The former leader of the Indiana School for the Deaf said budget cuts risk students' safety and the school's ability to function.

The Indiana School for the Deaf received a 5 percent cut in the new state budget and recently laid off more than a dozen staff.

Lawmakers celebrated after they said they protected K-12 education funding above all else as they faced a $2 billion budget shortfall. But the Indiana School for the Deaf saw its funding slashed by 5 percent.

David Geeslin, Superintendent of the Indiana School for the Deaf, announced Wednesday he will retire next June, at the end of the current school year.

Gov. Eric Holcomb and leaders from the Indiana School for the Deaf and the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired broke ground Thursday on a project to join the two schools on one campus.