.

 

A strong music program is but one of the things to be housed in the new state-of-the-art building.

 

Before moving to its present site in 1953, the school had a different name, different oversight and a number of Downtown locations.

 

It had been established in 1837 as the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind, the nation's first public school for the blind.

 

Much additional information about the school can  be found on its Web site, but some of its history requires the knowledge of insiders, such as alumnus Reggie Anglen.

 

He shared some of his memories of the school with Gov. Strickland, including research that identified Strickland as the third Ohio governor to visit the school. The others, Angle said, were Govs. Richard Celeste and Rutherfford B. Hayes.