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School for the Deaf and Blind asks Senate for funding after library roof failure; seeks kitchen, HVAC and IT upgrades
Summary
Officials with the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind told the Senate about four budget priorities including an estimated $1 million structural repair to the Cleveland Learning Resource Center after a failing roof; they also requested kitchen, HVAC and IT/security funding and described student counts and outreach.
Ben Riddle, chief financial officer of the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, told the Senate budget panel on Oct. 12 that the agency is requesting funding to repair a failing roof at the campus library and to upgrade aging kitchen, HVAC and IT systems.
The request centers on four priorities, Riddle said: structural repairs to the Cleveland Learning Resource Center (CLRC), renovations to the Walker Hall kitchen, replacement of HVAC systems for campus buildings and recurring IT and security upgrades. “Our first item is our number 1 priority. This is, structural repairs to the Cleveland Learning Resource Center, CLRC for short,” Riddle said. He told senators the CLRC has been shut down after maintenance observed sagging ceiling tiles and a structural engineer recommended work.
The school estimated the CLRC repair at around $1 million based on engineer quotes and said initial work has already begun. “We estimate that it's going to be around a million dollars to fix this, based on quotes that we've gotten from structural engineers. We have already started initial work on this project,” Riddle said.
Officials described Walker Hall’s kitchen as the central food-preparation facility for the campus and said it needs a complete overhaul after years of piecemeal repairs. The school's requests also cover replacement of older HVAC systems on multiple buildings (part of a larger effort to move buildings off an inefficient campus steam line) and recurring funds for server, security and classroom-device infrastructure.
Kyle Ramsey, director of operations, provided enrollment and outreach context: about 200 students are on campus as residential and day students; day students typically travel up to 50 miles by bus. The school also conducts outreach to roughly 82 school districts and said it touches about 1,200 students statewide through those programs. “We average about 200 on campus,” Ramsey said. “Across the state, in the 82 school districts, we serve probably close to 1,200 students that we touch in school districts across the state through our outreach program.”
Senators asked operational questions during the presentation, including where campus public-safety staff are based and how current HVAC systems are configured. Staff said the president’s residence HVAC work is under way and that the CLRC does not have rooftop HVAC units. No formal vote or appropriation was taken during the hearing segment; the presentation concluded with committee members’ questions.
The school presented its materials in the senators’ binders and indicated the budget requests appear on the ways-and-means budget tab provided to members. The agency did not provide a precise appropriation request for every line item beyond the CLRC estimate; other amounts were described as “not specified” in the presentation.
