Minnesota State Academies asks for funding to replace aging facilities and a therapy pool

Terry Wilding, superintendent of the Minnesota State Academies for the deaf and blind, described facility challenges and three requests to the House Capital Investment Committee: predesign funding for an MSAD student center, a therapy-pool replacement at the blind school, and asset-preservation funds to address aging infrastructure.

Wilding said the academies serve students statewide (ages 0–22) and cannot levy for bonding like other school districts; they rely on legislative allocation for construction and preservation. He told the committee that many campus buildings are 90–100 years old, are not accessible under modern code and have rising maintenance and piping needs. Wilding said the academies received $1.5M in asset preservation last year but expect to exhaust most of that this summer and estimate an AP backlog of roughly $18–20M to renovate critical systems across campus.

On the therapy pool, Wilding said the existing pool is 60 years old, difficult to maintain and has accessibility limits (a single lift). He described a proposed walk-in, zero-gravity pool to improve accessibility and reduce maintenance needs. Wilding also outlined the plan to consolidate several outdated buildings into a single, accessible student center that would house PE, cafeteria and career-tech programs.

Committee members did not record votes; members thanked the superintendent for presenting and moved on to subsequent items.