{"id":9127,"date":"2019-07-11T14:16:53","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=9127"},"modified":"2019-09-04T16:19:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T20:19:16","slug":"life-skills-room-for-special-education-students-gets-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/life-skills-room-for-special-education-students-gets-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Life skills room for students with disabilities gets makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, July 15, is \u2018demo day\u2019 for a very special room at Pembroke Elementary School.<\/p>\n

That classroom helps students with disabilities to master independent, daily living skills such as cooking and other household tasks.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are in here at least once a week for cooking, but we want to make it more than that,\u201d according to Pembroke Elementary School Principal Dr. Linda Hayes. \u201cWe want to make it more of a center where students are taught skills that will enhance daily living.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pembroke, this is important since students with various disabilities attend the school from across the city for special education programming. Teachers have access to this classroom to conduct lessons on daily living skills in real-life context.<\/p>\n

While the idea for renovating the room has been a dream for many years, in December the school pulled together a team to see if cosmetic changes could be made.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were thinking of things such as new paint and maybe a refrigerator,\u201d according to Hayes, since years of wear had taken their toll on the partially-functioning kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"alt=""\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was usable, but not always practical,\u201d Hayes added.<\/p>\n

Rachel Curry, the school\u2019s new compliance support teacher, was one of the people in that December meeting and she had experience at her previous school bringing in community members to help make school improvements. She also had connections, one of them a childhood friend, David Collier, who now is president of First Atlantic Restoration, which has a foundation that conducts numerous charitable projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir charity has done a lot of work for disabled veterans and I was sure they\u2019d love to help,\u201d Curry stated.<\/p>\n

She was right.<\/p>\n

First Atlantic was immediately on board and so was Home Depot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team from our offices of Maintenance Services and Facilities Services also didn\u2019t hesitate. They immediately sent teams of people to make this project happen,\u201d Hayes added. In addition to leading the project and ensuring that safety and school construction standards are met, those offices are providing trades experts, design expertise and construction services. The Give First foundation and Home Depot are providing similar services in addition to volunteers and materials.<\/p>\n

Michael Wilson, maintenance supervisor assigned to be the point person on the project, also had a very special reason to make sure this room was the best it could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son attended this program and was bused in from another district because of the awesome services that this school provides,\u201d he said. \u201cLittle things mean so much to a child with disabilities. For that child to be able to go to his parent and say \u2018mommy, I made the bed\u2019 makes him happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When finished, the now partially-functioning kitchen with outdated cabinets and stove will resemble a fully-functional studio with rooms that are American with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant. The kitchen will feature new cabinets, flooring, ceiling tiles, countertops, appliances and LED lights to make the space brighter. In addition, the bedroom, living room and laundry areas will enable children to practice such skills as washing, folding, and storing clothes or making a bed.<\/p>\n

Hayes added that the makeover is adding one intangible piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to put value. We are showing that we value our children and the work that our teachers do in the classroom. That\u2019s the key here. We are providing the resources and functional skills that make their lives rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

The estimated $100,000 project is scheduled to be completed Aug. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, July 15, is \u2018demo day\u2019 for a very special room at Pembroke Elementary School. That classroom helps students with disabilities to master independent, daily living skills such as cooking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-9127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-connections","tag-pembroke-elementary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9130,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9127\/revisions\/9130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}