BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL (STAFF WRITER)
Published: August 21, 2010
thetimes-tribune.com
SOUTH ABINGTON TWP. – Behind the bricks and mortar, Don Rhoten sees a school full of promise.
As Lourdesmont prepares to leave its 100-acre campus, the superintendent of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf is eager to transform the property.
“It will be really fantastic,” Mr. Rhoten said this week outside the school’s new property. “It will be a real jewel in the Northeast Pennsylvania community.”
The private deaf school based outside Pittsburgh has purchased Lourdesmont for $2.4 million to house its Scranton campus.
The state gave WPSD operation of the Scranton State School for the Deaf last year. In its first year of operation of the Scranton school, WPSD has leased the state-owned campus on North Washington Avenue, and renamed the school the Scranton School for Deaf & Hard-of-Hearing Children.
A bill awaiting approval by the state House would sell the 10-acre Green Ridge property to Marywood University for $500,000. While that is about one-fifth of what WPSD is paying for Lourdesmont, deaf school officials say costly renovations need to be completed at the campus.
WPSD plans to pay about $2 million for renovations to Lourdesmont – much less than would be required in Green Ridge.
“We love Dunmore and Green Ridge. We really wanted to stay. It just wasn’t feasible,” Mr. Rhoten said. “Really Marywood is doing the community a service.”
On Wednesday, crews were busy renovating the convent on the Lourdesmont property. Work on the large bilevel home, which will have two new kitchens and 16 bedrooms, must be finished before students arrive in two weeks.
“It will be more homelike than most dormitories,” said Gregg Bowers, chief operations officer for the school.
Five or six students will live in the residence hall this year and go to school on the Green Ridge campus while the main school building is being renovated. Operations will move to Lourdesmont entirely in fall 2011.
Between 35 and 40 students are expected to attend the local campus this year, with a capacity of 50 to 60 students in the future.
“This is perfect,” Mr. Rhoten said. “We can grow into this.”
In the 66,000-square-foot school building, technology upgrades will be made, and the acoustics will be updated to meet the needs of hard-of-hearing students.
A garden, horseshoe pit, disc golf and a ropes course may also become part of the campus.
“It will be a bright and really happy place for the children,” Mr. Rhoten said. “Everywhere you look there’s opportunity.”
High school operations will move to the Pittsburgh campus this year, and 23 students from the Scranton campus will travel to Pittsburgh weekly for class.
The last day for students at Lourdesmont was Friday, and the building will be cleared next week.
Lourdesmont officials have refused to discuss the future of the school for children with behavioral problems, citing an advertising campaign that will start Sunday in The Sunday Times.
Lourdesmont is operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and had about 60 students on its campus on Venard Road and another 20 students in school-based programs. School districts pay tuition for their students to attend Lourdesmont.
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com
Source: http://thetimes-tribune.com/school-for-deaf-has-big-plans-for-lourdesmont-campus-1.963642