Chicago area school for deaf-blind students getting new home

GLEN ELLYN, Ill. (CBS) -- In one year, a Glen Ellyn school will be moving into a new building, but it's more than a strong roof and sturdy walls. Philip J. Rock Center and School will give new opportunities to some unique children.

Executive director Bonnie Jordan said she starts every day with asking "what's right for the kids," and she said that's what the new building will be.

Philip J. Rock Center and School is a school unlike any other in Illinois.

"We're a unicorn," Jordan said. "We truly serve a specific level of student here."

It's the only publicly-funded residential school in the country for students who are deaf-blind. That means the school's students have both hearing and visual impairments. 

The school currently is housed in a former nursing home built in 1961.

"The building wants to die, and I'm keeping it alive," Jordan said.

The building has problems with heating and air conditioning, and since the kids live there, the bedrooms are near classrooms and offices.

"I'm most excited for the students to have separation of a school environment and the residential center," said teacher Allyson Peters.

Peters knows how tough it's been helping students in the current building.

"In the winters it's freezing, in the summers it's extremely hot. It's difficult for our students to have the energy to keep going throughout the day," she said.

Crews recently began pouring cement for the new building's foundation. Construction should be done in about a year.

"It's going to serve the community in several ways, and it's certainly one of a kind," said Phil Pimentel, senior project manager at Path Construction, which is building the new school.

The building will have separate dormitory space, and new features students don't have now, because, as Jordan said, this all about the students.

"Every day, we start off with what's right for kids," Jordan said.

Since the children's care is so specialized, right now there are only nine students at the school, but once they move in to the new building, the school be able to have 20 students.

Jordan said they've also expanded the criteria for who can go to that school.

Rendering of the building provided by LCM Architects