Well, the people behind the decisions regarding the future merging of the Ohio School for the Deaf and the Ohio State School for the Blind are trying to keep this issue low-key and with little fanfare. But OSD's Superintendent Dr. Ed Corbett, with OSSB's Superintendent Dr. Lou Mazzoli, made the announcement today to keep the two schools separate but within the same campus area. Although the language in the announcement is a little more ambiguous, it is not surprising that both superintendents and those involved in the planning, design and construction decisions recognized the fact there were strong voices of opposition from those against the merging of the two schools. On one part, I agreed with those against the merging for safety/cultural reasons and on the other hand, I agreed with OSD-OSSB people on the needs to have two schools in one specific area for cost-benefit and ROI factors for the state of Ohio (since both schools are funded from state tax revenues, public & private donations and investments).

The biggest surprise is when they revealed two design concepts A and B, both revealed a new novel approach to the original site conception and planning of the merged campus: by using the soon-to-be-former OSSB facility as either a new campus ground for both schools OR a new sport/field house venue for OSD/OSSB and perhaps for public usage. Previously, they were thinking about selling the old OSSB to a private business or property management company but the OSSB area doesn't seem to be of high value property to anyone interesting so far. The OSD-OSSB group have other design ideas, though in experimental stages of planning to best guesstimate the possible idealistic outcomes of appearance, structure, presence, and substance of the new campus. A work in progress, if you will. Nothing is final until Corbett and Mazzoli says so.

Preferably, I like the site concept B. It's not bad and could be the most beneficial and convenient to the students, their families, the alumni, the teachers and the administrators of both schools of the future, plus a boon for the public (for the sport field venue). Give me a CGI 3D fly-through animation of the new campus any day.