ABERDEEN (AP) – Just like any student in a new place, the students at the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired are taking some time to learn their new surroundings.

"I liked it, but I got confused," said Schelbie Dehaai, a high school junior.

Their new building, which students spent the night in for the first time Jan. 12, has a few things the old one didn't – including a second story with two staircases to access it. There are more electrical outlets per classroom, the building is wired for technology and it has much better lighting – including some areas with floor-to-ceiling windows.

"I'd never seen two levels at our school," said Ch'oshgai Roanhorse, a sophomore. "I love going up and down the stairs."

Students Blaine Jemming, a freshman, and Quinn Ossanna were also excited about the stairs and the second level.

Completing the new building is the capstone on a decades-long career at the school for the blind for Superintendent Marje Kaiser, who started in 1975 as the program specialist for the deaf-blind program.

She and her husband Steve ran a radio station in Redfield, and Marje Kaiser said she had an 18-month break from the school for the blind. But when the superintendent retired in 1986, she applied for the position and got it. In 2010, she was named as the superintendent for the South Dakota School for the Deaf in Sioux Falls and commuted between the two for the next decade.

In December, Kaiser announced her May retirement, and the South Dakota Board of Regents is searching for two people to replace her — one for each of the special schools.

It's home

Kaiser and her family lived at the school for 17 years – which caused some confusion for her children and their teachers.

"(My daughter) told her teacher she lived in a school. Her teacher tried to explain to her that, no, she came to school in the morning, but she lived in a home," Kaiser told the Aberdeen American News. "It took a little bit to get that explained."

When the old building is demolished, Kaiser will be able to relate to the students as well as anyone at seeing their home tore down.

"Longer than any student," she said of living in the building. "None of them were there 17 years."

But looking backward isn't something Kaiser said she wants to do.

"I'm not sure if I'm going to watch the demolition or not," she said. "I'm just not sure yet. I think I'll be fine with it."

New features

From the first designs through to completion, faculty, staff and students have gotten a say in aspects of the $14.3 million project, Kaiser said. Students took occasional tours through the construction zone.

The dining room has access from the main part of the school and the dorms. The dining room tables that were in the old building serve as tables in the new dining room.

The dorms are designed in pods – similar to Great Plains East at Northern – allowing for more flexibility as enrollment varies, Kaiser said. Rather than having a girls' wing and a boys' wing, pods receive that designation as needed.

"Our dorms are not a long, straight hallway like they were in the old building," said Jordan Houseman, a transitional student at the school. "It's curved."

The dorm rooms circle a commons area that is for everyone. There are game rooms for teens and children, a living room, and a kitchen with an enviable island in the middle. There are two one-bedroom apartments for transitional students.

Cautious optimism

The students were apprehensive at first about the new building – especially before any construction began.

"When I first heard about it, I thought, 'No, it's not happening, they don't know what they're talking about,'" said eighth-grader Marcus LaCroix.

But now, after they've moved in, the students are ready for the future.

"Last night I was so excited. I thought, 'This is coming, this is coming.' I got so excited that I almost couldn't fall asleep until after 10 o'clock at night," LaCroix said the following afternoon. “And then I woke up. I had an alarm set for 4:55 so I that way I could give myself five minutes to wake up.”