Before Anna Maria College Campus Is Sold:  Study It As A Regional Public Deaf High School

ASK Massachusetts to act while this opportunity still exists

The former Anna Maria College campus in Paxton, Massachusetts presents New England with a rare opportunity.

Before this educational campus is permanently sold, subdivided, or committed to another use, I am asking Massachusetts leaders to conduct an urgent preliminary feasibility review of whether it could become the home of a regional public high school for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

The working concept is:

Laurent Clerc Regional Public High School

This is not a petition demanding that Massachusetts immediately purchase Anna Maria College.

It is not a demand to close or replace existing Deaf schools.

It is not an effort to take over Paxton.

We are asking for something much more reasonable:

STUDY the possibility before the opportunity is gone.
 

WHY Does New England Need to Study This?

Deaf and hard-of-hearing students live scattered across hundreds of cities and towns.

Some have excellent educational placements.

Others may spend their school years with very few Deaf peers, depending on interpreters or individualized services that must be recreated from district to district.

Deaf students deserve choices.

A regional public high school could offer:

• small, visually accessible academic classes;
• a larger Deaf peer community;
• direct communication;
• athletics;
• theatre and performing arts;
•  career and technical education;
• residential opportunities where appropriate;
• clubs and student leadership;
• transition to college and employment;
• and lifelong relationships across New England.

The principle is simple:

Big community. Small classrooms.

 
New England Has Already Learned What Happens When Deaf Infrastructure Disappears

Vermont once had the Austine School for the Deaf in Brattleboro.

For more than a century, Austine provided Deaf students with a school, residential life, peers, activities, and a physical center for Deaf community life.

Austine was not owned by the State of Vermont.

It was owned and operated by the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

The State had invested public funds in the campus, but when the organization encountered serious financial problems, Austine closed in 2014.

The organization entered bankruptcy.

The historic Deaf-school campus was eventually sold for another purpose.

Years later, Vermont's own state advisory work has acknowledged an important reality:

The decline in Austine enrollment did not mean Deaf and hard-of-hearing children had disappeared.

Educational placement had changed.

And Vermont families and Deaf community members continue reporting challenges involving social connections and access to culturally Deaf environments.

That history should teach New England something:

Deaf infrastructure can take generations to build and only a short time to lose.

Once the physical campus is gone, a community cannot simply decide years later to recreate it.

Land is gone.

Dormitories are gone.

Classrooms are gone.

Athletic facilities are gone.

Community gathering spaces are gone.

And rebuilding all of that from the ground up can become financially impossible.

 
Anna Maria Gives Massachusetts a Different Choice

Anna Maria already exists.

It was built as an educational campus.

It has academic facilities, residential facilities, athletic spaces, dining infrastructure, gathering spaces, parking, and substantial land.

We do not yet know whether it is financially, legally, educationally, or operationally appropriate for a regional Deaf high school.

That is exactly why we are asking for a feasibility review.

We should find out before the property disappears.

Not afterward.

 
Protect Existing Deaf Schools

This proposal should never begin by damaging institutions that Deaf people have already built.

The American School for the Deaf, The Learning Center for the Deaf, Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Willie Ross School for the Deaf, Rhode Island School for the Deaf, and other programs should remain important parts of New England Deaf education.

A Laurent Clerc Regional Public High School should be an additional option and potential partner, not a replacement.

Families and IEP teams would continue making individualized placement decisions.

Our principle should be:

Protect Deaf schools.
Expand Deaf educational choices.
Build lifelong Deaf community.

 
Paxton Remains Paxton

When I speak about Deaf people needing a permanent regional home base, I do not mean creating a separate municipality or taking over the Town of Paxton.

Paxton has its own residents, government, history and identity.

Paxton remains Paxton.

The question is whether the former Anna Maria campus could become a Deaf-centered educational and community institution within Paxton and in partnership with Paxton.

A responsible feasibility study should also examine how Paxton could benefit through:

• employment;
• local spending;
• visitors;
• athletics and tournaments;
• theatre and cultural events;
• community use of facilities;
• partnerships;
• and responsible planning for municipal services and costs.

This should benefit both Deaf New England and Paxton.

 
A Regional Home — Not a Separate World

Deaf people do not have a geographic town or municipal tax base of our own.

Historically, communities such as Martha's Vineyard showed what can happen when Deaf and hearing people share communication and Deaf people participate naturally in everyday community life.

We cannot recreate historical Martha's Vineyard.

But we can ask a modern question:

What happens when we intentionally create a place where Deaf students do not have to build community and communication access from scratch every day?

The school could become the beginning of something larger:

School → Alumni → Community → Lifelong Network

Students could return years later for sports, theatre, conferences, camps, alumni events and community activities.

Future possibilities could include a Deaf community and senior center, family programs and other regional resources.

The school would be the anchor.

The community would grow around relationships—not municipal borders.

 
WHAT We Are Asking Massachusetts to Do

We ask Governor Maura Healey, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education, Massachusetts DESE, the appropriate state and federal legislative offices, the Town of Paxton, and other appropriate public agencies to:

Convene an urgent preliminary discussion about the Anna Maria College campus.

Determine the number and needs of Deaf and hard-of-hearing students who could benefit from an additional regional option.

Examine the educational, financial, legal and operational feasibility of a regional public Deaf high school.

Evaluate the Anna Maria property while it is still available.

Include Deaf people, families, existing Deaf schools, educators and Paxton residents in the process.

We are not asking government to approve a finished school today.

We are asking government not to lose the opportunity before studying it.

 
WHY Sign?

Your signature does not mean you agree with every possible detail of the eventual school.

Your signature means:

This possibility deserves to be seriously studied before Anna Maria is gone.

New England has already seen what can happen when permanent Deaf infrastructure disappears.

We should learn from that history.

This time, while an educational campus is still available, we have an opportunity to ask the question before it is too late.

Please SIGN and SHARE.

Protect Deaf schools.
Expand Deaf educational choices.
Build lifelong Deaf community.

Study Anna Maria before the opportunity disappears.