Arkansas Rehabilitation Services will end its residential program at Arkansas Career Training Institute by September and plans to be completely out of the iconic building it has occupied in downtown Hot Springs since 1960 by Dec. 31, ARS officials announced Tuesday.
Around 120 employees who are connected to residential services at the facility are expected to be downsized as the result of a conversion to a non-residential model, ARS said in a news release and in an interview with The Sentinel-Record.
The nonresidential model is designed to "better serve Arkansans with disabilities," the release said.
"ACTI is currently a 24-hour residential facility where young adults with disabilities receive vocational training in preparation for employment opportunities around the state. Conversion to a nonresidential model will allow ARS to use taxpayer dollars more efficiently to serve this population," it said.
ARS Commissioner Alan McClain estimated there are only eight other similar "comprehensive rehabilitation centers" like ACTI across the country.
"Our model is changing to serve all the same students, but in their own communities. Roughly a third of our budget is used to support this facility currently. A little over $11 million is what our budget is for this campus. With the new model, it'll be roughly $3-3.5 million that we'll continue to use here. So we'll deploy the difference across the state to support our other programs," McClain said.
"We'll just repurpose the funds that we have to provide more and better services to our clients throughout the state at all of our field offices," Arkansas Department of Career Education Director Charisse Childers said Tuesday.
After hosting a camp for high school students with disabilities in June, the residential program will end on or before Sept. 30 and the building is expected to be completely vacated by Dec. 30.
Efforts will be made to assist employees affected by the change.
"Beginning June 10, we're going to really have a lot of resources on campus here with the Department of Workforce Services and other resources from the state to help them transition. We'll be working hard to facilitate them until June 30. The Department of Workforce Services' mobile workforce unit will be available for days on end and will probably set up behind the armory building, or wherever is a convenient place, and then on a particular day we will have employers come in and other resources just being available for our staff," McClain said.
This will result in about 120 layoffs of mostly local full-time employees connected to residential services in the facility, according to McClain. No new positions will be created by the switch.
"We're very sensitive to the impact it has on our employees, and we really have a lot of concern for that. Hopefully, we're just beginning the conversation as far as providing the supports they need to look for other employment. They are going to get our full commitment to make sure that we have all the resources available to them to help them," McClain said.
Positions that will likely be terminated include medical, culinary, dietary, maintenance, housekeeping staff, along with several instructor positions, McClain said.
He said that 40-50 vocational counselors, business relations personnel, and instructors for remaining programs will likely be retained.
All ACTI employees were informed of the decision during a meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The exact programs and personnel that will be removed from ACTI will be announced in about 10 days to two weeks, following thorough data analysis, according to McClain.
"The administration here at ACTI, along with me, we know which fields of study are producing the highest number of outcomes, which is where we need to focus our energies on. It'll be totally based on that data," he said.
All 260 current residential ACTI students were informed of the change at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
ACTI will continue to provide non-residential training for high demand jobs, such as welding and certified nursing assistants, at the Reserve Street Armory, 200 Reserve St.
Current training programs vary in duration from several months to nearly a year. These timelines will largely be unaffected by the new model, according to McClain.
Any students involved in a discontinued program will "work with their counselors in their field office to determine where the best opportunity is for them to continue that training," via field office counselors, Childers said.
"Currently, we're serving everybody who walks in the door. The probability is that we would have to start prioritizing some of those services if we didn't make this change. We would have to go on a selection of prioritization of types of disabilities based on significance. Whereas now we will get to continue to serve everybody," McClain said.
McClain said the switch is in no way related to Gov. Asa Hutchinson's state government downsizing program.
"It is not in connection with Gov. Hutchinson's transformation at all. This is based on data that we've been collecting over the past 4 or 5 years that's suggested that we needed to change the model that we use to train clients here in the state. It's just purely coincidental that it's along the same time," he said.
The ACTI campus was originally built in the 1880s as the nation's first Army/Navy Hospital with control of the facility transferred to the U.S. Army in 1957. ARS has operated the facility since 1960, the release said.
Both Childers and McClain emphasized their empathy for the community of Hot Springs in terms of both the historic value of the landmark and the employees affected by the restructuring.
"We will work with the community and the state to look at options for this building, and interested parties. The building was deeded to us from the Department of Defense. At any point in time, we can give the building back to the Department of Defense, unless there's another purpose for the building that's public use. We will work diligently to make sure that it is fully vetted by all parties. Anyone that's interested, we definitely want them to take a look at it. It's a beautiful building. It is important to us, to the city, and the state," Childers said.
Any new use for the building must be approved by the Department of Defense and used for public health or public educational purposes, she said.
"This is an important part of the community, and we know that, and it's not lightly that we make the decision. But it's what we needed to do," McClain said.
Local on 05/29/2019