People are often shocked when Presley Serio, a 13-year-old who walks with a cane, tells them he’s an athlete.

Once upon a time, it also shocked Presley, who has “very low” vision in his right eye and low vision in his left.

“I was kind of bummed, because I thought I could never play sports,” the eighth grader said.

But Presley said playing blind soccer and goalball — a game originally designed for blind veterans that uses bell-filled basketballs — at the Maryland School for the Blind helps him feel like he belongs in the sports world. That confidence boost will soon be available to more students on the school’s Overlea campus, where construction crews recently broke ground on a $65.5 million renovation.

The largest construction project in the school’s 172-year history revolves around a new athletics facility, which will have a combined gym and auditorium for both sports and theater, a strength-training room, a new changing room and two pools, bringing swimming back to the school for the first time since the pandemic.

When construction wraps in February 2029, it will be the last major piece of a campus master plan that has radically upgraded the school over the last decade, said Superintendent and CEO Robert Hair. Just 10 years ago, the school struggled to attract parents who felt their kids’ needs were better served out of state.

“We were changing diapers inside of the classrooms because it was just too difficult to take the students into the inaccessible bathrooms down the hall,” Hair said. “I didn’t even want to come work in Maryland because this campus was so decrepit.”

The Maryland School for the Blind is situated in Northeast Baltimore but takes in students from around the state. Though all students must have a visual disability, many have multiple disabilities, such as deaf-blind students or those on the autism spectrum.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, all children with disabilities are entitled to a “free and appropriate public education.” That means attending specialized schools or getting accommodations in public classrooms, which the Maryland School for the Blind helps provide. The school also keeps and lends out specialized materials, such as math textbooks written in Braille that can cost $20,000 per copy. If the school can’t find a certain book in Braille, it can be printed by large embossers onsite.

After stringing together state funds, private donations and grants, the campus today is “incredible,” Hair said. There are bathrooms with specialized lifts and equipment. A new building that combines a dorm with textbook storage has saved expensive copies from getting mildewy when it rains. The main building has tactical cues that help students find their way around. Even the sidewalks were redesigned so kids could be more independent, Hair said.

Ronza Othman, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, said that today, the Maryland School for the Blind “is actually one of the better schools for the blind in the country,” at least in part because they “have a very positive attitude in terms of what blind kids can accomplish.”

And with the new athletics facility, Othman said, the school is proclaiming blind kids can be athletes, too.

“There’s this negative stereotype about blind people, that they just aren’t active,” Othman said. “And part of that is grounded in the fact that sports haven’t always been accessible to blind people.”

The Maryland School for the Blind hasn’t had a pool since 2020 because of poor air circulation in a rusting metal building. That means not only does the school not have a competitive swimming team, but kids aren’t learning to swim or even float. It’s dangerous when kids don’t have those life skills.

In a few years, students will get both a lap pool and a sensory pool, which will be shallow but outfitted with jets and warm water.

The existing gym is falling apart, Hair said, and will be demolished when the new athletic building opens. As a student athlete, Presley is excited about the bigger, better facility, which he thinks is going to help him improve his skills.

Hair said the school’s redesign should challenge students. For example, the school replaced its “old baby playground” with a more difficult one, where kids get the chance to jump, play and climb, even if they may get hurt while exploring their bodies’ limits.

“They leave here having become independent. [They’re] able to travel with their canes, know how to move their body in space, be able to use technology freely,” Hair said.

But the school is also stepping in to keep kids safe, adding a gated security entrance to the campus and security offices in this latest round of construction. The recently updated classrooms are lockable from the inside, and doors require badge access that can be deactivated, reflecting concerns administrators have to consider for their students in wheelchairs or with disabilities that can keep them from running during an emergency.

The gym project is being largely funded by the Interagency Commission on School Construction, a nine-member state commission that doles out funds for school improvements. Since the Maryland School for the Blind is not attached to a county school district, it is wholly dependent on those funds, its endowment and fundraising.

“This investment reflects our belief that every child in Maryland deserves access to a world-class education in facilities that meet their needs,” Rhyan Lake, a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore, said in an email. “For more than a century, the Maryland School for the Blind has opened doors of opportunity for students across our state, and this project will ensure it continues to provide opportunity, dignity, and hope for decades to come.”

In those coming years, Hair wants to offer more vocational education in areas like mechanics and woodworking, or even through reviving the school’s agriculture program, which used to include an orchard and small farm on campus. He also hopes to show that millions invested now will save even more down the line. If families find what they need in Maryland, the state doesn’t have to pay to send kids beyond its borders to get the inclusive education they’re entitled to.

“That is a part of this overall strategy,” Hair said, “that the facilities are not a deterrent for families, like, ‘I’m not sending my kid there.’”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.